Kateeva

Kateeva is a company specializing in inkjet printing equipment for OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) display manufacturing. The company's flagship product line, YIELDjet, includes systems for OLED thin film encapsulation (TFE) and RGB OLED emitter deposition. Kateeva's technology aims to improve manufacturing efficiency, increase yields, and reduce production costs for OLED displays.

The YIELDjet platform features a production-worthy pure nitrogen process chamber, which doubles the lifetime in certain applications, reduces particles by up to 10 times, and offers exceptional film coating uniformity. Kateeva's systems support printing of both small molecule (SM) and polymer (P-type) OLED materials, working with various material suppliers to optimize ink, process, and equipment.

Kateeva's product range includes the YIELDjet FLEX for OLED TFE mass production and the YIELDjet Explore series for R&D and pilot lines. The Explore systems are capable of producing panels up to 55 inches in size. The company also offers larger systems, with plans to develop equipment for substrate sizes up to Gen 10.

In addition to OLED display manufacturing, Kateeva's technology can be applied to flexible OLED encapsulation, addressing one of the major challenges in producing flexible displays that do not use glass barriers. The company's inkjet platform is well-suited for depositing patterned organic coating layers inexpensively, with excellent uniformity, high speed, and high raw material efficiency.

Kateeva has made significant progress in the OLED industry, with its TFE products already in mass production as of 2016. The company has expanded its intellectual property portfolio, acquiring over 600 patents covering inkjet equipment and related processes for OLED and other display manufacturing in November 2017.

Key customers and partnerships

Kateeva has established partnerships with major players in the display industry. In June 2021, the company announced a strategic partnership with Pixelligent to improve light output efficiency in OLED mobile phones. This collaboration focuses on optimizing an inkjet-printed planarization layer over microlens arrays.

Tianma Microelectronics, a prominent display manufacturer, has recognized Kateeva for its "outstanding contribution" to their new Gen 6 flexible OLED display manufacturing facility in Xiamen, China. Kateeva supplied two YIELDjet Lassen inkjet printers for OLED TFE mass production at this facility.