NextFlex, America’s Flexible Hybrid Electronics (FHE) Manufacturing Institute, announced it has awarded the largest set of contracts to date –11 new projects totaling $21 million in value – to both corporations and academia to help transform FHE into a commercially viable industry.
 
The project proposals were submitted in response to project calls issued by NextFlex, and address not only FHE product designs, but also a range of underlying technologies that will help build the sustainable supply chain, standards and workforce essential to cost-effective, wide-scale manufacture of FHE-based products.
 
The recipients will cost-share $13 million of the total $21 million value of the 11 projects chosen for this latest round of awards. The contracts were awarded to the following NextFlex members and projects:
• Auburn University - “Mechanical Test Methods for FHE Materials and Devices
• The Boeing Company - 1) “Flexible Antenna Array Technology” and 2) “3D Patterning of Embedded FHE with High Fidelity” (#1, key partner: Georgia Tech; #2, key partner: nScrypt Inc.)
• Lorain County Community College - “TRAIN Ohio for Micro-Electromechanical Systems”
• Purdue University - “Ultra Flexible RFID/Sensor Systems for Inventory Monitoring” (key partner: Raytheon)
• Sensor Films - “Implementing a FHE Prototype and Production Capability for NextFlex” (key partners: PARC, a Xerox Company, The Boeing Company, General Electric Company, Jabil Circuit, Universal Instruments, NovaCentrix, Binghamton University and the Rochester Institute of Technology)
• Uniqarta, Inc. - “Enabling Ultra-Thin Die Assembly Prototyping at NextFlex Hub” (key partners: ON Semiconductor, Jabil Circuit, University of Massachusetts (UMass) Amherst and North Dakota State University)
• United Technologies Research Center - “Manufacturing of Distributed, Flexible and Stretchable Asset Monitoring Sensor Networks” (key partners: Stanford University and Acellent Technologies, Inc.)
• Universal Instruments Corporation - “Ultra-Thin Die Assembly for FHE Systems” (key partners: Binghamton University, General Electric Company, i3 Electronics and Lockheed Martin)
• UC Berkeley - “Integration Processes for Flexible and Wearable Wound Monitoring and Therapeutic Bandage” (key partner: Jabil Circuit)
• UMass Lowell - “Test Methods for Electrical and Mechanical Durability of Flexible/Rigid Interfaces in Multi-Axial Fatigue and Dynamic Loadings” (key partners: Raytheon, Jabil Circuit and DuPont)
 
“We are beyond thrilled to have reached this degree of momentum in less than two years since the Institute was founded,” Dr. Malcolm Thompson, executive director of NextFlex, noted. “This latest $21-million-dollar investment, which is the largest of its kind to date (previous awards were $8.6 million and $14.8 million, also cost-shared), further demonstrates we mean business in bringing this technology rapidly to market. 
 
“Our members equally share our passion for making FHE technology real and pervasive in the US,” Dr. Thompson added. “To this end, our project reviewers look closely at the submissions to ensure the proposals are ambitious, yet also practical and achievable.  We truly believe that this latest round of projects all show great promise for furthering the NextFlex mission to help its members commercialize FHE-based products-and revitalize the US manufacturing economy.”