David Savastano, Editor11.07.14
There have been some intriguing advances made in the field of printed electronics (PE) in recent years. Much of the work that is being conducted is on the university and research institute level, where researchers look at possibilities and challenges and develop potential solutions.
Dr. Jon Helliwell, director of printable electronics at CPI, the UK’s National Centre for Printable Electronics, said CPI’s focus is on development, scale-up and commercialization of printable electronics applications.
“CPI is equipped with an extensive range of assets specifically chosen and developed to allow clients to understand how their products and processes perform under pilot manufacturing conditions, and 2013 has proved to be a very busy year for CPI and its printable electronics platform,” Dr. Helliwell said.
Koen Snoeckx, communication manager at Holst Centre, an open-innovation R&D center set up in 2005 by imec (Belgium) and TNO (The Netherlands) that develops generic technologies for wireless autonomous sensor technologies and flexible electronics, said that 2013 has been a good year so far.
“After some years of rapid growth, with an exceptional number of new partners in 2012, we are now working hard to keep our industrial partners satisfied,” Snoeckx said. “Still, we are always negotiating new partnerships and contracts are being signed as we speak.”
Bruce E. Kahn, Ph.D., adjunct professor of graphic communications at The Sonoco Institute of Packaging Design and Graphics at Clemson University, said that 2013 was a good year for The Sonoco Institute.
Ahmed T. Aijazi, a doctoral student at Western Michigan University’s Center for the Advancement of Printed Electronics (CAPE) said that CAPE fared very well in 2013.
“Besides hosting one very well attended printed electronic short course, there was also very strong attendance at the joint FlexTech/WMU symposium in August,” Aijazi said. “The theme of this year’s symposium was ‘Paper for Printed Electronics: Who, How and Why?’ Several new industrial partnerships were forged, and visitors from around the globe came to tour our facilities and discuss educational and technical collaborations.”
Research Gains
The good news for the PE industry is that some of these projects are starting to come to fruition.
“Our own internal research has progressed into the IP stages,” Aijazi said. “The market is reacting to potential offers by seeking our services to assist in the scale up of some technologies. Many CAPE faculty worked in industry prior to coming to WMU and are very comfortable in providing these services.”
Dr. Helliwell said that CPI is working with a number of SMEs in building scale-up capability across a range of printed and plastic electronics technology areas such as OLED, OTFT, barrier and integrated smart systems.
“Expertise and infrastructure is provided to take forward new research ideas into technology prototypes and then into manufacturing demonstrators,” Dr. Helliwell said. “The technology demonstrators serve to illustrate the potential of these new types of device to inspire designers to think of novel ways of using them in end user markets and product applications.
“Companies in the supply chain also are innovating by providing new materials and process equipment specifically for flexible and roll-to-roll devices,” Dr. Helliwell added. “For example, Timsons, a printing press manufacturing company, is in a project with both Hewlett Packard and CPI, and has developed a new cassette-based method of handling rolls of film so they are protected from damaging scratches and particles during roll-to-roll processing steps.
“CPI has also started work on the production of roll-to-roll solution processed OLEDs,” Dr. Helliwell reported. “CPI will add additional flexibility with the installation of a 300mm web R2R coater for the printing of a range of organic material sets. The system will comprise of both slot die and screen printing capability, with options to upgrade to 500mm web width and to incorporate other printing techniques such as reverse gravure.
“CPI is involved in a UK Technology Strategy Board-funded project called ‘Roboled’ with Plastic Logic,” Dr. Helliwell added. “The objective of Roboled is to develop flexible OLED displays on plastic driven by a high performance OTFT backplane. CPI has significant experience in developing materials for solution processed organic thin film transistor (OTFT) backplanes for displays and has recently proven that OTFT backplanes can be bent over 10,000 times to a 1mm radius.”
These advances are drawing the attention of the market.
“We are pleased to see an increased maturity level of printed electronics technology, and at the same time an increased interest of the market,” Snoeckx said. “The production of the first OLED displays on glass and even the first curved mobile OLED display have attracted a lot of attention in the international media and technical community. This is important to pave the way for truly flexible electronics devices. Within our eco-system of partners, we also recognize an increased uptake of the IP generated at Holst Centre into the development processes within the companies themselves.
“A good illustration that our technologies are coming really close to the market,was the recent announcement of the collaboration between Rolic and Roth & Rau,” Snoeckx added. “Together, they are going to commercialize the protective barrier technology that has been one of the success stories of our shared research programs.”
