NanoGram Corporation, a manufacturer of products for optical, electronic and energy applications, announced that it has entered into an agreement with Teijin Limited to further develop NanoGram's printed silicon ink. The joint project will focus on extending NanoGram's printed silicon ink technology for use with Teijin's flexible substrates. The ink-substrate package targets light, flexible and printed electronics applications including flat panel display backplanes and thin film photovoltaics (TFPV).

"Our new relationship with Teijin speaks to NanoGram's mission of providing low cost, high performance silicon solutions for energy and electronics," said NanoGram president Kieran Drain. "This agreement is an important next step in the realization of printed silicon electronics."

"We are excited to be working jointly with NanoGram to develop flexible energy and electronics utilizing Teijin's market-leading substrates," said Teijin group executive officer Kenji Kubo. "Integration of silicon on plastics promises to open new large markets."

NanoGram's silicon inks are designed to fulfill a need within the printed electronics toolkit – that of a printable semiconductor capable of exceeding incumbent silicon transistor performance. The inks use NanoGram's laser pyrolysis-based Nanoparticle Manufacturing process for high volume production of crystalline silicon nanoparticles. Intrinsic and doped silicon nanoparticles are carefully collected and dispersed into a variety of ink formulations developed internally which meet specific printing specifications. The non-pyrophoric inks can be used in conventional manufacturing facilities with available printing equipment, thus lowering barriers for device manufacturers to adopt these materials.