Cambridge Display Technology Ltd, the company that has patented the Light Emitting Polymer technology contending to take over from liquid crystals and light-emitting diodes, has signed its first major license deal, with Philips Electronics NV. Philips’ Components division has paid an undisclosed upfront sum for the non-exclusive license, and will pay royalties on all derived products for the lifetime of the patent. Cambridge Technology chief executive Danny Chapchal says the first products are likely to be low technology such as back lighting for mobile phones. These could be on the market by as early as next year. The next phase will involve consumer products that currently use light-emitting diodes or liquid crystal displays such as Personal Digital Assistants, Compact Disk players, alarm clocks and radios. Ultimately, they should be able to replace cathode ray tubes in television sets. Cambridge Display has already signed heads of agreement with another major as yet unnamed company, and Chapchal says there are several other deals in the pipeline. There is also a great deal of interest from the Japanese market, recently opened to Cambridge by its partner Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi Ltd (CI No 2,927) he said.
