David Savastano, Editor04.16.14
Printed electronics (PE) applications are gaining traction in the marketplace, as can be seen in reports on pilot production and manufacturing facilities coming on line. As a result, more end users are noticing these gains, and are seeing what the technology offers their products and customers.
Printed Electronics Europe 2014, the two-day conference held in Berlin, Germany from April 1-2, showed the gains being made by the PE field and allied segments. Organized by IDTechEx, end users and PE manufacturers throughout the supply chain offered their insights on how PE works in their businesses, and what can be added for PE to expand in the future.
The conference’s continued growth also speaks to the added interest in PE: Raghu Das, CEO of IDTechEx, reported that attendance was up significantly at PE Europe 2014.
“Attendance was excellent,” Das said. “Attendance was up about 20% on last year’s event in terms of attendees and exhibitors. We are getting closer to a tipping point.
“Companies are more commercially focused now than before and working hard to deliver solutions,” Das added. “Additionally, there are more end users than ever before working on concepts and prototypes. The event was buzzing with the excitement that we are reaching a period of rapid commercialization.”
The perspective of end-users was a key highlight of the program, with an end user forum that featured Joseph Marshall of Boeing, Dr. Cristina Bertoni of Electrolux, Tony Offley-Shore of Hasbro, Antoine Ravise of Decathlon, and Dr. Sophie Laurenson of Abbott Diagnostics.
“Of particular interest were the user presentations and insights from companies such as Hasbro, Boeing, Oxylane, Abbott and the end-user forum, where attendees had the chance to ask end users their questions about progress with the technology,” Das noted.
One example is aerospace. Marshall, structural designer for Boeing, discussed “Applications, Needs, and Requirements for Printed Electronics in Aerospace.”
“Boeing is hungry for new developments in printed electronics, especially materials that survive harsh environments,” Marshall said. “The business case must include aerospace value proposition, such as weight reduction, system replacement opportunities and new capabilities. Per plane production quantities low, but volume could be high.”
Another example was “The Security Print Industry and Plastic Electronics,” presented by Dr. Philip Cooper, manager, technology applications De La Rue Group R&D United Kingdom. De La Rue is the world’s largest commercial security printer, and Dr. Cooper sees possibilities for PE in combatting counterfeiting.
“Printed electronics has the potential to be one such technology in that it can provide secure features not achievable by any other means,” Dr. Cooper said.
However, Dr. Cooper said that PE has a ways to go before it can handle these challenges.
“Users do not wish to put components together themselves,” he said. “The diversity of the necessary eleents present a significant barrier to entry. There do not appear to be complete integrator companes. Manufacturing processes appear too involved and complex with too many process steps, giving registration issues and multiple handling costs. There is a lot of good work being done independently, but we really need to hear from companies that can help with our challenges and put devices together in one package that we can buy. ”
Home appliances are another opportunity. In her talk on “Sensing Opportunities in Home Appliances Enabled by Printed Electronics Technologies,” Dr. Bertoni, Global Technology Center (GTC), Electrolux Italia S.p.A., said interest in high for PE.
“There is interest in printed technologies as they can offer solutions that are compact, cost-effective, high performance and innovative,” Dr. Bertoni said. “Envisioned areas of development are touchscreens, sensors and new product concepts.”
Among the other major topics for end users covered at PE Europe 2014 were Consumer Packaged Goods, Healthcare, Consumer Electronics, Consumer Electronics, Architecture and the Build Environment, and Textiles.
Other sessions included Future of Transparent Conductors, Flexible and Stretchable Electronics, System Integration, OLED versus LED Lighting, Logic and Memory, Bistable Display Technology, The Energy Storage Gold Rush, Printed Conductors, Printed Electronics Manufacturing, OLED Displays, Paper Electronics, 3D Printing, Energy Harvesting, Global Market Analysis, Actuators, Photovoltaics, Touch Sensors and Screensand Sensor Technology.
