David Savastano, Editor07.30.14
Now that we have more than passed the halfway point in the year, it is interesting to see what progress is being made in the field. It is challenging to figure out what end-users are doing, as much of it is occurring is obscured by NDAs, but we can see what some industries are working on by looking at presentations at recent conferences.
For example, on the solar side, Printed Electronics USA 2013 featured at talk by Dr. Marc Vermeersch, solar technology and strategy - senior advisor for Total, discussing the organic photovoltaic (OPV market as well as crystalline silicon. LOPEC 2014 featured Frédéric Bonnefoy of AGC Glass Europe, who discussed “Organic Photovoltaic in Building Applications: Glass Solutions for Zero Energy Buildings.” Building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) were among the areas covered, as the EU mandates that all public building must be nearly zero energy by 2020. AGC Glass Europe is working with Heliatek to integrate solar film into glass for its BIPV projects.
IDTechEx’s Printed Electronics Europe 2014 featured an interesting variety of talks, with Boeing, Electrolux, Decathlon, Osram Sylvania and others spoke at the conference. Boeing is looking at PE for lighting and sensors; Electrolux for touch sensors and touch panels; Decathlon for sports sensors, sort of like MC10 and Reebok have; and Osram Sylvania for OLED lighting. There were also talks by Hasbro (games) and Abbott (medical sensors).
I’ve seen talks by Procter & Gamble and Colgate-Palmolive (consumer goods), Lifescan - a Johnson & Johnson Company (medical diagnostics), NASA ad the U.S. Air Force (military applications), Panasonic and Phillips (lighting) and many others. There are opportunities that are out there that we know about, but what is truly interesting are the potential applications that we don’t even know about yet.
For example, on the solar side, Printed Electronics USA 2013 featured at talk by Dr. Marc Vermeersch, solar technology and strategy - senior advisor for Total, discussing the organic photovoltaic (OPV market as well as crystalline silicon. LOPEC 2014 featured Frédéric Bonnefoy of AGC Glass Europe, who discussed “Organic Photovoltaic in Building Applications: Glass Solutions for Zero Energy Buildings.” Building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) were among the areas covered, as the EU mandates that all public building must be nearly zero energy by 2020. AGC Glass Europe is working with Heliatek to integrate solar film into glass for its BIPV projects.
IDTechEx’s Printed Electronics Europe 2014 featured an interesting variety of talks, with Boeing, Electrolux, Decathlon, Osram Sylvania and others spoke at the conference. Boeing is looking at PE for lighting and sensors; Electrolux for touch sensors and touch panels; Decathlon for sports sensors, sort of like MC10 and Reebok have; and Osram Sylvania for OLED lighting. There were also talks by Hasbro (games) and Abbott (medical sensors).
I’ve seen talks by Procter & Gamble and Colgate-Palmolive (consumer goods), Lifescan - a Johnson & Johnson Company (medical diagnostics), NASA ad the U.S. Air Force (military applications), Panasonic and Phillips (lighting) and many others. There are opportunities that are out there that we know about, but what is truly interesting are the potential applications that we don’t even know about yet.