ITRI Wins Gold at 2010 Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Awards

Taipei, Nov. 10, 2010 (CENS)--Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) once again wins the highest honor—the Gold award—for technology innovation in the globally famous 2010 Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Awards.

ITRI's FlexUPD, the world's first technology to enable the commercialization of paper-thin, low-cost flexible flat displays for electronic products, bested nearly 600 entries, including Nokia, Microsoft and Ford to win the highest honor. In addition, ITRI also received a runner-up award in the semiconductor category for its MDPS (Micro-Deformable Piezoresitive Senor) technology

ITRI's FlexUPD topped the consumer electronics category to earn the overall award. This is the second consecutive year the organization has won the category, receiving the 2009 award for FleXpeaker, a paper-thin flexible speaker technology.

This year—the awards' 10th—the Journal received 597 applications from companies, organizations and individuals in 30 countries.

According to the research institute, the FlexUPD ushers in a new generation of flexible electronics. It is the simplest and most inexpensive technology to allow for the mass manufacture of paper-like, flexible flat panel displays thinner than any displays currently on the market. This flexibility allows for two-sided surface visibility for display or non-display products -- rollable mobile phone screens, e-books, e-maps and medical sensors that can be worn or wrapped around the body, etc.

FlexUPD is available for transfer to companies worldwide. The technology is easily adaptable by panel and display manufacturers and is technologically compatible with mainstream LCD production lines operating now and in the future, and is even compatible with old generations of LCD makers, with manufacturers only adding the de-bonding equipment to incorporate the FlexUPD, ITRI said.

"To be recognized by an organization as prestigious and well-respected as The Wall Street Journal is a tremendous honor," said Dr. John Chen, general director of ITRI's Display Technology Center.