David Savastano, Editor10.27.10
Due to the complexity of the field, printed electronics has become by necessity a collaborative one. Industry leaders, research centers and universities alike are partnering with one another to determine the best ways to develop and bring to market new technologies.
Such was the case when Philips Research developed its strategy of “Open Innovation” research. As part of its approach, Philips’ leadership brought together two leading research centers: imec and TNO.
“A little over five years ago, Philips embraced the idea of Open Innovation by teaming up with others, opening up its research facilities for external companies and giving birth to High Tech Campus Eindhoven,” said Koen Snoeckx, communication manager for the Holst Centre. “It was Philips' conviction that an open-innovation campus needed not only a significant number of companies, but also independent knowledge institutes orchestrating open innovation.”
Philips approached imec and TNO to come up with a proposal for a research centre with a focus on specific sub-domains in the field of micro- and nanotechnology. The choice of imec and TNO were ideal.
Headquartered in Leuven, Belgium, imec is an independent research center in nanoelectronics and nanotechnology, recognized worldwide as leading in its domain. Its research focuses on the next generations of chips and systems and on the enabling technologies for ambient intelligence. It has a staff of more than 1,750 people.
Meanwhile, with its 5,000 researchers and engineers, TNO, located in Eindhoven, is the largest Dutch independent R&D organization. TNO’s five core areas of research are Quality of Life, Defense and Public Safety, Science and Industry, Built Environment and Geosciences and ICT and Services.
“Philips approached imec – for its long-term tradition with open innovation research, and TNO – the largest research institute in The Netherlands, with vast expertise in knowledge valorization,” Snoeckx said.
To coordinate the activities at Holst Centre, imec set up a separate legal entity: Stichting imec Nederland (imec-nl). TNO’s activities at Holst Centre are located in a business unit of the Core Area Science and Industry.
“Together, the imec and TNO management composed a business plan that got support from the Dutch government,” Snoeckx said. “Philips engaged itself as the first industrial partner by signing up to all Holst Centre programs. The combination of government funding and industrial partnerships is at the base of Holst Centre's business model, and the participation of Philips gave Holst Centre a flying start.”
Given its extensive resources, the Holst Centre has been able to successfully focus its energies on the field of flexible electronics and wireless autonomous sensor technologies.
“Holst Centre's core expertise in the domain of flexible electronics is focused on generic technologies enabling low-cost large-area production,” said Snoeckx. “This means we have programs in place for technologies like large-area printing, barriers and electrodes, organic and oxide transistors. On top of these technology programs, we have a number of application-oriented integration programs. They make use of the toolset of generic technologies named above to demonstrate the capabilities for specific markets.”
Presently, these application-oriented programs related to flexible electronics are flexible OLED lighting and signage, organic photovoltaics and smart packaging. Snoeckx noted that each of the Holst Centre’s nine programs in the domain of flexible electronics has a research roadmap targeting several milestones each year.
“There are a number of recent realizations we are particularly proud of,” Snoeckx said. “We also believe that we are in a leading position in the domain of moisture barriers for flexible electronics.”
Already, Holst Centre colleagues have numerous successes in the PE field, including the following:
• The world's first application of flexible OLED lighting on foil: In conjunction with Huntsman Advanced Materials, Holst Centre developed rear view mirrors with an integrated thin film encapsulated flexible OLED for French racing team Oreca’s ORECA01 car for the 24 hours Le Mans race. The key was developing encapsulation technology to protect the OLED’s from moisture and oxygen.
• An innovative roll-to-roll sintering tool: This sintering platform uses a new photonic sintering process, developed by Holst Centre, which heats only the printed target material rather than the whole carrier substrate. The tool can sinter printed conductive structures in less than a second.
• The world's first plastic transponder circuit at 50 kb/s: This allows plastic RFID technology to adhere to standard Electronic Product Code (EPC) specifications for item-level tagging.
• The world's first OLED lighting device without ITO as transparent electrode: In conjunction with AGFA Materials, Holst Centre and its partners have succeeded in direct patterned deposition of shunting lines by inkjet printing without the need for any photolithography steps, and combining it with PEDOT/PSS with sufficient conductivity that no ITO was needed.
These developments need talented people working together. Snoeckx said that the prime strength of Holst Centre is in the technical expertise of its own researchers.
“Talent is one of our greatest assets and differentiating factors,” he noted. “We have a mix of 25 nationalities, people with in-depth technical knowledge, creativity and skills to excel in teams. But also, we bring added value through our business model and our specific position in the innovation funnel.
“Thanks to our collaboration with industry and academia, we bridge the gap between fundamental research and commercial product development,” Snoeckx added. “This guarantees that our research stays in line with industrial needs, while at the same time keeping enough attention for long-term vision. Secondly, we bring together leading players from across the value chain. Holst Centre serves as a neutral ground to collaborate on joint technical challenges.
All in all, the ability to collaborate with industry and academia allows the Holst Centre to play an important role in developing innovative solutions fot he PE field.
