It has been an interesting time for the flexible, hybrid and printed electronics industry. For a long time, there have been products that have reached commercialization - printed glucose sensors and printed car heaters being among the most successful - but many other items were niche products.

In a way, the past year has seen far more growth in the various markets - automotive, healthcare, sensors and more – with more growth coming in the future. RFID, long a successful market, is now branching out into more commercial applications.

In Mold Electronics

In-mold electronics (IME) has become a key opportunity, particularly in the automotive sector, although PassiveBolt uses IME for the inner workings of its Shepherd Lock system.

According to PassiveBolt CEO Kabir Maiga, the idea of Shepherd Lock is similar to that of certain luxury cars today. The driver has a key fob in their possession and can touch the front door of their vehicle to unlock it. The smart lock offers security aspects, ease of use and an app for monitoring the lock. The Shepherd Lock was awarded a CES 2020 Innovation Award.

“PassiveBolt started out as a project within Continental, where my core team designed automotive keyless entry technologies that allow you to lock or unlock your vehicle with a single touch on the door handle as long as you have your key fob on you,” Maiga noted. “The feedback we kept getting from consumers was that they wanted that same convenience with their front door.

“Typically, when you get to your front door, you’re digging for your keys,” Maiga added. “We set out to extend that convenience from the vehicle to the front door. In the process, something that started off as a project in Continental became the basis for PassiveBolt, which was spun off from Continental.”

Both the cover and the inner workings, including the mechatronics and LEDs, are produced using TactoTek’s screenprinted IMSE (in-mold structural electronics).

“We are a B2B company, and if you want to be able to customize the faceplate, you have to be able to separate the aesthetics from the electronics. By making our cover removable, we allow our B2B partners to customize the cover while we maintain the mechatronic unit and achieve economies of scale,” Maiga said.

“Since we needed some level of electronics, including the LED feedback, the solution was to make the unit part of the plastic,” he noted. “IMSE seems to the right solution for that. When the cover is removed, the in-molded unit looks like part of the aesthetic piece, and it also gives you access to the batteries without needing a screwdriver., IMSE does support touch technology, and we were able to embed a sensor and support LED technology. It also is scalable. It is just a fantastic way to go.”

Sensors

Tekscan has been manufacturing printed sensors since the mid-1980s, when it launched T-Scan, its dental occlusion analysis sensor. Tekscan CTO Rob Podoloff discussed a recent project with The Masitek Corporation.

“The Masitek Corporation is a notable partner of ours, specifically their MMAAZZ division,” Podoloff said. “We worked with them on their fill-line impact-monitoring product called the PressureQC. The company instrumented an ultra-thin sleeve fitted with force sensors to wrap around a model bottle or can. As that force-sensitive bottle or can proceeds through the fill line process, the force-sensitive matrix would monitor any excessive impacts or abrasions that could potentially lead to damaged products, and wirelessly report that information back to the fill-line operator. This product helps make fill-line operations more efficient while improving the operation’s bottom line.”

Environmental Sensors

Environmental monitoring is an interesting opportunity for flexible and printed electronics. The idea of putting low-cost sensors into buildings to monitor temperature, humidity and other environmental factors is promising.

Recently, InviSense AB announced that it is partnering with Ynvisible Interactive Inc., establishing Ynvisible as the preferred manufacturing partner for InviSense’s expanding range of humidity sensors. The companies jointly announced that the first result of this collaboration will be the roll-to-roll production and delivery of InviSense’s humidity sensor for flat roofs. These sensors will be deployed by SLD – Professional Roof Management Group, as a part of their moisture monitoring system for flat roofs for all their clients, first in Europe and later in the US.

InviSense’s passive moisture sensor is placed behind the sealing layers in building constructions and can be monitored for moisture damage. To monitor the moisture, you need the InviSense moisture scanner and InviSense Cloud to collect the data.

“The need for very thin, passive (no battery) wireless monitoring moisture sensors came from PEAB, a Swedish builder, after a lot of mistakes in some projects in Stockholm in 2005,” said Björn Garplind, CEO of InviSense AB, who is co-owner along with Anders Friberg. “They contacted Linkoping University (LiU), which has the Printed Electronic Arena, a testbed in Norrkoping for organic printed electronics, with their needs. LiU started to research and had proven its thesis in 2009.

Then RISE (Research Institute of Sweden) continued the research and looked for an entrepreneur and found me,” he added. “We had to redesign, change materials and the method of production to make it possible to commercialize.”

Garplind noted that there are some important advantages of using printed electronics for producing sensors. “They are thin (< 0,1 mm), scalable, sustainable, and can be produced through roll-to-roll production,” he added.

