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Japanese company opens R&D centre in Basel

25.01.2017

Idemitsu Kosan is a Japanese petroleum company, but it also develops and manufactures electronic materials. The company is now opening a research and development centre for organic light-emitting diodes in Basel, its first outside of Japan.

Panorama Basel (img: Andreas Zimmermann)

Considerable advances have been made in the use of OLED (organic light-emitting diodes) displays in numerous products, including smartphones and large-screen televisions. For this reason, Idemitsu Kosan has decided to enhance its development capacity in this field by establishing an OLED materials development company in Basel. Idemitsu OLED Materials Europe AG, which is opening in January, will be the company’s second OLED R&D facility. The first is in the city of Sodegaura in Japan, explains the company in a statement.

Idemitsu has been cooperating with BASF Schweiz AG in the OLED field, and the OLED researchers from BASF will now work for Idemitsu in the canton of Basel-Stadt. Switzerland is an ideal location for the new R&D centre because it is a global leader in fine chemical synthesis, which is when compounds or new materials are developed out of elements. Researchers from diverse technical backgrounds will develop Idemitsu’s OLED technology in Basel, thus strengthening this business area.

The location promotion organisation BaselArea.swiss assisted Idemitsu in the search for a suitable location.