Notable Developments
Researchers at the university and institute level are working on new projects that may impact the field. For example, Clemson is collaborating with PARC on gravure printing.
“The majority of the printed electronics activities were focused on a partnership with PARC, which was funded by the FlexTech consortium,” Dr. Kahn said. “The project is in its final stages, and is focused on investigating the translation of gravure printing from laboratory to commercial printing scale. We have demonstrated that it is possible to do commercial scale gravure printing using small amounts (< 50 ml) of ink.”
Aijazi said that CAPE is working on a number of different projects, including printed OLEDs, supercapacitors, sensors and hybrid devices. “We are assembling printed components with hybrid PCBs to create flexible devices,” Aijazi added.
“CPI is leading a consortium of major companies to create a UK supply chain to enable the widespread adoption of low cost, near field communication (NFC) devices using printable electronics,” Dr. Helliwell said. “The project will build manufacturing capacity, develop manufacturing skills and demonstrate application deployment, bringing together the UK’s world-class strength in print, electronics and design in a collaborative consortium to open-up a globally competitive UK supply-chain in printed NFC components.
“CPI is also involved in a number of commercial projects,” Dr. Helliwell said. “One of these is with Peratech, who is using CPI’s printing and formulation facilities to work on new ink formulations for pressure sensitive switches and sensors. Another is PragmatIC Printing Limited, who is utilizing CPI’s pilot scale production facilities for their printed logic circuits that introduce intelligence and interactivity into a wide range of products and applications, in form factors that are not possible using silicon chips.”
“Our programs on flexible OLED lighting and displays have been our ‘flagships’ over the past years and remain an important focus point for our research,” Snoeckx said. “Apart from that, we have considerably grown our efforts toward industry in the field of smart flexible devices, such as smart labels for healthcare, packaging, wearable electronics, etc. The expertise needed to create this kind of flexible systems has been part of Holst Centre since the start.
“To enable these kind of projects, we have also opened up our business model for more dedicated projects and not only shared research,” Snoeckx said. “This is to enable market acceleration especially for innovative startups and SMEs that have a clear product idea, but need support in their prototype development and the consecutive steps towards manufacturing. We are actively looking for additional companies that might be interested to collaborate with us in this field.”
To proceed with this research, universities and institutes are improving their operations with new equipment.
“CPI recently completed the installation of a new pilot production scale photolithography line to allow clients to fabricate large area, flexible organic thin film transistor (OTFT) backplanes, which have the potential to be used for applications in displays, lighting, logic and photovoltaic applications,” Dr. Helliwell noted. “The high resolution wide area line has the ability to handle substrates of size 8 inch, 12 inch and GEN 2 scale (370mm x 470mm) in a cassette and enhances the current 4 to 8 inch manual load and single plate photolithography/etch capability at CPI.
“In addition to the pilot production scale photolithography line and the 300mm web R2R coater OLED coater, CPI has enhanced its Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) capability with the forthcoming installation of Beneq’s roll-to-roll ALD system for demanding moisture barrier applications,” Dr. Helliwell said.
“In terms of facilities, we expect a lot of the new Solliance building and clean rooms will be ready in 2014,” Snoeckx said. “It will house our OPV activities, for which we are currently developing a unique roll-to-roll research line. Other recent investments that are already in place are dedicated equipment for flexible displays and a Lesker tool that gives us a larger number of technology options to realize OLED demonstrators.”
“We have expanded our capabilities with the addition of a new NovaCentrix Sinteron 2000, Bruker white light interferometer microscope and atomic force microscope,” Aijazi said. “We continue to expand our inventory of press components and materials.”
Outlook for PE Research
With the ground-breaking work being done at universities and research institutes, the outlook is strong for printed electronics.
“We are currently seeking to further grow our collaborations with other universities within the U.S.,” Aijazi said. “Our unique lab and pilot facilities for printing, student talent and faculty expertise have been recognized by multiple universities, professional organizations, and state and federal agencies.”
“In the 12 to 18 month time frame, we expect the largest end user engagement from hybrid plastic and printed electronic systems,” Dr. Helliwell said. “Market applications will use conventional printing methods and ‘pick and place’ component techniques to connect up discrete components on a flexible substrate. Technological and scale up advances will be made from the benefits gained from consumer feedback on flexible and printed electronics. In the medium term (two to five years), these systems will increasingly use printing techniques for more than just the conductor interconnect layers. OLEDs, printed transistors, resistors and capacitors will enable large area integration at lower costs, building upon the earlier experience of user requirements.”
