David Savastano, Editor04.20.11
The field of printed electronics is clearly evolving, and it is interesting to hear the perspective of people who have long been involved in the field. From time to time, Printed Electronics Now will interview some of the leaders in the field, and present their viewpoints.
This week, we spoke with Richard Morris of Saxby Business Development. Morris has more than 20 years in the field of rigid and flexible printed circuits, beginning with Coates Circuit Products, a division of Sun Chemical. From there, he joined Parelec Inc. as sales manager of North America and Europe, and after five years, joined Soligie to develop sales. Now head of Saxby Business Development, Morris is working with Si-Cal and PChem Associates to develop their printed electronics capabilities.
Printed Electronics Now: What is your background in the field of PE?
Richard Morris: I started my career with Sun Chemical’s Printed Circuit inks division formulating, working in field service and manufacturing photoimageable coatings for the rigid and flexible printed circuit board industry. As volume circuit board manufacture moved to China, the promise of large scale RFID technology adoption had emerged in the early 2000s, and I joined a silver ink start-up Parelec. With a new family of conductive inks, Parelec was trying to establish low cost direct printed antennas on packaging and labels.
I then moved on to work for Soligie with their integration model of developing the manufacturability of a range of printed electronic elements such as displays, batteries, logic and sensors to eventual combine elements as an integrator. In the last 12 months, I have assisted two companies with business development and sales: Si-Cal, a roll-to-roll manufacturer and customized solutions provider of high performance printed electronics, as well as PChem Associates, who manufactures and markets nanoparticle inks for printed electronics.
Printed Electronics Now: How has the printed electronics industry changed since you first joined the field?
Richard Morris: Printed electronics was predominantly a combination of silver, carbon and dielectric inks coming out of the membrane touch switch and electro luminescent lamp manufacturing 10 years ago. The core materials research and development of the last 20 years has made the emerging OLED lighting and displays, flexible solar cells and E-Readers possible. Although screen printing will remain a core process for many printed electronics components, inkjet/jetting is coming along, and at the higher speed analog end, flexo plate technology from the likes of Kodak and gravure printing are capable of 20 micron features.
Lessons have been and are still being learned from the hype of RFID tags replacing bar codes. We may have reached the 5 cent tag, but tags are not being integrated in the multiple billions. Printed electronics will generate components or sub-assemblies in the medium term. Their rate of adoption is controlled by the system cost, infrastructure required and value to the customer.
Printed electronics was seen as a possible savior of the printing industry. Only a tiny subset of printers are currently involved as components are being manufactured with an increasingly complex combination of electronics and electro chemical design that requires more modern printing presses and custom designed (not necessarily expensive) curing equipment.
Printed Electronics Now: What are the key advancements that have allowed for these changes to occur?
Richard Morris: Some of the key market drivers for printed electronics materials and constructions are:
• The need for live inventory control and tracking using RFID.
• The ongoing transition of medical care from hospitals, to doctors offices and ultimately into a patient’s home with continuous wireless on body (conformable) monitoring.
• More robust, lighter and lower power consuming components in handheld devices from touch screens and displays to multiple or 3D antennas, sensors and haptic feedback.
Printed Electronics Now: What are the technical hurdles that need to be overcome to move PE forward?
Richard Morris: Printed electronics is moving forward incrementally but gathering pace. Materials and printed element developers must increase their understanding of where their technology fits in with the overall device and manufacturing process. Standard constructions and process conditions for the multi-layer ink stacks have to be found, otherwise prototype development will be expensive.
It will take time to build more than one or two elements on a substrate reliably and in high yield. As printers are often component suppliers, reliable attachment to sheets, web, wires or circuit boards is essential. It would be helpful if the industry came together on standard connection techniques and attachment structures.
Inspection and test of printed elements has a way to go. Optical, electrical and thickness measurements will need to be fast, off contact and integrated into printing systems.
Printed Electronics Now: Where do you see the field of printed electronics heading in both the near term and, say, 10 years from now?
Richard Morris: In the short term, medical devices, simpler low cost displays, other niche components and the next generation transparent electrode layers are my focus.
