David Savastano, Editor06.23.10
One of the important keys for companies working in fledgling technologies such as printed electronics (PE) is coming up with a realistic business plan. It is, of course, essential to have a vision, but successfully developing a business also requires realistic goals.
Printovate Technologies, Inc. is helping companies turn their vision into reality. Led by its president, Dan Gamota ([email protected]), a longtime leader in PE, Printovate Technologies has a group of experienced PE professionals who are helping manufacturers determine raw materials needs, design PE systems and set up manufacturing operations.
“You have to be realistic. Companies sell a story to venture capitalists, but as you begin to miss milestones, they look to cut their losses,” Gamota said. “There’s been a big shakeout from the big vision to realities. Now is the time to gain revenue. A sustainable company needs to combine vision and short-term revenue as well.
“We can help companies get to the next stage,” Gamota said. “We are integrating printing where it makes sense. We are having some success, and we are seeing greater interest as the economy picks up.”
Showing the ability to sell products and produce revenue is becoming more important as funding becomes tighter, most notably in the U.S.
“As far as I can tell, the European Union (EU) continues to make significant investments into PE, ranging from developing functional inks and working on printing processes and manufacturing platforms,” Gamota said. “The strong EU commitment was recognized by a World Technology Evaluation Center Panel sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research - “International Assessment of Research and Development in Flexible Hybrid Electronics. In Asia, there is much developmental work underway to convert printing processes to manufacture electronics. We see there is very strong interest in funding with an eye toward commercialization in Europe and Asia. However, in the U.S., the patience level seems to be fading. In an effort to increase their visibility as a PE industry participant and increase sales, Mark Andy which offers specialized equipment, accepted a leadership role during the preparation of the International Manufacturing Electronics Initiative's Large Area Flexible Electronics Roadmap.
“I think that PE has a future,” Gamota added. “At Printovate Technologies, we combine nanotechnology, printing and the design of creative electronics to enable near-term hybrid products. Also, we have started to bring together people from these different industries to collaborate and identify potential markets. We have a team at Printovate Technologies, comprising people with different skill sets that are required for our customers. We’re going back to our core competencies, which are manufacturing and material science to provide low risk opportunities for printed components for our customers. We are able to offer customers new products for their portfolio.
“For the last two years, we have concentrated on providing services,” Gamota continued. “We are redesigning existing products, leveraging our expertise in developing roll-to-roll and sheetfed printing to develop new value-add products. We are providing services under contract and are active in several consortia.”
Gamota said that materials are improving, and there is a growing recognition of the potential for utilizing PE in applications.
“In the last three or four years, ink formulators have learned to develop higher performance inks to meet the material specifications of their customers, and printing platform providers are now familiar with functional ink printing requirements,” he noted.
One of the challenges has been scaling-up from lab to pilot production. “In the lab, it’s disciplined, but when you scale-up, there are lots of different factors that you have very little control over,” Gamota noted.
Gamota remains optimistic about the future of PE, and offers the example of how RFID is evolving as a possible roadmap for PE.
“The printed electronics industry is growing, but we are looking at incremental steps and the introduction of hybrid systems that combine PE with traditional electronics,” he said. “If you look at the developmental curve, PE is phase shifted by a year or two from RFID. RFID went through the phase of trying to replace bar codes, to now, where RFID products using RF components are combined with temperature and humidity sensors. This is no longer a 5-cent piece of hardware offering new RF functionality, but now a value-add component that can detect spoilage and which can command a greater price. The EU is developing strategies to integrate traditional silicon-based RFID devices with sensors that are printed, to offer hybrid solutions. In another example of printing based PE development efforts underway, the EU is funding a program that will leverage the printing technology used to fabricate membrane switches for dishwashers to print transmission lines and backplanes for touch panels.
