Industrial + Specialty Printing

Will printed electronics ever replace traditional electronics?

By Gail Flower

Printed Electronics Summit, May 10 - 11, 2010
Doubletree Hotel, San Jose, CA

Bruce Kahn, Ph.D., president, Printed Electronics Consulting, gave the chairman’s address. Terry Lovelatt, director of PE Futures, couldn’t make it because he was caught in Europe due to the volcanic ash that disturbed jetways out of the UK.

Will printed electronics ever replace traditional electronics? Randall Sherman, president, New Venture Research, said that photovoltaics is a leading application for printed electronics. Polysilicon is brittle, whereas thin film is less delicate and more flexible. He asked what would kick the printed-electronics industry into high gear, then claimed that OLEDs deliver higher performance and that 3D technology is the killer app.

Leaders in PE
Next, a discussion of which country takes the lead in printed electronics took place. Tom Morrow, VP at SEMI, said that SEMI has 1800 worldwide members who are involved in display manufacturing and printing for the printed-electronics sector, including: Agfa Printed Inks, Polymer Vision, Novaled, Solvay, Heidelberg, Man Roland, and others. In systems and products, SEMI members include Philips, Soligie, Novalia, Plastic Logic and more.

Furthermore, he claimed that among SEMI members, the European PE Eco-system has a strong R&D infrastructure including the Fraunhofer Institute, imec, the Host Center, and CEA. Imec alone has 1600 engineers, many of whom work on PE projects, he said. The European PE industry is well organized with multiple collaborations at the Plastics Electronics Foundation, VDMA, Quadriga, OPERA, PolyNet, ProPI, and PolyMap. OPERA and OEA have both produced technology roadmaps for PE. Furthermore, the European PE industry understands regional synergies. It is no wonder that Europe has taken the lead in building a broad-based printed electronics marketplace.

Bruce Kahn, speaking for the American point of view, said that there are many killer apps for printed electronics, including: glucose meters with printed test strips, displays, lighting, photovoltaics, transistors, and more. He agreed that the U.S. does have problems with low governmental support of printed electronics. However, the U.S. Army is behind the Flexible Display Center at Arizona State University. There are many start-ups in the U.S., many pioneers with some organization involved in PE.

Looking at the breakdown of who attended this PE Symposium (approximately 60 people), most offered materials and components (displays, PV, circuitry, RFID, etc.) to the industry ,and that’s where the growth lies in PE.