Nov 19, 2025
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When it comes to developing and manufacturing a new product, have you ever thought about the challenge presented by the need to eliminate wasteful use of expensive materials while making production processes more energy efficient?
This is a universal issue that the manufacturing industry has been grappling with for many years, especially when it comes to the manufacture of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays. What if it were possible to apply materials with ultra-precision, with almost no waste? Or to build a highly productive manufacturing line without large-scale, costly facilities?
Panasonic has developed an innovative solution, known as “industrial inkjet technology,” that achieves both of these goals. As testament to its significance, Panasonic’s industrial inkjet technology has been honored with two consecutive Society for Information Display (SID) Distinguished Paper Awards, which recognize exceptional research papers presented at Display Week, the world’s largest display conference.
How did this technology make the impossible possible—and what does the future hold? For answers, we spoke with Hidehiro Yoshida, Shuhei Nakatani, and Yukiya Usui of Panasonic Production Engineering Co., Ltd. (PPE), who spearheaded development of industrial inkjet technology.
What are the innovative features of your industrial inkjet technology?
Yoshida: The conventional approach to manufacturing OLED display panels, the vacuum deposition method, requires exceptionally large pieces of equipment to create a vacuum, which is costly and can pose a variety of challenges—especially when it comes to handling large panels. The inkjet method that we have developed does away with the vacuum and uses a super-precise printer to “print” the RGB (red, green, and blue) light-emitting materials—the core components of OLED panels—in normal atmospheric conditions.
Nakatani: The inkjet method involves converting luminescent material into ink, which can then be precisely applied in the required quantities to the necessary areas, dramatically improving the utilization efficiency of materials and enabling significant cost reductions. The equipment is compact and energy efficient and can apply ink uniformly and at high speed to large glass substrates, thereby significantly improving production efficiency for large-sized, high-definition OLED displays.
Industrial inkjet technology is cost-effective and energy-efficient, able to handle large panels, and delivers high-quality outputs, earning accolades at home and abroad. In addition to the two consecutive SID Distinguished Paper Awards, in March this year the team was honored with one of Japan’s most prestigious technical awards—The Okochi Memorial Technology Prize—further demonstrating Panasonic’s high level of technological capability.
Please describe the challenges you faced during its development.
Yoshida: The journey began in the early 2000s when Cambridge Display Technology in the UK discovered the potential for printed OLEDs. At the time, inkjet printers for general use were already widely available from various manufacturers, so Panasonic was a latecomer to this field. After launching the project, we were able to use a printer to produce the world’s first 3-inch top-emitting OLED display. However, the accuracy was low, and the panels we produced were uneven and had streaks.
How did you solve the problem?
Improved industrial inkjet linehead
Yoshida: Conventional printers had only one head, which moved back and forth across a panel multiple times to apply the light-emitting material one line at a time. This was the cause of the streaks and unevenness. We addressed this problem by introducing a linehead with dozens of heads, enabling simultaneous application of multiple lines. With this linehead, printing could now be completed in a single pass.
Nakatani: In the initial stages of development work related to ink discharge, we encountered a variety of basic issues, such as ink not being discharged or ink leaking from nozzles. To ensure that inks with a wide range of characteristics could be discharged stably and accurately as ultra-fine droplets, we redesigned the head structure from the ground up and worked closely with ink manufacturers, proceeding through trial and error.
Yoshida: Although the core technology was established around 2012, we then faced the challenge of low manufacturing yields for the heads themselves. Since eachmachine requires dozens of heads, all of them must be manufactured with high precision. The whole team worked together to improve the quality, and we achieved our goal of exhibiting the world’s first printed 56-inch 4K OLED display at CES in 2013. It caused a big stir, with people asking, “Can printing technology really produce something this beautiful?”
In 2019, Panasonic successfully launched the world’s first mass production line for printed OLED displays. What are the advantages of the technology that made mass production possible?
Usui: Precise control technology has been instrumental in ensuring stable operation of mass production lines and high-quality production. We have developed a system that suppresses color unevenness using Drive Per Nozzle technology, which enables precise individual control of the amount of ink discharged from each nozzle and automatically corrects minute variances that occur during production. These control technologies have enabled us to develop high-precision, high-throughput production equipment and deliver the stable quality and productivity that are essential for mass production.
What other fields can utilize this technology, and how will its use change our future?
An example of the enhanced transparency targeted by our inkjet technology for perovskite solar cells, with potential for use in windows.
Yoshida: We see two paths for evolution. One is further improvement in terms of resolution. The other is compatibility with high-viscosity inks; once this has been achieved, it will be possible to precisely apply ink containing dispersed particles, expanding the range of applications.
We are particularly interested in perovskite solar cells, which are expected to become the next generation of solar cells.
Our proprietary large-area coating method utilizing inkjet technology makes it possible to uniformly coat the core power generating material onto large glass substrates. This enables thin and lightweight designs that were not possible with conventional products, while maintaining high power generation efficiency.
Nakatani: Another major advantage of inkjet technology is its high material utilization efficiency and the resulting design flexibility. With conventional manufacturing methods, it was sometimes necessary to coat the entire surface with material and then remove the excess. In contrast, inkjet technology precisely deposits ink only in the areas where the power generation layer is required. This reduces wasteful use of expensive materials.
Usui: The ability to apply the material precisely to the target area creates unique value. For example, if we can design the coating pattern of the power-generating layer in stripes using only inkjet technology, it will be possible in the future to create window glass that combines power-generating capability with translucence. A major advantage of the inkjet method is that a window can generate energy but still function as a window. Of course, not needing a vacuum environment during manufacturing and minimizing material waste are also extremely important from the standpoint of energy conservation and sustainability.
Yoshida: In this way, our inkjet technology brings two values to perovskite solar cells: “large area and high efficiency” and “high design flexibility.” This will make it possible to install solar cells in locations previously considered too difficult—such as the walls and windows of buildings—and we believe that this will contribute to the realization of a sustainable society.
Finally, please share your message about the kind of future society you would like to create through innovative technology.
Yoshida: Industrial inkjet technology is a highly unique, high-tech solution that enables precise coating in normal atmospheric conditions. Due to its high material utilization rate and the ability to adjust coating amounts to post-processing conditions, we are able to flexibly respond to detailed customer requests. Another major advantage is the short lead time from process development to mass production.
The fields in which this technology can be applied are wide-ranging, and rather than creating new technologies from scratch, we believe that an approach that opens up new markets by applying and improving existing technologies is required. To achieve this, we need to combine knowledge and ideas from various fields. This is why we actively promote open innovation and welcome collaboration with partners around the world.
Nakatani: We started out 15 years ago with ink leakage and other problems, but by never giving up and continuing to take on new challenges, we have developed a technology that is now recognized worldwide. However, we still have not reached our goal. Our greatest reward as engineers would be to realize our dream of making the world’s best printer and to bring joy to our customers through that technology. If you are facing a challenge, such as “I want to apply something precisely” or “I’m looking for a way to apply a new material,” please feel free to contact us. We are sure we can help you.
Usui: We are committed to developing products and systems that exceed our customers’ imaginations and expectations. This means not only creating high-precision devices, but also systems that can automatically execute complex processes with the push of a button, and devices equipped with self-diagnostic and corrective functions that detect every change and maintain optimal conditions. Our technology will amaze and inspire our customers and further enrich the lives of people in the years to come. With this vision in mind, we will continue to refine our technology as a team. We look forward to your continued support and trust.
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