“You must appreciate what your product can do and who your customers are,” Gamota concluded. “Let’s not promote using slideware that we can offer a 100 inch diagonal display with 150 ppi, but instead manufacture and demonstrate a 7 inch diagonal display at 50 ppi, which is perfect for retail marketing signage. Meanwhile, as novel PE-enabled items continue to move toward commercialization, we plan to continue to assist our customers in determining how printing components can be integrated with their existing products to enhance and extend their product platforms in the near-term.”
All-printed RFID sub-circuits manufactured on a commercial printing press. |
“You have to be realistic. Companies sell a story to venture capitalists, but as you begin to miss milestones, they look to cut their losses,” Gamota said. “There’s been a big shakeout from the big vision to realities. Now is the time to gain revenue. A sustainable company needs to combine vision and short-term revenue as well.
“We can help companies get to the next stage,” Gamota said. “We are integrating printing where it makes sense. We are having some success, and we are seeing greater interest as the economy picks up.”
Showing the ability to sell products and produce revenue is becoming more important as funding becomes tighter, most notably in the U.S.
“As far as I can tell, the European Union (EU) continues to make significant investments into PE, ranging from developing functional inks and working on printing processes and manufacturing platforms,” Gamota said. “The strong EU commitment was recognized by a World Technology Evaluation Center Panel sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research - “International Assessment of Research and Development in Flexible Hybrid Electronics. In Asia, there is much developmental work underway to convert printing processes to manufacture electronics. We see there is very strong interest in funding with an eye toward commercialization in Europe and Asia. However, in the U.S., the patience level seems to be fading. In an effort to increase their visibility as a PE industry participant and increase sales, Mark Andy which offers specialized equipment, accepted a leadership role during the preparation of the International Manufacturing Electronics Initiative's Large Area Flexible Electronics Roadmap.
“I think that PE has a future,” Gamota added. “At Printovate Technologies, we combine nanotechnology, printing and the design of creative electronics to enable near-term hybrid products. Also, we have started to bring together people from these different industries to collaborate and identify potential markets. We have a team at Printovate Technologies, comprising people with different skill sets that are required for our customers. We’re going back to our core competencies, which are manufacturing and material science to provide low risk opportunities for printed components for our customers. We are able to offer customers new products for their portfolio.
Logic circuitry manufactured on a commercial roll-to-roll printing platform using functional inks. |
Gamota said that materials are improving, and there is a growing recognition of the potential for utilizing PE in applications.
“In the last three or four years, ink formulators have learned to develop higher performance inks to meet the material specifications of their customers, and printing platform providers are now familiar with functional ink printing requirements,” he noted.
One of the challenges has been scaling-up from lab to pilot production. “In the lab, it’s disciplined, but when you scale-up, there are lots of different factors that you have very little control over,” Gamota noted.
Gamota remains optimistic about the future of PE, and offers the example of how RFID is evolving as a possible roadmap for PE.
“The printed electronics industry is growing, but we are looking at incremental steps and the introduction of hybrid systems that combine PE with traditional electronics,” he said. “If you look at the developmental curve, PE is phase shifted by a year or two from RFID. RFID went through the phase of trying to replace bar codes, to now, where RFID products using RF components are combined with temperature and humidity sensors. This is no longer a 5-cent piece of hardware offering new RF functionality, but now a value-add component that can detect spoilage and which can command a greater price. The EU is developing strategies to integrate traditional silicon-based RFID devices with sensors that are printed, to offer hybrid solutions. In another example of printing based PE development efforts underway, the EU is funding a program that will leverage the printing technology used to fabricate membrane switches for dishwashers to print transmission lines and backplanes for touch panels.
“You must appreciate what your product can do and who your customers are,” Gamota concluded. “Let’s not promote using slideware that we can offer a 100 inch diagonal display with 150 ppi, but instead manufacture and demonstrate a 7 inch diagonal display at 50 ppi, which is perfect for retail marketing signage. Meanwhile, as novel PE-enabled items continue to move toward commercialization, we plan to continue to assist our customers in determining how printing components can be integrated with their existing products to enhance and extend their product platforms in the near-term.”