Advanced Materials

Last week, the Photonics and Plastic Electronics KTN put together a one day seminar that gave an overview of the activity in the UK on the topic of flexible organic and inorganic transistors. Speakers were representing both Universities around the country as well as companies that are developing transistor/backplane technologies. Inorganic, organic and hybrid versions are being developed in order to evaluate the performance of each type of device.

In the European PriMeBits project, a printable electric low-voltage non-volatile memory is being developed for printed sensor, media and wireless ID applications. The main strategy is to utilize printed technology where it has a competitive advantage compared to silicon technology. The project builds on basic research of new materials and components and takes the results into prototyping of new applications. To reduce the research risk, two different technologies for the memory functionality are considered with partially overlapping application areas.

A new EU-funded project POLARIC was launched in January 2010 to develop roll-to-roll printing of high-performance organic electronic circuits. The project will revolutionise the way printed electronic circuits are made by combining large-area fabrication methods with high-performance organic electronic circuits on a scale not previously attempted.

Printed Electronics Europe 2010 is one of the World's largest events on printed and organic electronics. Coatema Coating Machinery, one of the pioneers in these fields with installations at VTT, Holst Centre, IPMS Dresden, IAP Potsdam and several other leading R&D institutions worldwide is going to present a new development for small-scale, cost-efficient and multifunctional R&D roll to roll equipment.

Find out the most exciting advances and applications in the new world of stretchable, invisible, morphable, tightly rollable, edible and other previously impossible electronics.

An organic light-emitting electrochemical cell (LEC) could be a cheaper alternative to OLED technology.

Kovio and Nissan Chemical have announced a joint collaboration to scale up production of Kovio's silicon ink. In addition, Nissan Chemical is now working with leading display manufacturers to explore the use of high-performance and low-cost printed silicon electronics to manufacture TFT backplanes for displays.

A new generation of flat panel displays is being developed which may ultimately supersede Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs).

What started out as 'blue-sky' thinking by a group of European researchers could ultimately lead to the commercial mass production of a new generation of optoelectronic components for devices ranging from mobile laboratories to mobile phones.

In the annual report of $15 billion Japanese giant DNP, formerly Dai Nippon Printing announces the success of the development of ultra-impermeable plastic film substrates.