Toshiba and Matsushita Electric Industrial are to begin manufacturing next-generation displays for use in mobile phones and devices, at their joint plant by the second half of 2009.

Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology Co, the Japanese electronics makers’ joint venture set up in 2002, plans to invest about 15 billion yen ($140 million US Dollars) to make small and medium-size organic light-emitting diode, or OLED displays.

OLEDs use light-emitting organic compounds similar to those found in fireflies. TVs using OLED panels don’t require a backlight, and can be made thinner than those based on liquid crystal or plasma displays.

Company spokesman, Toshiyuki Yoshida, said that the investment is in anticipation of a move to the new technology from the now more common liquid crystal displays. He added that the investment was an estimate, and stressed that the details had not yet been decided.

Researchers at the University of Illinois have developed a low-temperature, catalyst-free technique for growing copper nanowires. These copper nanowires could serve as interconnects in electronic device fabrication and as electron emitters in a television-like, very thin flat-panel display known as a field-emission display.

Hyungsoo Choi, a research professor in the Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory at The University of Illinois, explained: “The copper nanowires are grown on a variety of surfaces, including glass, metal and plastic by chemical vapour deposition from a precursor.

“The patented growth process is compatible with contemporary silicon-processing protocols.”

Typically, the nanowires of 70 to 250 nanometers in diameter are grown on a silicon substrate at temperatures of 200 to 300°C and require no seed or catalyst. The size of the nanowires is controlled by the processing conditions, such as substrate, substrate temperature, deposition time and precursor feeding rate. The columnar, five-sided nanowires terminate in sharp, pentagonal tips that facilitate electron emission.

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