In anticipation of his Keynote Presentation at this year's co-located Quantum Dots Forum & Phosphor Global Summit, Jason Hartlove, President and CEO at Nanosys, offers an exclusive preview of the information that will be shared this March in La Jolla - including advancements in next generation quantum dot technology, emerging innovations, and shared opportunities that could benefit the entire opto-electronic industry.
Jason, your presentation at this year’s conference will cover next generation quantum dot technology, why is it important for others in your industry to hear this message? What are some of the key takeaways?
Over the last five years, Quantum Dot technology has made incredible progress, from an unproven but promising lab scale material to one which is in millions of high-performance displays in the form of Quantum Dot Enhancement Film (QDEF.)
Thanks in part to this, we are just beginning to see the development of new ways of using quantum dots which can take even better advantage of their unique properties, including as color conversion materials in combination with other emitter technologies such as OLEDs and uLEDs, as direct emission materials in printed displays, as energy saving and spectrum enhancing phosphors for LED lighting, as detectors for sensor platforms, as solar energy collectors and in a variety of spectrum engineering applications from crop yield enhancement to novel medical applications.
The development needs for these applications is moving beyond that which one or even a few companies can manage alone. So it is critically important that anyone in the lighting, display, phosphor, or opto-electronic industry in general hear about the opportunities that Quantum Dot technology is opening for us all.
We need more and more people to join the quantum dot industry to continue the innovation and drive the growth in usage of these phenomenal materials.
Why have you decided to participate in the 2019 Quantum Dot Forum?
This forum offers the unique opportunity, of all the various industry associations and networking events that are held annually, to connect and learn from our colleagues around the world who are working alongside us to advance Quantum Dot technology as well as those who would like to. We look forward to sharing our progress and hearing of the great work that others are doing as well, and to perhaps finding synergies to help advance that work more quickly.
What innovation do you hope to see in the quantum dot industry over the next few years?
Stability, more precisely environmental stability, remains as the one challenge which, as an industry, we have not completely overcome. While the encapsulation requirements for Quantum Dots have been lessening as we’ve learned more about how to make these materials more robust, for the most part the narrow spectral emitting, non-heavy metal materials still require packaging and processing which adds cost to a solution using quantum dots.
I hope that over the next few years, we will see advances in both ways in which to make quantum dots more environmentally stable, as well as progress in the availability of low cost encapsulation materials and technologies.
What are some of the most interesting and/or innovative solutions that are impacting your work at this time?
Electroluminescent Quantum Dot displays (QDEL) are fundamentally disruptive to the display market. Unlike OLEDs or LCDs, QDEL devices can be made using only solution processing. This means devices can be significantly lower cost to manufacture, opening up many new applications for displays where today only printed materials are used. This kind of ultra-low cost printed display technology is making rapid progress towards commercialization. Nanosys has demonstrated breakthrough quantum efficiency for heavy metal-free red, green and blue QDEL devices, and has successfully printed displays using ink jet technology in our labs and together with our partners.
How is Nanosys working toward those innovations?
We have built an outstanding network of collaborators and partners, from leading universities and research institutions to some of the largest display, material and equipment makers in the world. There’s still a lot of work to do before we see QDEL displays in the market, and this goes across many different fields, including development of other complimentary materials, printing and encapsulation processes and equipment and many others. It is important that all of these areas make progress and so working together with leading institutions and companies in these other areas is key to success.
Why should people attend The Quantum Dots Forum?
The Quantum Dots forum is a great place to learn about the state-of-the-art in this dynamic industry, and to become involved in it by connecting to others already involved in Quantum Dots. The show serves a diverse range of audiences in different ways. For example, if you are an investor, maybe you are interested to learn more about how quantum dots are helping microLED displays come to market faster, or how Quantum Dots might be changing future OLED displays. If you are developing new equipment, this is a great forum to understand all the different applications that are emerging and where opportunities may lie for you, such as in roll to roll or ink jet process equipment.
Why should Phosphor Global Summit and Quantum Dots Forum delegates be excited about the joint session?
There’s a great opportunity here for two closely related industries to learn from and push one another to continue to innovate. Phosphors have been in use for decades, and yet with the introduction of wide color gamut displays using QDEF, we have seen a great deal of innovation in phosphors come in response. The joint session provides an opportunity for delegates to learn about the best of both worlds, phosphors and quantum dots, and to align their roadmaps and investments based on a more complete picture of the combined landscape.
