Parker Hannifin

Haptic feedback for touch screen devices

More and more consumer electronics devices feature a touch screen, which is already considered a must have for new devices. The next big topic will be haptic feedback solutions outperforming the poor vibration-based feedback that is the standard today. Adding haptic and sound feedback to touch screens using electro active polymers (EAPs) will be a featured topic at TCF LIVE Europe 2013 .

Printed Electronics for EVs - The money floods in

Printed electronics is now seeing a surge in transactions in the form of orders, government and industry-funded development programs, acquisitions and company fund raising.

Printed electronics for energy harvesting - the money floods in

Printed electronics is now seeing a surge in transactions in the form of orders, government and industry-funded development programs, acquisitions and company fund raising.

Printed Electronics - The money floods in

Printed electronics is now seeing a surge in transactions in the form of orders, government and industry-funded development programs, acquisitions and company fund raising.

New film technologies for printed polymer electronics developed

Bayer MaterialScience has developed extensive technology know-how and a wide range of materials for printing polycarbonate films.

The truly integrated circuit is printed and flexible

For 40 years, so called integrated circuits have integrated little more than transistors, diodes and sensors onto one piece of material but now there are much more integrated circuits arriving where most electrical and electronic components are co-deposited on flexible substrates. Those flexible substrates are key, because this new electronics will be affordable and desirable on everything from apparel to human skin and electrical and consumer packaged goods, where surfaces are only rarely flat.

Progress at Artificial Muscle

IDTechEx recently visited Artificial Muscle in Sunnyvale, CA. The company develops, designs and manufactures actuators, sensors, and power generation components based on electroactive polymers. The main focus of the company today is on haptic feedback systems - i.e. systems that give the user a physical response to the touch. Conventionally, metal dome switches are employed in keypads, for example, to provide sensory feedback to the user when something has been pressed. However, with the move to touch screen displays, the haptic response is lacking.

Electroactive polymers in Sweden and USA

In Sweden, Micromuscle AB relies on ionic effects in polymers whereas the acrylics and silicones of Artificial Muscle Inc of the USA, that can be stretched to 1000 times the area, rely on the electroactive forces in a capacitor-like structure with around 1200 volts applied.