The Taiwanese display industry faces strong competition in LCD pricing from mainland China and has limited access to OLED patents held by Japanese and Korean manufacturers. To overcome these challenges, the industry looks to Micro-LED technology as the next generation display solution. Transparent displays have gained traction, especially with the rise of the metaverse concept, as they enable virtual and physical integration across various applications such as smart windows, retail displays, and intelligent navigation systems. Micro LED, known for its high transparency and brightness, is ideal for transparent displays. The ARTEMIS project focuses on two key features: the use of flexible and non-yellowing materials to replace glass, and the application of low-temperature organic thin-film transistor (OTFT) processes (processed at temperatures at or below 80℃) instead of traditional low-temperature polysilicon (LTPS) thin-film transistor (TFT) processes (that require high temperatures of over 400℃). Additionally, the project aims to develop key technologies for large-scale transfer and repair packaging of Micro LEDs. By expanding the potential applications of transparent displays, the project aims to create new business opportunities and drive the growth of the transparent display industry in Taiwan. OTFT technology is supplied to the project by Smartkem, a UK based specialty electronic chemicals company who has pioneered the technology field of high performance OTFT materials for emissive display driving. AUO is the Taiwanese project partner developing the micro-LED display in project ARTEMIS and provides significant industrial experience in the area of high-performance advanced display technology.

The Custom OLED Production Integrating Low-energy Organic Transistor Technology (COPILOTT) Project seeks to enable Ritdisplay to transition from producing passive-matrix to active-matrix OLED displays, allowing them to provide displays of higher brightness, low power consumption and higher DPI. The project will develop both a lower value bottom emission RGB colour display using a bottom emission white OLED plus colour filters and a higher value semi-transparent top emission display. In addition, the successful commercial adoption of OTFT backplane should catalyse the adoption of OTFT materials across the wider markets. The active-matrix backplane of the display will be powered by Smartkem's cutting-edge OTFT materials, demonstrating the world's first usage of organic transistors in a commercially ready display. The project will also seek to keep cost of production as low as possible by utilising a fully depreciated Gen2.5 line, eliminating the need for fine metal masks in the lower value non-transparent display design and, due to the low temperature deposition of the liquid-coated semiconductor and dielectric materials (as low as 80°C), reduce energy usage and associated costs by up to 80% compared with depositing LTPS. Another important innovation is the development of low-cost OTFT compatible source-drain electrodes. In addition, ITRI will be subcontracted to use cutting-edge direct write digital lithography tools to photopattern custom-formulated dielectric materials designed specifically for this project by Smartkem to enable faster iteration of circuit designs before transfer to larger scales.

The SMARTLIGHT project aims to demonstrate the capability of SmartKem's organic thin-film transistors for driving mini-LED backlights for full array local dimming LCD displays. It will generate a range of formats of active-matrix backlights relevant for high brightness displays, and these will be used to show to OEMs that the technology can help them achieve a lower cost solution to high dynamic range (HDR) displays with good reliability. The project partners include SmartKem as lead, Centre for Process Innovation (Catapult), and Folium Optics as a subcontractor. Demonstrators will be used to secure business for SmartKem such as customer funded development projects and ultimately will lead to volume material sales of high value chemicals.

To develop and embed the capability to identify and validate high performance organic semiconductors and insulators, and design and fabricate flexible organic circuits.