Dr. Jon Helliwell, director of printable electronics at CPI, the UK’s National Centre for Printable Electronics, said CPI’s focus is on development, scale-up and commercialization of printable electronics applications.
“CPI is equipped with an extensive range of assets specifically chosen and developed to allow clients to understand how their products and processes perform under pilot manufacturing conditions, and 2013 has proved to be a very busy year for CPI and its printable electronics platform,” Dr. Helliwell said.
Koen Snoeckx, communication manager at Holst Centre, an open-innovation R&D center set up in 2005 by imec (Belgium) and TNO (The Netherlands) that develops generic technologies for wireless autonomous sensor technologies and flexible electronics, said that 2013 has been a good year so far.
“After some years of rapid growth, with an exceptional number of new partners in 2012, we are now working hard to keep our industrial partners satisfied,” Snoeckx said. “Still, we are always negotiating new partnerships and contracts are being signed as we speak.”
Bruce E. Kahn, Ph.D., adjunct professor of graphic communications at The Sonoco Institute of Packaging Design and Graphics at Clemson University, said that 2013 was a good year for The Sonoco Institute.
Ahmed T. Aijazi, a doctoral student at Western Michigan University’s Center for the Advancement of Printed Electronics (CAPE) said that CAPE fared very well in 2013.
“Besides hosting one very well attended printed electronic short course, there was also very strong attendance at the joint FlexTech/WMU symposium in August,” Aijazi said. “The theme of this year’s symposium was ‘Paper for Printed Electronics: Who, How and Why?’ Several new industrial partnerships were forged, and visitors from around the globe came to tour our facilities and discuss educational and technical collaborations.”
Research Gains
The good news for the PE industry is that some of these projects are starting to come to fruition.
“Our own internal research has progressed into the IP stages,” Aijazi said. “The market is reacting to potential offers by seeking our services to assist in the scale up of some technologies. Many CAPE faculty worked in industry prior to coming to WMU and are very comfortable in providing these services.”
Dr. Helliwell said that CPI is working with a number of SMEs in building scale-up capability across a range of printed and plastic electronics technology areas such as OLED, OTFT, barrier and integrated smart systems.
“Expertise and infrastructure is provided to take forward new research ideas into technology prototypes and then into manufacturing demonstrators,” Dr. Helliwell said. “The technology demonstrators serve to illustrate the potential of these new types of device to inspire designers to think of novel ways of using them in end user markets and product applications.
“Companies in the supply chain also are innovating by providing new materials and process equipment specifically for flexible and roll-to-roll devices,” Dr. Helliwell added. “For example, Timsons, a printing press manufacturing company, is in a project with both Hewlett Packard and CPI, and has developed a new cassette-based method of handling rolls of film so they are protected from damaging scratches and particles during roll-to-roll processing steps.
“CPI has also started work on the production of roll-to-roll solution processed OLEDs,” Dr. Helliwell reported. “CPI will add additional flexibility with the installation of a 300mm web R2R coater for the printing of a range of organic material sets. The system will comprise of both slot die and screen printing capability, with options to upgrade to 500mm web width and to incorporate other printing techniques such as reverse gravure.
“CPI is involved in a UK Technology Strategy Board-funded project called ‘Roboled’ with Plastic Logic,” Dr. Helliwell added. “The objective of Roboled is to develop flexible OLED displays on plastic driven by a high performance OTFT backplane. CPI has significant experience in developing materials for solution processed organic thin film transistor (OTFT) backplanes for displays and has recently proven that OTFT backplanes can be bent over 10,000 times to a 1mm radius.”
These advances are drawing the attention of the market.
“We are pleased to see an increased maturity level of printed electronics technology, and at the same time an increased interest of the market,” Snoeckx said. “The production of the first OLED displays on glass and even the first curved mobile OLED display have attracted a lot of attention in the international media and technical community. This is important to pave the way for truly flexible electronics devices. Within our eco-system of partners, we also recognize an increased uptake of the IP generated at Holst Centre into the development processes within the companies themselves.
“A good illustration that our technologies are coming really close to the market,was the recent announcement of the collaboration between Rolic and Roth & Rau,” Snoeckx added. “Together, they are going to commercialize the protective barrier technology that has been one of the success stories of our shared research programs.”
Notable Developments
Researchers at the university and institute level are working on new projects that may impact the field. For example, Clemson is collaborating with PARC on gravure printing.
