Based in Scotts Valley, CA, Add-Vision Incorporated is a hardware technology development company which specializes in printed electronics. Add-Vision utilizes polymer organic light-emitting diode display technology, or P-OLED. P-OLED displays are low-information content displays that are potentially useful in a wide variety of areas including consumer and military applications due to their adaptability, low-resolution and low production cost. Idtechex.com explains that Add-Vision Inc. intellectual property and innovation represents a ‘truly disruptive P-OLED display technology’ whose product is a highly robust, flexible structure, ‘fabricated using high-speed printing techniques.’

Add-Vision Inc. is a mid-start age company which began researching P-OLED in 2001 and now controls most of the intellectual property related to P-OLED display technology. This gives them a strong competitive advantage in that field. Add-Vision technology is disruptive specifically because of its low-cost approach and innovation with regards to manufacturing P-OLED displays. Low cost of production and mass application will impact ‘intelligent’ media products, electronic wearables, control panels, and smart labels to name a few. A recent NanoMarket report estimates that by 2015 the market may approach $21.6 billion due to the, ‘growing demand for flexible, large area electronic circuitry from packaging, displays, smartcards, sensors and other industry sectors.’ However, because it is a relatively new technology and only a few companies are involved in its development, a lack of diversity may create potential risks which are as of yet, unknown.

Add-Vision Inc. presents an innovative and highly adaptive approach by cheaply producing printed electronics and in particular, polymer organic light-emitting diode displays. The low-cost, mass application and mass production aspects of P-OLED innovation represent significant technological advancements. Societal implications are also large, as P-OLED panels may be used in/on any number of surfaces which otherwise would be unable to support a display/computer panel. Environmentally speaking, P-OLED’s are carbon-based (organic), making their disposal green-friendly. It can be expected that the military and civilian application of Add-Vision products and printed electronics as a whole will expand well into the foreseeable future.

Labels: Advanced Computing