Printed electronics is an umbrella term for manufacturing techniques and ultimately an integration of components. I hear the same announcements as others involved or just interested in this field. Roll-outs will be incremental such as the next generation of solar cells, OLED displays and lighting. In 10 years I hope to see far more interactivity in the retail sector, whether they be dynamic and informative shelf pricing, eye catching and entertaining point of purchase displays and ultimately smart packaging indicating freshness and electronic pedigree.
Printed Electronics Now: What is your background in the field of PE?
Richard Morris: I started my career with Sun Chemical’s Printed Circuit inks division formulating, working in field service and manufacturing photoimageable coatings for the rigid and flexible printed circuit board industry. As volume circuit board manufacture moved to China, the promise of large scale RFID technology adoption had emerged in the early 2000s, and I joined a silver ink start-up Parelec. With a new family of conductive inks, Parelec was trying to establish low cost direct printed antennas on packaging and labels.
I then moved on to work for Soligie with their integration model of developing the manufacturability of a range of printed electronic elements such as displays, batteries, logic and sensors to eventual combine elements as an integrator. In the last 12 months, I have assisted two companies with business development and sales: Si-Cal, a roll-to-roll manufacturer and customized solutions provider of high performance printed electronics, as well as PChem Associates, who manufactures and markets nanoparticle inks for printed electronics.
Printed Electronics Now: How has the printed electronics industry changed since you first joined the field?
Richard Morris: Printed electronics was predominantly a combination of silver, carbon and dielectric inks coming out of the membrane touch switch and electro luminescent lamp manufacturing 10 years ago. The core materials research and development of the last 20 years has made the emerging OLED lighting and displays, flexible solar cells and E-Readers possible. Although screen printing will remain a core process for many printed electronics components, inkjet/jetting is coming along, and at the higher speed analog end, flexo plate technology from the likes of Kodak and gravure printing are capable of 20 micron features.
Lessons have been and are still being learned from the hype of RFID tags replacing bar codes. We may have reached the 5 cent tag, but tags are not being integrated in the multiple billions. Printed electronics will generate components or sub-assemblies in the medium term. Their rate of adoption is controlled by the system cost, infrastructure required and value to the customer.
Printed electronics was seen as a possible savior of the printing industry. Only a tiny subset of printers are currently involved as components are being manufactured with an increasingly complex combination of electronics and electro chemical design that requires more modern printing presses and custom designed (not necessarily expensive) curing equipment.
Printed Electronics Now: What are the key advancements that have allowed for these changes to occur?
Richard Morris: Some of the key market drivers for printed electronics materials and constructions are:
• The need for live inventory control and tracking using RFID.
• The ongoing transition of medical care from hospitals, to doctors offices and ultimately into a patient’s home with continuous wireless on body (conformable) monitoring.
• More robust, lighter and lower power consuming components in handheld devices from touch screens and displays to multiple or 3D antennas, sensors and haptic feedback.
Printed Electronics Now: What are the technical hurdles that need to be overcome to move PE forward?
Richard Morris: Printed electronics is moving forward incrementally but gathering pace. Materials and printed element developers must increase their understanding of where their technology fits in with the overall device and manufacturing process. Standard constructions and process conditions for the multi-layer ink stacks have to be found, otherwise prototype development will be expensive.
It will take time to build more than one or two elements on a substrate reliably and in high yield. As printers are often component suppliers, reliable attachment to sheets, web, wires or circuit boards is essential. It would be helpful if the industry came together on standard connection techniques and attachment structures.
Inspection and test of printed elements has a way to go. Optical, electrical and thickness measurements will need to be fast, off contact and integrated into printing systems.
Printed Electronics Now: Where do you see the field of printed electronics heading in both the near term and, say, 10 years from now?
Richard Morris: In the short term, medical devices, simpler low cost displays, other niche components and the next generation transparent electrode layers are my focus.
Printed electronics is an umbrella term for manufacturing techniques and ultimately an integration of components. I hear the same announcements as others involved or just interested in this field. Roll-outs will be incremental such as the next generation of solar cells, OLED displays and lighting. In 10 years I hope to see far more interactivity in the retail sector, whether they be dynamic and informative shelf pricing, eye catching and entertaining point of purchase displays and ultimately smart packaging indicating freshness and electronic pedigree.