LightnTec Gets EU’s Financial Backing For Its Foil-Based LED Displays
January 4, 2023 by Dave Haynes
The German LED start-up LightnTec now has the European Union as a financial support for its super-thin foil-based displays, based on a grant from its 10 billion EU accelerator program.
The European Innovation Council – which has a mandate of
LightnTec says the backing will help it:
- Develop micro-optical structures to “direct light” and thereby reduce power consumption by an additional 50% (patented by LightnTec worldwide);
- Scale manufacturing of energy efficient LED-foil-displays in Europe (according to “green new deal”);
- To make the technology of rollable, cuttable, energy efficient foil monitors available to other industries (e.g. automotive, aviation, medical and others).
If you follow this industry, you know there are hundreds of companies – almost all either in China or using contract manufacturing there – marketing versions of roughly the same thing. LightnTec is notably different, developing products that are touted as ultra-thin, ultra-lightweight, bendable, cuttable, and energy efficient. It says material consumption for its displays is reduced by 90% and they use 30% lower electricity consumption when compared to the same perceived brightness in outdoor usage.
I assume less material and weight also reduces shipping costs.
There is a trade-off in that the pixel pitches are not as fine as in more conventional products, but where I think this stuff is super-interesting is for applications like hoardings over the scaffolding that surround buildings under renovation or construction – of which there are many. This stuff is probably the same weight load or lighter than printed tarpaulins that might get used to “pretty up” the construction site by covering the scaffolds, but it can be active and changeable.
Unlike more conventional LED/DOOH displays, in a lot of jurisdictions these foil-based sheets wouldn’t need additional approvals to go up.
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