Quantum Materials Corp. (San Marcos, Texas), a startup founded in 2008, has announced it is increasing its production capacity for quantum dots and nanoparticles to 2,000 kilograms due to demand for 4K LCD televisions.
The company said it anticipates further production expansion during the remainder of 2015 and that CEO Stephen Squires and senior director of business development for Asia and the Pacific Toshi Ando are meeting with major LCD manufacturers at the 2015 International Consumer Electronics Show, taking place in Las Vegas.
Quantum Materials is a leading North American manufacturer of quantum dots and in particular of non-heavy metal quantum dots.
Quantum dots are semiconductor crystals of nanometer dimensions that exhibit quantum mechanical properties that are related to shape and size. When quantum dots are stimulated by an energy source they emit light of colors that can be tuned by the shape and size of the quantum dot. As such they are useful as enhancement agents in solar cells, LEDs and diode lasers and have been applied to improve the color gamut of liquid crystal displays.
The company said that it has invested heavily in a continuous flow production process that now produces quantum dots in high volumes with uniformity needed for UHD 4K LCDs, solid-state lighting and solar and biotech manufacturing.
Previously competitors' batch made processing and poor yields made quantum dots too expensive for consumer electronics applications, the company said.
In August 2104 Quantum Materials announced it was achieving 95 percent yield on green tetrapod quantum dots (TQDs) manufactured using the process. The Full-Width Half-Maximum (FWHM) achieved was 36nm with a tunable emission wavelength from 530 to 550nm. At that time QMC said its capacity could be expanded sufficient to support the entire display industry converted to quantum dot 4K and 8K displays.
According to market researcher IHS, the publisher of Electronics 360, demand for QD-LCD displays is projected to jump to 87.3 million units by 2020, a CAGR of 109 percent between 2013 and 2020, as QD prices decrease and a reliable and uniform quantum dot supply is assured for large production runs.
"We have achieved quality, uniformity and scalability goals with our patented continuous-flow manufacturing process," said Stephen Squires, CEO of Quantum Materials, in a statement. "We have also made great strides in ramping-up volume production of both cadmium-core and cadmium-free quantum dots. We perceive cadmium-free quantum dots will drive future use, particularly in electronic goods destined for highly environmentally-regulated regions such as the European Union," he added.
Quantum Materials has formed a wholly-owned subsidiary, Solterra Renewable Technologies, to develops sustainable quantum dot technology for the solar cell industry.
Questions or comments on this story? Contact dylan.mcgrath@ihs.com
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