“Thanks to this shared effort of materials suppliers, equipment manufacturers and end-users, one specific problem can be tackled on various levels,” Snoeckx concluded. “Although obviously difficult to benchmark, we strongly believe that this speeds up innovation or even enables progress that individual companies would not have been able to achieve.”
Flexible OLED lighting device. (Photo courtesy of Holst Centre) |
“A little over five years ago, Philips embraced the idea of Open Innovation by teaming up with others, opening up its research facilities for external companies and giving birth to High Tech Campus Eindhoven,” said Koen Snoeckx, communication manager for the Holst Centre. “It was Philips' conviction that an open-innovation campus needed not only a significant number of companies, but also independent knowledge institutes orchestrating open innovation.”
Philips approached imec and TNO to come up with a proposal for a research centre with a focus on specific sub-domains in the field of micro- and nanotechnology. The choice of imec and TNO were ideal.
Headquartered in Leuven, Belgium, imec is an independent research center in nanoelectronics and nanotechnology, recognized worldwide as leading in its domain. Its research focuses on the next generations of chips and systems and on the enabling technologies for ambient intelligence. It has a staff of more than 1,750 people.
Meanwhile, with its 5,000 researchers and engineers, TNO, located in Eindhoven, is the largest Dutch independent R&D organization. TNO’s five core areas of research are Quality of Life, Defense and Public Safety, Science and Industry, Built Environment and Geosciences and ICT and Services.
“Philips approached imec – for its long-term tradition with open innovation research, and TNO – the largest research institute in The Netherlands, with vast expertise in knowledge valorization,” Snoeckx said.
To coordinate the activities at Holst Centre, imec set up a separate legal entity: Stichting imec Nederland (imec-nl). TNO’s activities at Holst Centre are located in a business unit of the Core Area Science and Industry.
“Together, the imec and TNO management composed a business plan that got support from the Dutch government,” Snoeckx said. “Philips engaged itself as the first industrial partner by signing up to all Holst Centre programs. The combination of government funding and industrial partnerships is at the base of Holst Centre's business model, and the participation of Philips gave Holst Centre a flying start.”
Organic circuitry on flexible foil. (Photo courtesy of Holst Centre) |
“Holst Centre's core expertise in the domain of flexible electronics is focused on generic technologies enabling low-cost large-area production,” said Snoeckx. “This means we have programs in place for technologies like large-area printing, barriers and electrodes, organic and oxide transistors. On top of these technology programs, we have a number of application-oriented integration programs. They make use of the toolset of generic technologies named above to demonstrate the capabilities for specific markets.”
Presently, these application-oriented programs related to flexible electronics are flexible OLED lighting and signage, organic photovoltaics and smart packaging. Snoeckx noted that each of the Holst Centre’s nine programs in the domain of flexible electronics has a research roadmap targeting several milestones each year.
“There are a number of recent realizations we are particularly proud of,” Snoeckx said. “We also believe that we are in a leading position in the domain of moisture barriers for flexible electronics.”
Roll-to-Roll pilot line for flexible electronics. (Photo courtesy of Holst Centre) |
• The world's first application of flexible OLED lighting on foil: In conjunction with Huntsman Advanced Materials, Holst Centre developed rear view mirrors with an integrated thin film encapsulated flexible OLED for French racing team Oreca’s ORECA01 car for the 24 hours Le Mans race. The key was developing encapsulation technology to protect the OLED’s from moisture and oxygen.
• An innovative roll-to-roll sintering tool: This sintering platform uses a new photonic sintering process, developed by Holst Centre, which heats only the printed target material rather than the whole carrier substrate. The tool can sinter printed conductive structures in less than a second.
• The world's first plastic transponder circuit at 50 kb/s: This allows plastic RFID technology to adhere to standard Electronic Product Code (EPC) specifications for item-level tagging.
• The world's first OLED lighting device without ITO as transparent electrode: In conjunction with AGFA Materials, Holst Centre and its partners have succeeded in direct patterned deposition of shunting lines by inkjet printing without the need for any photolithography steps, and combining it with PEDOT/PSS with sufficient conductivity that no ITO was needed.
These developments need talented people working together. Snoeckx said that the prime strength of Holst Centre is in the technical expertise of its own researchers.
“Talent is one of our greatest assets and differentiating factors,” he noted. “We have a mix of 25 nationalities, people with in-depth technical knowledge, creativity and skills to excel in teams. But also, we bring added value through our business model and our specific position in the innovation funnel.
“Thanks to our collaboration with industry and academia, we bridge the gap between fundamental research and commercial product development,” Snoeckx added. “This guarantees that our research stays in line with industrial needs, while at the same time keeping enough attention for long-term vision. Secondly, we bring together leading players from across the value chain. Holst Centre serves as a neutral ground to collaborate on joint technical challenges.
All in all, the ability to collaborate with industry and academia allows the Holst Centre to play an important role in developing innovative solutions fot he PE field.
“Thanks to this shared effort of materials suppliers, equipment manufacturers and end-users, one specific problem can be tackled on various levels,” Snoeckx concluded. “Although obviously difficult to benchmark, we strongly believe that this speeds up innovation or even enables progress that individual companies would not have been able to achieve.”