Kateeva to innovate OLED flexible screen production technology

Kateeva, a Silicon Valley hardware start-up, recently received $38 million trillion in D-round funding to support the use of its innovative inkjet printing technology to produce OLED flex screens.

Kateeva is a start-up of inkjet printing technology, founded in 2008 by MIT researchers Conor Madigan and Vladimir Bulovic, headquartered in Silicon Valley. In the Silicon Valley of software eminence, there are few hardware start-ups that can make money. Why Kateeva to a sum of money? This starts with the display technology.

We know that OLED technology has two main advantages relative to LCD technology, one is energy saving, and the other is high contrast (this is the most important determinant of quality). But the problem is that the current large-screen OLED production process using chemical vapor deposition, the need to first evaporate the OLED material, and then stereotypes on the screen. This leads to very high production costs, so the OLED display price is much higher than the LCD, and currently OLED does not support 4K technology. Consumers, by contrast, prefer to opt for LCD, which has a large high-definition screen and a much lower price.

Kateeva, however, revolutionized the production process of OLED screens. Its Yieldjet large inkjet printing platform is operating in the nitrogen environment, it can use semiconductor manufacturing technology plus inkjet printing technology directly on the OLED screen deposition of a layer of chemical substances. The created screens can be used on curved televisions, smartphones and wearable devices. The technology is said to better protect the display, prolong its lifespan, and reduce production costs.

This technique can be used to create curved, curved, and scroll-sealed displays. The technological breakthrough allows Kateeva to produce screens large to king-size beds. And given the low pixel density of OLED at present, Kateeva technology can easily support the future transition to 4K technology.

This January, Kateeva acquired OLED Plus, the South Korean OLED technology company, and made it capable of manufacturing the OLED display. Kateeva is currently preparing the production of early orders for OLED displays at Silicon Valley plants.

Kateeva currently employs 70 people, and rivals include Epson, Tokyo Electronics (soon to be incorporated into applied materials) and other giants. But Kateeva's CEO, Alain Harrus, thinks his company is the only company close to a large production capacity.

This round of financing by new investors Samsung Venture Investment Corp, the original investors Sigma, Spark Capital and other investment. After this round of financing, its total financing amount has reached 110 million U.S. dollars. The financing proceeds will be used to expand production, sales and support.