SPEC Sensors LLC recently launched its SPARROW sensors, which detect carbon monoxide at low levels and connect to a smartphone, allowing real-time monitoring.

“There is great interest in measuring gases and other parameters transdermally and flexible or conformal sensors would make some pretty exciting devices possible,” said Ed Stetter, SPEC Sensors LLC’s GM. “The truly revolutionary high volume products will likely be for flexible sensors.”

As for the future, at NextFlex’s annual Innovation Day, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) showed a biosensor it is developing for space travel.

“Our printed electronics applications include gas sensors (crew cabin air quality monitoring, gas leaks), biosensors (crew health monitoring, water quality monitoring), humidity sensors, radiation sensors, antennas, supercapacitors, energy scavenging devices to generate sufficient energy to run the sensors (which require only megawatt (mW) level power) such as triboelectric power generation, and many others,” said Dr. Meyya Meyyappan, chief scientist for exploration technology at NASA Ames Research Center.

While NASA does not manufacture products, many of its innovations become everyday items. For example, some of the technologies developed for the moon landing – smoke detectors and cordless power tools come to mind – have since become household products. The newest generation of products may someday join that list.

“All of the above have significant commercial potential as you can see,” Dr. Meyyappan concluded. “For example, gas sensors are needed for indoor and outdoor air quality monitoring, industrial leak monitoring and breath analysis. Biosensors have numerous applications in healthcare and environmental monitoring. Our IP generally gets transferred to US industries via licensing.”

RFID and Retailers

The use of RFID in the apparel industry has long been documented. Over the years, it evolved from the “jeans wall” where retailers used RFID tags to put jeans back into the right stacks to today, when brands use RFID to determine what inventory sells and even to communicate with consumers.

For some innovative brands, the ability to connect and communicate with their customers is particularly important.

Kraft Heinz recently launched its “Find the KRAFT Golden Singles” reward scratch game at Walmart. Working with Identiv, NXP Semiconductors and TPG Rewards, Identiv’s NFC-enabled tags were embedded into KRAFT Singles 24-count instant redeemable coupon labels.

“It took our team roughly nine months to work through the complexities of bringing this first-of-its-kind test to market,” said TJ Palladino, shopper marketing manager at Kraft Heinz. Ultimately, the goal of the project was “a simple business objective: Excite and delight shoppers to purchase KRAFT Singles,” according to Palladino.

“As the technology becomes more commonplace, this trend will continue,” Palladino said. “Brands will always look for ways to connect and engage with consumers, especially through mobile. NFC technology simplifies the barrier of engagement.”

“Walmart gave KRAFT Cheese premium floor space due to the excitement around NFC and even increased the number of stores participating in the promotion,” said Shaun Stigall, director, strategic accounts at Identiv. “Additionally, early results show a correlation between stores with an increased sales lift in that particular product and the stores that feature the NFC program.”

Mammut Sports Group AG, a major Switzerland-based outdoor brand, embedded Smartrac’s Circus Flex NFC tags, equipped with the NXP NTAG 213 IC, into some of its outdoor products last year. Now, nearly a year later, Mammut is happy with the results and is planning on enabling NFC throughout its portfolio.

Tim Hegglin, head of corporate communications, Mammut Sports Group AG, said that the ability to connect with consumers allows the company to better serve their customers.

“Mammut connects with consumers and learns more about the needs of our consumers to offer purposeful services and value adds,” he observed.

Through the Mammut Connect app, consumers can tap their smartphones on the product’s NFC touchpoint. The app then provides digital content and services to the customers. Retailers can gather product information to enhance sales.

“In summer 2019, approximately 30 products came with NFC tags, and that number will expand to 80 products in the winter, and then to 120 products by next summer,” Hegglin concluded. “In the long term, Mammut plans to roll out nearly the entire product portfolio, and to further develop the Mammut Connect app to offer more experiences.”

Prüne, a family-owned fashion business in Argentina, works with Zebra Technologies and the Smart Retail solution of Telectrónica to make sure customers are happy with their products.

“We use RFID technology in all our operational processes, from product manufacturing to the store,” Mercedes Marques, project manager for Prüne, observed. “When a product is manufactured, it is identified with an RFID tag and controlled through all the supply chain (reception, picking and dispatch). In this way, we obtain visibility and absolute traceability on each item within our operation.

“Customers who visit our stores feel satisfied for two main reasons,” Marques observed. “They always find the product they want to buy, and they find an available staff member to assist and advise them. At the same time, for those who make purchases through e-commerce and choose to pick-up the order in the store, they can do it in a few minutes after completing their transaction. This is something that without RFID would never have been possible.”