Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (BMC)

Printed Electronics in Düsseldorf

IDTechEx announces Europe's largest annual Printed Electronics event which will take place in Düsseldorf, Germany on 5-6 April 2011.

Le Mans racing car uses OLED rear view mirrors

In this year's 24 hours Le Mans race (June 12-13), the ORECA01 car from French racing team Oreca will be using rear view mirrors with an integrated thin film encapsulated Flexible Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) on the back.

Imec and Holst Centre gas sensor chip leading to autonomous e-nose

Imec and Holst Centre have developed very sensitive integrated sensing elements for gas detection. The polymer-coated microbridges in high-density arrays can detect ppm-level concentrations of vapors using on-chip integrated read-out techniques.

Second day of Energy Harvesting Europe

The second day of the conference Energy Harvesting and Storage Europe was as rich with information and expert opinion as the first. Here are just few of the overall impressions given by the day's events.

Energy Harvesting & Storage and Wireless Sensor Networks, RTLS Preview

Only the IDTechEx "Energy Harvesting and Storage" events are paired with "Wireless Sensor Networks & RTLS", covering the systems most in need of energy harvesting.

PLACE-it makes lighting flat and flexible

Leading companies and institutes in lighting and flexible electronics, including Philips, Holst Centre/TNO, imec, Freudenberg, TU Berlin and more have joined forces to co-develop the route to integrate light into people's surroundings be it ceilings, walls, floors, furniture, soft furnishings, and even garments. The ultimate aim of this PLACE-it (Platform for Large Area Conformable Electronics by InTegration) initiative is to realize an industrial platform for thin, lightweight and flexible optoelectronics systems that will not only open new dimensions in product design, but will also create unique opportunities for on-body applications in healthcare and wellness.

Breakthroughs with sensing in the human body

Holst Centre and others are working on body area networking to monitor vital signs, control drug delivery according to need and otherwise progress towards bionic man and woman and care of the disabled and elderly. Unfortunately cutting into your body to change batteries brings with it a significant percentage of mortalities, not just pain and infection. Energy harvesting within the body is potentially helpful but biobatteries and thermoelectric generators provide only weak amounts of electricity in such applications.

Imec and partners start work on EU project PRIMA

Imec announces that it has started work, together with its project partners, on PRIMA, a project under the EU's 7th framework program for ICT (FP7). The project's goal is to improve the efficiency and cost of solar cells though the use of metallic nanostructures.

Breakthroughs with sensing in the human body

Holst Centre and others are working on body area networking to monitor vital signs, control drug delivery according to need and otherwise progress towards bionic man and woman and care of the disabled and elderly. Unfortunately cutting into your body to change batteries brings with it a significant percentage of mortalities, not just pain and infection. Energy harvesting within the body is potentially helpful but biobatteries and thermoelectric generators provide only weak amounts of electricity in such applications.

Portable, easy-to-wear mind speller typing words with your brain

Imec, Holst Centre and the lab of neuro- and psychophysiology at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven on the 23rd March presented the Mind Speller, a portable, easy-to-wear, intelligent textual and verbal communications prototype device enabling people with motoric disabilities (suffering from for example brain paralysis or speech or language disorders) to communicate.

The Holst Centre

The Holst Centre an R&D facility sponsored by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Government of Flanders is another step closer to fast roll to roll (R2R) manufacturing of flexible OLEDs, OPVs and Smart Packaging.

OE-A's 5th anniversary

With its 135 members all over the world, the OE-A has become a highly dynamic and constantly growing network of leading international companies and institutes in the past five years", said Wolfgang Mildner, Chairman of the OE-A and Managing Director, PolyIC GmbH & Co. KG, Germany, on the occasion of the 5th anniversary celebration of the OE-A - the industry association for organic and printed electronics - in late February at the Holst Centre in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. In December 2004, 35 members founded this working group within VDMA. "One of the founding principles of the OE-A five years ago was the goal to build an international industry association to jointly develop this future multi-billion Euro market", emphasized the Chairman of the OE-A. "Cooperation all along the value chain is essential in this phase; no company can achieve it alone."

Introduction of Coatema's new Minicoater at Printed Electronics Europe

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.

Imec, Holst Centre present ADC suited for low energy radios

At yesterday's International Solid State Circuit Conference, Imec and Holst Centre reported an ultra-low power 8 bit analog to digital convertor (ADC) consuming only 30fJ energy per conversion step.

Record performance of dual-gate organic TFT-based RFID circuit

At yesterday's International Solid State Circuit Conference (ISSCC), Holst Centre, Imec and TNO presented a dual-gate-based organic RFID chip with record data rate and lowest reported operating voltage.

Imec and Holst Centre achieve breakthrough in battery-less radios

At yesterday's International Solid State Circuit Conference, imec and Holst Centre reported a 2.4GHz/915MHz wake-up receiver which consumes only 51µW power.

Imec and Holst Centre at International Solid State Circuit Conference

At this week's International Solid State Circuit Conference, Imec and Holst Centre present their newest breakthroughs in ultra-low power design for wireless communications and wireless sensor networks, 3D design and inorganic electronics with an impressive number of contributions including 10 reviewed publications and 6 contributions to tutorials and workshops.

Imec, Holst Centre on ultra-low power heart activity signal processor

At yesterday's International Solid State Circuit Conference, imec and Holst Centre report an analog-signal processor ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) - in short ASP - that reduces the overall power consumption of an ambulatory heart activity signal monitoring systems by more than 5 times.