MANHASSET, N.Y. — The U.S. Display Consortium (USDC) has expanded into the emerging flexible, printed electronics market and changed its name to FlexTech Alliance.

The move is said to be a natural progression for the consortium based on the success of its Flexible, Printed and Organic Electronics Initiative launched in December 2006. The common interests of the display industry and the flexible, printed electronics industries served to broaden the consortium's mission, members said.

"There is tremendous overlap between what USDC has undertaken in the display industry and the work needed to support the flexible, printed electronics industry," said former USDC CEO Michael Ciesinski, now CEO of FlexTech. "The goal set by the governing board is to accelerate the transition from R&D to prototype manufacturing, and then to commercialization."

USDC was initially funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and is now funded by the Army Research Laboratory (ARL). The lab's mission is develop technologies to meet future Army combat requirements.

USDC funded over 100 R&D projects to expand the U.S. display supply chain, providing a total public and private investments in excess of $220 million.

USDC and its programs will be absorbed into the FlexTech Alliance. Along with a continuing R&D emphasis on the display supply chain, the alliance will focus on creating a flexible, printed electronics infrastructure within North America.

According to market observers, the application market for flat-panel electronics could exceed $50 billion by 2017.

The FlexTech Alliance will be overseen by a governing board along with a management team that includes Mark Hartney as CTO. "For now, FlexTech remains a domestic alliance," said Ciesinski.

The board has reiterated its support for ongoing supply-chain development efforts for next-generation displays such as OLEDs, flexible displays, MEMs-based systems and 3D displays.

The alliance will continue to work with the Flexible Display Center at Arizona State University and the Center for Advanced Microelectronics Manufacturing at Binghamton University in New York.

Alliance executives will discuss flexible and printed electronics at a Semicon West technical session in San Francisco on July 17.