IDTechEx also co-located other events of interest to the printed electronics field during PE Europe 2014, including Graphene LIVE! Europe 2014; 3D Printing LIVE! Europe 2014; Energy Harvesting and Storage Europe 2014; Internet of Things & WSN Europe 2014; and Supercapacitors Europe 2014.
“Technical coverage was broad but deep, covering related topics too such as the Internet of Things and 3D printing,” Das said.
The conference’s continued growth also speaks to the added interest in PE: Raghu Das, CEO of IDTechEx, reported that attendance was up significantly at PE Europe 2014.
“Attendance was excellent,” Das said. “Attendance was up about 20% on last year’s event in terms of attendees and exhibitors. We are getting closer to a tipping point.
“Companies are more commercially focused now than before and working hard to deliver solutions,” Das added. “Additionally, there are more end users than ever before working on concepts and prototypes. The event was buzzing with the excitement that we are reaching a period of rapid commercialization.”
The perspective of end-users was a key highlight of the program, with an end user forum that featured Joseph Marshall of Boeing, Dr. Cristina Bertoni of Electrolux, Tony Offley-Shore of Hasbro, Antoine Ravise of Decathlon, and Dr. Sophie Laurenson of Abbott Diagnostics.
“Of particular interest were the user presentations and insights from companies such as Hasbro, Boeing, Oxylane, Abbott and the end-user forum, where attendees had the chance to ask end users their questions about progress with the technology,” Das noted.
One example is aerospace. Marshall, structural designer for Boeing, discussed “Applications, Needs, and Requirements for Printed Electronics in Aerospace.”
“Boeing is hungry for new developments in printed electronics, especially materials that survive harsh environments,” Marshall said. “The business case must include aerospace value proposition, such as weight reduction, system replacement opportunities and new capabilities. Per plane production quantities low, but volume could be high.”
Another example was “The Security Print Industry and Plastic Electronics,” presented by Dr. Philip Cooper, manager, technology applications De La Rue Group R&D United Kingdom. De La Rue is the world’s largest commercial security printer, and Dr. Cooper sees possibilities for PE in combatting counterfeiting.
“Printed electronics has the potential to be one such technology in that it can provide secure features not achievable by any other means,” Dr. Cooper said.
However, Dr. Cooper said that PE has a ways to go before it can handle these challenges.
“Users do not wish to put components together themselves,” he said. “The diversity of the necessary eleents present a significant barrier to entry. There do not appear to be complete integrator companes. Manufacturing processes appear too involved and complex with too many process steps, giving registration issues and multiple handling costs. There is a lot of good work being done independently, but we really need to hear from companies that can help with our challenges and put devices together in one package that we can buy. ”
Home appliances are another opportunity. In her talk on “Sensing Opportunities in Home Appliances Enabled by Printed Electronics Technologies,” Dr. Bertoni, Global Technology Center (GTC), Electrolux Italia S.p.A., said interest in high for PE.
“There is interest in printed technologies as they can offer solutions that are compact, cost-effective, high performance and innovative,” Dr. Bertoni said. “Envisioned areas of development are touchscreens, sensors and new product concepts.”
Among the other major topics for end users covered at PE Europe 2014 were Consumer Packaged Goods, Healthcare, Consumer Electronics, Consumer Electronics, Architecture and the Build Environment, and Textiles.
Other sessions included Future of Transparent Conductors, Flexible and Stretchable Electronics, System Integration, OLED versus LED Lighting, Logic and Memory, Bistable Display Technology, The Energy Storage Gold Rush, Printed Conductors, Printed Electronics Manufacturing, OLED Displays, Paper Electronics, 3D Printing, Energy Harvesting, Global Market Analysis, Actuators, Photovoltaics, Touch Sensors and Screensand Sensor Technology.
IDTechEx also co-located other events of interest to the printed electronics field during PE Europe 2014, including Graphene LIVE! Europe 2014; 3D Printing LIVE! Europe 2014; Energy Harvesting and Storage Europe 2014; Internet of Things & WSN Europe 2014; and Supercapacitors Europe 2014.
“Technical coverage was broad but deep, covering related topics too such as the Internet of Things and 3D printing,” Das said.