Manufacturing

The traditional electronics manufacturing process is poised for a paradigm shift away from expensive photolithography toward inkjet technology. Carbon nanotubes are enabling this paradigm shift due to their high conductivity and nanoscale size. This combination enables the production of new inks that create the needed conductive paths at much smaller feature sizes than is currently possible.

A very interesting array of talks spread over 3 days brought together approximately 400 people interested in printed electronics and related technologies. On the opening day of the conference, Marc Bernstein from the Palo A lot research Center focused his presentation on the lessons learnt from the move from laboratory scale research to real world applications whereas John Pellegrino from the US Army research Labs, although primarily focused on "meeting the technology challenges for the soldier", highlighted efforts to accelerate the adoption of flexible electronics in the intersection of the military and commercial sectors.

Cambrios Technologies Corporation announced today that an important patent has issued covering commercially relevant methods of manufacturing metal nanostructures. U.S. Patent number 7,585,349 assigned to the University of Washington and covering an invention made by Younan Xia and Yougang Sun was licensed exclusively to Cambrios in its specific field of use.

Several organizations have demonstrated self assembling electronic devices but none have shown that high yield is possible over large areas. Now the University of Minnesota has developed a different self assembly approach to overcome that.

In a determined bid to take the e-paper market lead, PVI has collaborated with LCD display manufacturer Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO) who is looking to get a foothold in the industry.

FlexTech Alliance announces contract award for HP labs to develop imprinted and jetted color filters for reflective displays

Applied Materials begins shipments of world's largest, fastest, roll-to-roll vacuum coating systems.

Semiconductor production sites in Europe are important for the engineering industry

AGS15000 series Cartesian gantries provide outstanding performance and versatility in a wide range of automation platforms including precision micromachining, stencil cutting, fuel cell manufacturing, printed electronics, flat sheet processing, high-speed pick-and-place, automated assembly, vision inspection, dispensing stations, and high-accuracy inspection.

Imprint Lithography at the Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems in Dresden: Engineering and Volume Production of Nanometer Scale Devices and Systems

Aerotech NanoTranslation (ANT95-L, ANT95-L-H) cross-roller bearing stages combine high speed, accuracy, resolution, repeatability, and reliability into a compact package.

ICI Imagedata demonstrates Stabilex Ultra stabilised film at the Printed Electronics Show 2008 in Dresden (7-8 April) following successful launch in San Jose.

Dr Zella King, Senior Lecturer and AIM Innovation Fellow at the University of Reading, UK, has conducted a detailed study of plastic electronics in the UK. The project is funded by the UK's Economic and Social Research Council and is one of a series of projects considering options for public policy to increase levels of innovation in the UK.

Analysts see printed electronics rising exponentially to around $300 billion in twenty years' time, with demand for conductive inks alone reaching several billion dollars yearly five years from now.

ImageXpert has recently developed two products that allow for a broader range of printed electronic part inspection.

Polymer Vision, a spin out of Royal Philips Electronics, announced first production level rollable electrophoretic displays from its recently acquired manufacturing facility, Polymer Vision (UK) Ltd in Southampton, England - previously owned by Southampton University and called Innos.

On 20 November, the Printed Electronics Arena had a one day meeting in Norrkoping Science Park Sweden

Consumer electronics will mostly be made by printing in the years to come, but the interesting question is whether it will be poisonous either at the level of the factory or the level of the user?

There is a much more balanced situation across the world when it comes to development and production of printed electronic and electric devices.

Plextronics, Inc. announced last week that it has completed a $20.6 million Series B financing. The round is led by Solvay North America Investments, LLC, a member of the Solvay Group, an international chemical and pharmaceutical group headquartered in Brussels.

Overall, Europe may be losing the race for the huge new business of printed electronics and the rejuvenation of society that it will bring. This is despite having far more academic institutions than East Asia working on the subject, the number being comparable to the number in the USA.

The market for organic and printed electronics will rise from $1.18 billion in 2007 to over $300 billion in 20 years, becoming a huge business as the technology offers many different benefits. Here Raghu Das, CEO of IDTechEx, reveals market forecasts and opportunities based on the new IDTechEx report Organic & Printed Electronics Forecasts, Players & Opportunities 2007-2027.

Staffan Nordlinder, Acreo, Sweden at Printed Electronics USA 2005