Rolith Aims to Address the Growing Market for Transparent Electrodes

Rolith, Inc. has announced that it has received an exclusive license to methods of micro and nano-patterning substrates to make transparent conductive electrodes from the University of Michigan Office of Technology Transfer (U-M Tech Transfer).

The licensed process, developed by University of Michigan professor Jay Guo, is based on patterning, which uses continuous optical lithography and offers a low cost, high throughput approach to manufacturing transparent conductive electrodes.

Transparent conductive electrodes are critical to the operation of various optoelectronic devices and are commonly used in high volume applications such as displays, solar cells, "smart" windows and LEDs.

Transparent conductive metal oxides, such as indium tin oxide (ITO) are currently used for this purpose.

However, there is a growing need to replace ITOs with alternative solutions for reasons of cost, availability and performance.

Recent discoveries regarding the optical properties of nanopatterned metals have opened up an important opportunity to develop a new class of transparent electrodes without relying on ITOs.

The nanostructured electrodes technology licensed from U-M Tech Transfer in combination with the existing "Rolling Mask Lithography" capabilities at Rolith offer a convenient and cost effective manufacturing solution to the market.

"We are pleased to be able to partner with Rolith with the license of this exciting technology," says U-M Tech Transfer Executive Director Ken Nisbet. "Partners as Rolith enable our research discoveries to have an impact and fulfill our mission."

"Rolith was fortunate to partner with the University of Michigan and the talented group of scientists headed by Prof. Jay Guo from the early stages of our company growth," said Dr. Boris Kobrin, Founder and CEO of Rolith.

Dr. Kobrin continued, "The recent licensing deal gives us a stronghold position in one of the most demanded applications of our core technology."