Manufacturing flexible and printed electronics systems have been one of the challenges facing the industry. Printers, silicon-based semiconductor suppliers and start-ups alike have been faced with developing or adapting technology to produce these systems. However, membrane switch manufacturers have worked with printing electronics over the years, and have been at the forefront of the flexible and printed electronics industry.
 
Quad Industries is an excellent example of a company that has adapted its expertise in membrane switches and touch panels into a series of flexible and printed electronics products, from in-mold electronics for automotive applications to smart health patches and more.
 
Founded in 1998 by Dirk Casteleyn, Quad Industries is family owned, which Dirk’s sons, Arne and Ruben, taking leadership roles in the Sint-Niklaas, Belgium-based company, which has a production site in Slovakia. Quad Industries uses its fully automated screen printing techniques to integrate functionality onto various lightweight and flexible materials such as plastics, textiles, TPU and paper. 
 
“Membrane switch and touch panel manufacturing is a core business for us, as is electronics development and assembly in-house,” said Arne Casteleyn, the company’s director of sales and new business development. “The combination of these is the perfect basis for printed electronics. We have more than 20 years of experience in screenprinting graphic and conductive inks on flexible substrates.”
 
Its key markets include automotive, sports and healthcare wearables, IoT, smart buildings such as home appliance touch controls, and printing and packaging, including smart labels and cold chain monitoring. For the last eight years, Quad has also been focused on new inks and substrates, working closely with customers to develop new technologies, including sensors, heating elements and antennas.
 
Quad is working on a wide range of products, including sleep diagnostics patches, pressure sensors for smart shelves, pressure sensors inside steering wheels and in-mold electronics HMI solutions with Novares. One recent development, in partnership with Henkel as well as Byteflies, a Belgian wearable health startup, are stick-on smart Health Patches, which continuously monitor and record motion (IMU), electrocardiogram (ECG) and respiration.
 
The health patch is built on an ultra-thin, breathable TPU substrate, and has a battery as well as communication and data storage capabilities. It can be worn for up to 24 hours and can be recharged on a docking station. Henkel supplies the stretchable silver conductive inks as well as the adhesive; Quad Industries produced the patches, which were first shown at LOPEC 2019.

The patch is screen printed using stretchable Ag and AgCl on a TPU substrate, laminating skin-compatible adhesives and hydrogels to the bottom of the circuit and hotmelt transfer onto a soft comfortable fabric. From there, Quad does a precise laser cutting of the outline and integrates the Byteflies dot through snap buttons that electrically connect with the circuit.
 
“There is a strong interest from different customers to follow a similar approach in designing wearable patches,” Casteleyn said.
 
Quad Industries recently announced that Novares, a leading Tier-1 automotive supplier with €1.5 billion in sales in 2018, has acquired a minority stake in the company. Quad and Novares signed a joint development agreement in may 2018, and have integrated Quad’s technology into Novares’ Touch N’Play platform in its  Nova Car concept car.
 
“Quad’s printed electronics are key in our smart surfaces technologies, allowing Novares to propose to its customers disruptive systems and intuitive solutions for all users in the car,” saidNovares CEO Pierre Boulet in announcing the agreement.
 
Casteleyn said that Quad Industries’ ability to work with customers on product development is important, but seeing this development into production sets Quad apart from the industry.
 
“We often hear that our development skills in terms of applied research are very similar to what research centers offer, but with the important difference that, at the end of the development phase, we also offer real manufacturing capacity,” he noted.
 
“Customers are partners,” Casteleyn added. “We provide a highly-skilled and experienced team to co-develop with those customers. We provide prototyping service and while developing, we always have future mass-production in mind. Being geographically close to both Imec and Holst Centre is a great ecosystem to be in. We get involved in many funded projects where our teams get the chance to work with those research centers. That puts us really in front of the technology.”