A consortium led by Merck, a German-based chemicals giant, has developed a new printing process that enables more efficient production of organic light-emitting diodes and solar cells than conventional manufacturing techniques.

Merck said that it has completed the development of the printed OLED technology process that will pave the way for the display industry to apply it and roll out “highly specialized applications” such transparent OLEDs.

The project, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, took five years of research in printed organic electronics, the company said.

The consortium is also comprised of BASF SE, the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology, OSRAM, Philips Technologie GmbH, the Technical University of Braunschweig and the Technical University of Darmstadt as well as Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG as an associated partner.

(hkp@heraldcorp.com)