Masterclasses

In the early years of printed electronics it was believed that one printing technology might be optimal for a given device such as a transistor circuit or flexible display. It was felt that the inks used would be almost entirely organic in nature. However, life has not proved that simple and most manufacturers and putative manufacturers are now using a variety of printing technologies for the various layers in a given device in order to optimize performance and cost.

Indeed, it is even common to combine printing of certain layers with spin coating, vacuum deposition and other non-printing technologies for other layers of a given device. Some thin film circuits even incorporate a silicon chip as an interim stage.

Another complication is that the active layers in thin film transistors, photovoltaics and other devices now commonly incorporate combined organic and inorganic substances, some in nanoparticle, carbon fullerene or other form.

All this means that there is a place for ink jet printing but also the various reel to reel printing technologies such as gravure, flexo and rotary screen. However, each must be customized to purpose.

This Masterclass demystifies the how, where, why and what next, bringing the subject alive with many real world examples.

The new electronics world of printed electronics can utilize any solution-based material including organic semiconductors, inorganic semiconductors, metallic conductors, nanoparticles, nanotubes and more. This technical masterclass looks at the full range of these different materials, comparing for each one the available chemistries, performance, cost, printability, lifetime and multiple other parameters. The impact of using different print techniques (inkjet, gravure, etc) and substrates (paper, plastic, glass, etc) are also considered from the materials perspective. Who are the major suppliers of materials by type? What are the biggest material challenges? What are the latest emerging materials capable of achieving? It is all covered here by experts in material development. From organic semiconductors to liquid silicon to quantum dots - attend this masterclass to understand the full range of materials, their strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and much more.

This masterclass is designed to give an overall picture of photovoltaic technologies, from basic principles all the way to current advances. The masterclass is structured as follows:

a. Photovoltaics: Basic principles and operation. Heterojunctions

b. After an overview of underlying principles, further details will be given on specific technologies:

• Organic and hybrid organic/inorganic photovoltaics

• Dye-sensitised solar cells, and

• Thin film technologies (e.g. amorphous silicon, CdTe, CIGS)

• III-V/ II-VI multijunctions

c. Advances/ Cutting Edge Applications

d. Market Analysis

 

Displays will be one of the largest market segments in printed/organic electronics. For example, Samsung has invested over $500 million in developing next generation OLED displays. Already 70% of the MP3 flash memory music devices use an OLED display. However, OLEDs are just the tip of the iceberg with electroluminescent, electrophoretic and electrochromic displays with unique benefits being commercially used now. Within ten years we will also see another major development - conventional lighting being replaced with lighting that is laminar and flexible.

This masterclass, led by experts in the field, will guide you through the full range of technologies, market opportunities and challenges, and issues to be resolved. The IP situation will also be covered as will companies in the value chain, along with their positioning and strengths.

Printed and potentially printed electronics is creating many new products given the benefits of the technology compared to conventional electronics, such as thinness, flexibility, cost, ease of manufacture, fast production turn around, "green" technology, power efficiency and more. However there is a right way and a wrong way to do this. For example incremental improvements to existing products are usually failures or at least take a long time to turn profit.

There is increasing work to look beyond replacing conventional electronics such as competing with LCD displays and silicon chip RFID tags, where the price erosion makes the benefits of printed electronics less obvious. Instead we now have smart skin patches using printed batteries, e-book readers - creating a new market, audio paper, moving bill board posters and much more. This innovation even apply to woven electronics and many other new applications. The difficulty of entering such areas has been lack of creativity. Designers, advertisers, branded goods companies, appliance manufactures, medical device companies will mostly not even know what printed electronics is, yet they are needed to envisage new products capable today with the current state of printed electronics. This new masterclass aims at covering these topics. We will cover key vertical industries and how they could benefit from the technology, the strategy your company should look at to go to market and assessment of timelines to market. You will learn from companies that have successfully created new markets with simple printed electronics today and how they have done it. In particular, hear from early adopters too.

 

RFID is rapidly taking off for a wide range of applications, with the 1.3 billion tags shipped in 2006 rising to over 500 billion tags in 2016. The endgame is the item level tagging of ten trillion items every year and Ubiquitous Sensor Networks USN with at least billions of tags yearly but both call for ultra low-cost. In the case of item tagging they will cost little more than a barcode does today. For Ubiquitous Sensor Networks they must be self powered and under 50 cents each.
 

 

 

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