Printed, Flexible and Organic Electronics

Printed Electronics, being thin film silicon or inorganic or organic semiconductors, can be used to form Thin Film Transistor Circuits (TFTCs), such as replacing the functionality of simple silicon chips. TFTCs also employ thin film conductors and dielectrics and the ultimate objective is to make many different components at the same time - such as displays, batteries, sensors, microphones etc using the same materials or at least the same deposition techniques thus saving cost and improving reliability. Some TFTCs will be capable of covering large areas to affordably form electronic billboards, smart shelves and so on. They will be lightweight, rugged and mechanically flexible. Often they will be made by rapid, high-volume reel-to-reel processing even forming a part of regular printing processes for graphics. These circuits will be cheap enough to permit electronics where envisaged silicon chips are always or almost always too expensive, where multiple components and needed, and where silicon is impracticle (e.g. not flexible, brittle, thick etc).