Building Supply Chains for Smart Packaging (Printed Electronics Europe 2014)

Shipments of smartphones overtook shipments of regular mobile phones in early 2013 (Source: IDC), with the majority now enabled with Near-Field Communication (NFC), enabling data exchange over a few centimetres. The wide availability of NFC is driving new applications such as electronic payments and can now be further extended to enable direct interaction between printed media (labels, posters, documents, packaging) with integrated electronics and smartphone. These new application concepts address the needs of marketing, games and anti-counterfeit, and also provide a platform to provide more complex thin-film electronics within smart packaging (e.g. food, medical) and supply-chain logistics (e.g. retail).

 

This talk will focus on providing information and progress update on an Integrated Smart Systems project called SCOPE (Supply-Chain Opportunity for Printable Electronics); a project that will open up a global supply-chain opportunity for NFC-based printed electronics for the UK. CPI is the lead partner in this £9.8M project that starts in early 2014 with duration of 2.5 years.

 

The project addresses a major barrier to the commercialisation of printable electronics, namely the establishment of large-scale manufacturing and technology transfer to multiple application sectors. End-users will define the product concepts and drive the upskilling and technology transfer to their supply-chain. Technology partners will demonstrate scalable routes to commercially viable products which incorporate printable electronics. R&D activities cover automation to enable high-speed integration compatible with print speeds

CPI's Printable Electronics Centre is a design, development and prototyping facility. We provide support in bringing new printable electronics products and processes to market quickly by offering facilities and expertise that help reduce our clients' level of R&D risk and capital investment.

 

Taking advantage of our state of the art deposition, patterning and printing equipment leads to faster, more efficient development and production enabling clients to enter new markets quickly and with minimal risk. CPI can accelerate new product development by providing access to proven performance conducting, semiconductor, resistive materials and inks.