Plastic Logic Plans Flexible Display Line

Plastic Logic has raised $100 million to build what it describes as the first factory to make plastic electronics on a commercial scale. The plant, to be built in Dresden, Germany, will produce flexible active-matrix display modules for portable electronic reader devices, a product category that is predicted to grow to more than 41 million units in 2010. The plant is scheduled to open in 2008 with an initial capacity of more than 1 million display modules per year. Plastic Logic, spun out of Cambridge University in 2000, has a prestigious array of investors, including Intel Capital, BASF, Dow Chemical, and Siemens, who are betting that the company is creating a new electronics industry that will rival silicon-based semiconductors.