David Savastano, Editor05.20.09
In June, the growing PE industry will have the opportunity to gather and showcase the latest developments at LOPE-C Large-area, Organic & Printed Electronics Convention, which will be held June 23-25, 2009 at the Congress Center, Messe Frankfurt, Germany.
LOPE-C is sponsored by the Organic Electronics Association (OE-A), a working group within VDMA representing the whole process chain in organic electronics, including plastic chips, organic displays, sensors and photovoltaics. OE-A currently has 123 member companies and institutes throughout the value chain, running the gamut from international leading companies and institutions and including component and material suppliers, equipment and tool suppliers, producers and system integrators, end-users and research institutes.
The OE-A anticipates more than 50 exhibiting companies and more than 100 presentations at LOPE-C, and early indications are that at least 600 attendees will be on hand to see the latest developments in organic and printed electronics. LOPE-C also has numerous media sponsors, including Printed Electronics Now.
“I remember a time not long ago when an organic and printed electronics conference would draw only 50 or 60 attendees at best,” said Andy Hannah, CEO of Plextronics and vice chairman of the OE-A. “This year at LOPE-C we’re expecting more than 600 delegates. It’s an exciting time to be in be involved in this industry, and all of us at Plextronics are looking forward to LOPE-C and all it has to offer.”
Agenda for LOPE-C
LOPE-C opens Tuesday, June 23 with two day-long concurrent sessions, broken up into seminars and a business conference.
The in-depth 90-minute seminars will be led by industry experts: Dr. Andreas Ullmann of PolyIC GmbH & Co. KG will focus on Devices; Prof. Antonio Facchetti of Polyera will discuss Materials; Thomas Walther of Steinemann Technology GmbH will analyze Printing; and Prof. Horst-Christian Langowski of TU München and Fraunhofer-Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging (IVV) will present on Barriers.
In the Business Conference session, chaired by Wolfgang Mildner, chairman, OE-A Board, and managing director PolyIC GmbH & Co. KG, Organic Electronics Association, speakers will include Dr. Alexei Andreev of Harris & Harris Group, Inc., who will give the keynote adddress.
Dr. Bernhard Stapp of OSRAM Opto Semiconductors GmbH and Christian Schreiner of Schreiner Group GmbH & Co. KG will discus Lighting. Dr. Peter Harrop of IDTechEx will present a Market Forecast. Martina Claus of COPACO Gesellschaft für Verpackungen mbH & Co.KG and Dr. Wolfgang Clemens of PolyIC GmbH & Co. KG will offer insights on RFID and Smart Packaging.
Process/Manufacturing will feature Robert Weiss of manroland AG, Prof. Arved Hübler of Institute for Print & Media Technology, and Karsten Ries of Mekoprint Graphics Electronics. Smart Packaging, a very promising field, will be covered by Dieter Conzelmann BIZERBA GmbH & Co. KG, and Dr. Juha Maijala of Stora Enso Group.
June 24 Session
TheKeynote speakers for the Wednesday, June 24 session include Wolfgang Mildner of OE-A and PolyIC, who will introduce the third edition of the OE-A Roadmap for PE. Thierry Van der Pyl of the European Commission (EC) will discuss the European perspective on PE. Ingo Wuggetzer of Airbus Deutschland GmbH will discuss the potential for PE in aircraft, and Dr. Marc Vermeersch of Total S.A, who will analyze the OPV marketplace. New Business Opportunities will be the focus of a session featuring Gildas Sorin of Novaled AG, Dr. Zoltan Nochta of SAP Deutschland AG & Co. KG, and Jaap Lombaers of Holst Centre.
There will be four tracks after the Keynote Session. These include such timely topics as Organic Photovoltaics, Medical Applications, E-signage, Organic and Nanoparticle Materials, OLED Lighting, Equipment/Manufacturing, Materials, Devices, RFID/Roll-to-Roll-Production, Sensors, Transportation, Memory and Solar Cells.
June 25 Session
The Keynote speakers for the Thursday, June 25 session are also an eminent group from a wide range of disciplines, featuring Dr. Michael Heckmeier of Merck Chemicals Ltd., who will look at the materials side of PE. Prof. Niyazi Serdar Sariciftci of Johannes Kepler Universität Linz will analyze the PV market. Martin Jackson of Plastic Logic Ltd., and Andrew Hannah of Plextronics, Inc., will offer their insights in the emerging markets for eReaders and OLEDs, respectively.
The session then breaks into four tracks, including OTFT/Displays, Integrated Systems/Batteries, Materials, Barrier & Devices, Display Cards, Printing and Manufacturing Technologies, Test and Simulation, Integrated Systems/Batteries, and Substrates/Smart Textiles.
Main Technical Conference
The Main Technical Conference includes a virtual who’s who of industry companies, including, in alphabetical order: Acreo AB, Agfa-Gevaert N.V., Applied Materials Inc., BASF Future Business GmbH, Bayer MaterialScience AG, Botest Systems GmbH, Certego GmbH, Coatema Coating Machinery GmbH, CSIRO Molecular & Health Technologies, DisplaySearch LLC, DuPont Teijin Films Ltd., Evonik Degussa GmbH, Felix Schoeller Service GmbH & Co. KG, FUJIFILM Dimatix Inc., Giesecke & Devrient GmbH, GSI Technologies LLC, H.C. Starck GmbH & Co. KG, HITACHI, Ltd., Advanced Research Laboratory, Holst Centre / TNO, Infiniscale S.A., ISRA Vision AG, Konarka Technology GmbH, Lufthansa Systems AG, PETEC, Philips Research, PolyIC GmbH & Co. KG, prelonic technologies OG, Siemens AG, Sofileta S.A., Solarmer Energy Inc., Stroeer Out-of-Home Media AG and VARTA Microbattery GmbH.
Academia and technical centers are also well represented, with AIST (National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology), CSEM - Centre Suisse d'Electronique et de Microtechnique SA, Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research, Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems, Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration / TU Berlin, Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), Konkuk University, Sunchon National University, Universität zu Köln, University of California, University of Tokyo and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland.
All in all, there is plenty of information on the fast-growing PE industry for all to learn. For more information on LOPE-C, check the web at www.lope-c.com.For more information on LOPE-C, check the web at www.lope-c.com.