09 July 2002

Light-emitting polymers land CDT the engineering "Oscar"

Five engineers from one of the UK's most exciting new companies - Cambridge Display Technology - have won the nation's biggest engineering prize, the £50,000 Royal Academy of Engineering MacRobert Award, for their ground-breaking light-emitting polymer technology. The Academy will announce the CDT team as this year's winners at its AGM in London on 8 July. Dr David Fyfe, Professor Richard Friend, Dr Jeremy Burroughes, Dr Karl Heeks and Dr Carl Towns will receive the prize and the MacRobert gold medal from HRH Prince Philip at Buckingham Palace on 30 October.

Light-emitting polymers are the way to a true flat-screen TV or computer display, giving a picture as good as the cathode ray tubes in conventional televisions without all the bulk and complexity. Displays can be created on one sheet of glass or, ultimately, plastic so they could be rolled up. CDT's vision of the future of colour imaging has captured imaginations worldwide, and the company has licensed its technology to display manufacturers Delta Electronics, DuPont Displays, MicroEmissive Displays, Osram, Philips and Seiko Epson. The first consumer products are already in development and the first colour mobile phone screen, made possible through CDT technology, should be with us next year.

"The MacRobert Award is the most prestigious engineering award in the UK. We at CDT are honoured to receive this award which recognises not only the skills and dedication of our scientists and engineers over the past ten years but the tremendous support the company has received, and continues to receive, from the venture capitalists and private investors who have made it possible," says CDT's CEO David Fyfe. "It recognises the success of CDT on many fronts from core research to the development of industrial scale manufacturing processes through the investment we have made in the plant at Godmanchester. Most important, it recognises CDT's successful commercialisation strategy."

Professor Richard Friend (CDT's co-founder and Chief Scientist) and Dr Jeremy Burroughes (Chief Technology Officer) and colleagues at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge discovered in 1989 that they could make polymers that emitted intense light under an electric current - and that changing the polymer compositions produced different colours of light. Realising that this breakthrough opened the way to high-quality displays, the researchers formed Cambridge Display Technology Ltd in 1992 to exploit the discovery - it was the university's first spin-out company. Ten years on, CDT now employs 110 people in and around Cambridge and has recently invested £25 million in a technology development pilot plant at Godmanchester.

"CDT leads the world in its development of light-emitting polymer technology," says Sir John Cullen FREng, Chairman of the MacRobert Award judging panel. "The company has pioneered a potentially disruptive technology that could replace both the cathode ray tube and liquid crystal displays. Their strategy of licensing and joint development has also ensured that the UK economy benefits from the original work at Cambridge University."

ends

Notes for editors

1. Britain's biggest engineering prize, the Royal Academy of Engineering MacRobert Award, is worth £50,000 and the MacRobert gold medal to the ultimate winner.
   
   CDT was one of four finalists for this year's MacRobert Award. The others three were: BP Chemicals for Innovene, a new high-productivity polyethylene technology; Mott MacDonald for tunnel jacking on the Boston Central Artery, USA; and Surface Technology Systems plc for the advanced silicon etch process.
   
   
2. Cambridge Display Technology (CDT) is a privately held company leading the research, development and commercialisation of polymer technology for flat panel displays, lighting, and photovoltaics. CDT's light emitting polymer (LEP) technology is targeted for use in a wide range of electronic display products used for information management, communications and entertainment. Features include reduced power consumption, size, thickness and weight, very wide viewing angle, superior video imaging performance and the potential to produce displays on plastic substrates. To date, licenses have been granted to Delta Optoelectronics, DuPont Displays, MicroEmissive Displays, OSRAM, Philips, and Seiko-Epson.
   
   CDT is promoting LEP technology development and speeding its commercialization through a global business strategy including co-developments with leading companies in a wide range of display and related technology areas. Founded in 1992, the company is headquartered in Cambridge, U.K. and has a LEP manufacturing development centre in Godmanchester, U.K. More information about CDT is available at: www.cdtltd.co.uk
   
   
3. The Royal Academy of Engineering honours the UK's most distinguished engineers and aims to take advantage of the enormous wealth of engineering knowledge and experience that its one thousand Fellows possess. It exists to pursue, encourage and maintain excellence in the whole field of engineering to promote the advancement of the science, art and practice of engineering for the benefit of the public.

For more information please contact:

Jane Sutton at the Royal Academy of Engineering
tel: 020 7227 0536 (direct), mobile: 07989 513045, email: jane...@...org.uk

or

Alia Ilyas/Stephen Waddington at Rainier
Tel. 020 7494 6570; email: ailyas@rainierco.co.uk
or swaddington@rainierco.co.uk

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