Helio Display Materials appoints Dr Mark Verrall as Chairman in support of its growth ambitions
Helio Display Materials (Helio), the next generation display materials business, today announces the appointment of leading display materials executive Dr Mark Verrall as Chairman with immediate effect.
Mark joins Helio following 30 years of diverse experience in the research, development and commercialisation of materials for displays. For 5 years until mid 2019 he held the position of Senior Vice President and global head of Product Development for Display Solutions business of Merck KGaA – the global leader in Liquid Crystals, Photoresists and OLED materials. He has extensive knowledge of the science and development of cutting-edge displays and how to deliver innovative materials solutions at industrial scale.
Based on ground-breaking developments in perovskites by Oxford and Cambridge University scientists, Helio is creating proprietary materials for a new generation of brighter and more colourful displays that use significantly less power. Helio has exclusively licensed 15 patent families from the universities in light emitting applications of perovskites.
Existing display technologies filter white light to provide the red, green and blue light needed for the pixels that make up the image, however more than two thirds of the power is lost in the filtering process. Photoluminescent perovskite materials can convert light directly into the desired colour which is hugely more efficient. At the same time they emit a very narrow spectrum of light which maximises colour gamut, enabling the display to reproduce a much wider range of colours.
Even the best displays today only produce a subset of the colours that we perceive in the real-world. The greatly improved range of colour reproduction made possible by Helio’s materials will help transform our entertainment and work experiences, as viewing on a screen takes a big step closer to being there in person.
Another key issue is the relatively low power efficiency of displays, they are a major contributor to the power consumption of our TVs and the time between charging for our mobile devices. Taking LCD for example, which is the dominant display technology in TVs, Helio’s materials can increase power efficiency by 70% [1] making a significant difference to carbon emissions (TVs are responsible for about 4% of residential electricity consumption).
Mark’s appointment comes as Helio builds momentum in its commercialisation of world-class science. He will work alongside CEO Simon Jones and CTO Dr Bernard Wenger to deliver the first commercial products. The business targets delivery of evaluation samples to prospective partners from Q1 2021.
Mark Verrall, Chairman, said “The technology that has been developed by Helio, based on research carried out at two of the world’s leading universities, has the potential for near perfect colour reproduction whilst significantly improving efficiency for LCD and large area OLED displays. I am delighted to join the business at this exciting time to help bring this potentially game-changing solution to market.”
Simon Jones, CEO, said “Mark has a phenomenal track record in our industry, not only in the development of new display technologies but also in bringing them to market. He has a deep understanding of the display supply chain that will help us to tap the $100 billion display module market and become a globally significant materials supplier. With his appointment, we are complementing our world-class perovskite science with world-class display materials commercialisation expertise.”