Shoei Chemical of Japan has acquired Nanosys, the US-based supplier of quantum dots for LCD and OLED displays, and plans to accelerate development of EL-QD displays.

Initially implemented as an enhancement film for LCD panels and more recently in a more integral form to enable QD-OLED displays, quantum dots have the potential to make our displays better.

Nanosys is the leading supplier of quantum dot materials including those used in over 70 million LCD and OLED displays in TVs, tablets, and monitors, according to the company.

Nanosys was on September 6, 2023, acquired by Japan's Shoei Chemical who sees a bright future for the quantum dot technology in displays. Nanosys has had a production partnership with Shoei since 2019, and following the acquisition Nanosys will enjoy enhanced capabilities and access to additional resources.


The path to EL-QD
Over the years, Nanosys has proposed a range of new designs for quantum dot-enabled displays but not many of these have come to fruition. With QD-OLED displays we are finally starting to see the potential of quantum dots.

A next step proposed by Nanosys is QD-microLED, essentially a blue microLED with quantum dot color converters for red and green sub-pixels – much like QD-OLED.


 Photo: Nanosys via Display Daily

A more radical step proposed is what was once known as QLED, now used as a marketing term for conventional LCD TVs. This novel display technology where quantum dots are excited directly by electricity, eliminating the need for a separate OLED or LED, is now typically referred to as electroluminescent quantum dots (EL-QD) or quantum dot light emitting diodes (QD-LED, AMQLED). Nanosys has dubbed the technology NanoLED.

With the acquisition of Nanosys, Shoei intends to accelerate development of NanoLED, according to statements made to Display Daily by Jeff Yurek of Nanosys.

- "Electroluminescent Quantum Dots, or NanoLED as we call it, is the future display technology. NanoLED can deliver incredible performance from inorganic quantum dot emitter materials in terms of brightness, color and contrast. More importantly, it can be disruptively low cost since NanoLED displays can be made using solution processing. We can get rid of the costly evaporative steps and large vacuum chambers that are used in display making today. It’s incredibly exciting and it’s not too far off, it is closer to commercialization than I think many people realize. Shoei is committed to the future of quantum dot technology and we’re excited to accelerate progress in NanoLEDs as a part of Shoei," Jeff Yurek, VP Marketing for Nanosys, told Display Daily.

Nanosys has previously said that NanoLED displays will not be ready until 2025/26 at the earliest.

- Source: Nanosys/Shoei, Display Daily