Ultra Low Temperature PolySilicon (ULTPS) Processing

FlexICs' Ultra Low Temperature PolySilicon (ULTPS) technology allows Thin Film Transistors (TFTs) to be fabricated directly on plastic. Developed by the FlexICs founders, ULTPS processing on plastic offers two important advantages over traditional TFT manufacturing on glass.

• Relatively high-performance silicon integrated circuits can be fabricated directly on a thin, lightweight, and flexible plastic. This creates the opportunity for shatterproof flat panel displays for portable electronics, such as notebook computers and cell phones, as well as many other consumer, computing and communications products.
  
• Significantly lower manufacturing costs are possible. Highly efficient roll-to-roll manufacturing techniques, similar to those deployed by the flex circuit industry, can be used to spool plastic through the production line. Transistor circuit layers are deposited and patterns etched on the flexible material.
  

Unlike other processes that require high temperatures to produce TFTs, ULTPS is done at temperatures less than 100 degrees Celsius. FlexICs has developed several proprietary techniques that enable this, including high performance gate dielectrics at low temperature and photolithography on flexible substrates.