JAPANESE firm Nitto Denko Corp is investing $10 million in organic electronic device research in Singapore.

It opened a centre at Fusionopolis on Wednesday to focus on the research, making it the first company in Singapore to pioneer such research.

Organic or plastic electronics - a branch of electronics that deals with conductive polymers, plastics and small molecues - is a new growth sector for Singapore. It is called organic electronics because polymers and organic molecules are carbon-based, as opposed to traditional electronics which used inorganic materials such as silicon.

The firm decided to set up its centre at Fusionopolis so that it could tap the rich expertise in physical science and engineering available at the building, as well as the biomedical research expertise at the nearby Biopolis.

Nitto Denko on Wednesday also inked agreements with A*STAR Data Storage Institute and the A*STAR Institute of Materials Research and Engineering as well as Nanyang Technological University to fund and carry out three separate research projects on the development of novel organic electronic sensing devices.

"With a pool of local and foreign talent to tap on and a strong R&D infrastructure and intellectual property laws, we see Singapore playing a vital role in advancing the company's research and product development efforts," said Dr Yasuo Ninomiya, chief technology officer of Nitto Denko.