“The majority of the printed electronics activities were focused on a partnership with PARC, which was funded by the FlexTech consortium,” Dr. Kahn said. “The project is in its final stages, and is focused on investigating the translation of gravure printing from laboratory to commercial printing scale. We have demonstrated that it is possible to do commercial scale gravure printing using small amounts (< 50 ml) of ink.”
Aijazi said that CAPE is working on a number of different projects, including printed OLEDs, supercapacitors, sensors and hybrid devices. “We are assembling printed components with hybrid PCBs to create flexible devices,” Aijazi added.
“CPI is leading a consortium of major companies to create a UK supply chain to enable the widespread adoption of low cost, near field communication (NFC) devices using printable electronics,” Dr. Helliwell said. “The project will build manufacturing capacity, develop manufacturing skills and demonstrate application deployment, bringing together the UK’s world-class strength in print, electronics and design in a collaborative consortium to open-up a globally competitive UK supply-chain in printed NFC components.
“CPI is also involved in a number of commercial projects,” Dr. Helliwell said. “One of these is with Peratech, who is using CPI’s printing and formulation facilities to work on new ink formulations for pressure sensitive switches and sensors. Another is PragmatIC Printing Limited, who is utilizing CPI’s pilot scale production facilities for their printed logic circuits that introduce intelligence and interactivity into a wide range of products and applications, in form factors that are not possible using silicon chips.”
“Our programs on flexible OLED lighting and displays have been our ‘flagships’ over the past years and remain an important focus point for our research,” Snoeckx said. “Apart from that, we have considerably grown our efforts toward industry in the field of smart flexible devices, such as smart labels for healthcare, packaging, wearable electronics, etc. The expertise needed to create this kind of flexible systems has been part of Holst Centre since the start.
“To enable these kind of projects, we have also opened up our business model for more dedicated projects and not only shared research,” Snoeckx said. “This is to enable market acceleration especially for innovative startups and SMEs that have a clear product idea, but need support in their prototype development and the consecutive steps towards manufacturing. We are actively looking for additional companies that might be interested to collaborate with us in this field.”
To proceed with this research, universities and institutes are improving their operations with new equipment.
“CPI recently completed the installation of a new pilot production scale photolithography line to allow clients to fabricate large area, flexible organic thin film transistor (OTFT) backplanes, which have the potential to be used for applications in displays, lighting, logic and photovoltaic applications,” Dr. Helliwell noted. “The high resolution wide area line has the ability to handle substrates of size 8 inch, 12 inch and GEN 2 scale (370mm x 470mm) in a cassette and enhances the current 4 to 8 inch manual load and single plate photolithography/etch capability at CPI.
“In addition to the pilot production scale photolithography line and the 300mm web R2R coater OLED coater, CPI has enhanced its Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) capability with the forthcoming installation of Beneq’s roll-to-roll ALD system for demanding moisture barrier applications,” Dr. Helliwell said.
“In terms of facilities, we expect a lot of the new Solliance building and clean rooms will be ready in 2014,” Snoeckx said. “It will house our OPV activities, for which we are currently developing a unique roll-to-roll research line. Other recent investments that are already in place are dedicated equipment for flexible displays and a Lesker tool that gives us a larger number of technology options to realize OLED demonstrators.”
“We have expanded our capabilities with the addition of a new NovaCentrix Sinteron 2000, Bruker white light interferometer microscope and atomic force microscope,” Aijazi said. “We continue to expand our inventory of press components and materials.”
Outlook for PE Research
With the ground-breaking work being done at universities and research institutes, the outlook is strong for printed electronics.
“We are currently seeking to further grow our collaborations with other universities within the U.S.,” Aijazi said. “Our unique lab and pilot facilities for printing, student talent and faculty expertise have been recognized by multiple universities, professional organizations, and state and federal agencies.”
“In the 12 to 18 month time frame, we expect the largest end user engagement from hybrid plastic and printed electronic systems,” Dr. Helliwell said. “Market applications will use conventional printing methods and ‘pick and place’ component techniques to connect up discrete components on a flexible substrate. Technological and scale up advances will be made from the benefits gained from consumer feedback on flexible and printed electronics. In the medium term (two to five years), these systems will increasingly use printing techniques for more than just the conductor interconnect layers. OLEDs, printed transistors, resistors and capacitors will enable large area integration at lower costs, building upon the earlier experience of user requirements.”
