David Savastano, Editor07.28.10
There is tremendous potential for printed electronics (PE), but while work continues on the so-called “killer applications,” there is also a serious need to get products into the hands of the consumers.
prelonic technologies GmbH, a Linz, Austria-based PE manufacturer, has taken that approach to heart. Earlier this year, prelonic launched its Kwizzcard, what the company calls the first fully printed electronic game card. The Kwizzcard is flexible, ultra-thin and incorporates a printed battery, 10 printed push buttons and two printed displays.
By utilizing prelonic’s PE capabilities, promotional product designers will be able to features to existing products like game cards, fridge magnets, loyalty program cards, collector cards and “in-magazine” and “on-packaging” promotions. While the Kwizzcard is currently produced in sheets, prelonic is ready to move into roll-to-roll production.
“With the Kwizzcard, we show our capabilities and proof that printed electronics technology is ready for mass production,” said Dr. Friedrich Eibensteiner, CEO of prelonic. “Lower volumes are produced on sheets, but on midterm we target roll to roll production, and we are well equipped for that.
“The Kwizzcard was the first development using displays, battery, circuitry and push buttons and realizing a function, such as a game or information,” Dr. Eibensteiner added.
prelonic has created a wide range of products for the PE field. In particular, prelonic focuses on flexible zinc/manganese printed batteries ranging from 1.5 volts to 6 volts, as well as PEDOT-based printed electrochromic displays. The company also produces printed metal conductors using either silver flakes or a carbon paste; printed RFID battery/antenna modules; and printed push buttons.
This allows prelonic to utilize multiple technologies in a single product.
“prelonic closes the gap between the huge number of companies developing single elements and the need of the market for integrating in most applications more than one product,” Dr. Eibensteiner said.
“At the moment we are working on the mass process for such modules,” Dr. Eibensteiner added. “On base technology, we are working on the direct bonding of microcontrollers to foils – a fast and cheap process – to be able to produce hybrid modules with more complex function.”
Thanks to its approach, prelonic has been enjoying success in the market. Last October, prelonic moved to its new home in Linz-Urfahr, which features 550 square meters of lab and production space and enough buildings for future expansion.
The new fab offers enough space for machinery and staff. prelonic sees the future at this location. "We will build up production lines for sheet and roll-to-roll production at this location,” Dr. Eibensteiner said. “We expect the fab to be sufficient for next two to three years, but then it will be necessary to occupy a new area. But we reserved enough space in the building complex to be flexible also in the future.”
Reaching the market with entry-level products and providing designers with an idea of what PE can accomplish are two key goals for prelonic. Dr. Eibensteiner, who co-founded prelonic with Heinz Durstberger in 2007, knows the importance of bringing simpler products to the market.
“I am a chemist, and was for some years working in the printing and electronics world,” Dr. Eibensteiner said. “I identified printed electronics as the fusion of three disciplines: chemistry, electronics and printing. Before prelonic, I was building up and leading the production facility of Nanoident technologies, and they went bankrupt two years after I left them.
“What I learned at Nanoident was that to target highly sophisticated, complex, new high tech products takes you some 10 years and you burn a lot of money to get there, and they were not successful,” he added. “When I left them and founded prelonic, I decided that prelonic should focus on market-ready elements and combine them with products. That led to the prelonic approach: let’s integrate the used elements via printing.”
With that approach in mind, prelonic is targeting three markets in particular: marketing, utilizing simple battery and display modules, including giveaways and greeting cards; active RFID modules that are battery and sensor assisted, but with a classical silicon chip; and one-way diagnostic cards, combining display, battery, sensor, logics and circuitry, for use for testing blood or environmental parameters or food analysis.
“These three markets represent in the order described an increasing market,” Dr. Eibensteiner noted. “Marketing material is a huge market itself, easier to access than the other two, but with high diversity and therefore the scale up is more difficult than RFID. Getting down costs to below €1 for a one-way data logger for different parameters will offer a huge application field with a billion dollar market.
“The third market, the diagnostic cards, shows a market potential which is living from the change of lifestyle,” he added. “People are more and more consulting the ‘internet doctor’ and are doing their own diagnostics, educating themselves via the internet, and do not trust specialists. They are looking for the means to do their own investigations. And once established, these cards will also be used by the specialists and substitute some expensive analytical equipment. The potential application field of these cards is so huge, we can't guess it.”
By utilizing prelonic’s PE capabilities, promotional product designers will be able to features to existing products like game cards, fridge magnets, loyalty program cards, collector cards and “in-magazine” and “on-packaging” promotions. While the Kwizzcard is currently produced in sheets, prelonic is ready to move into roll-to-roll production.
“With the Kwizzcard, we show our capabilities and proof that printed electronics technology is ready for mass production,” said Dr. Friedrich Eibensteiner, CEO of prelonic. “Lower volumes are produced on sheets, but on midterm we target roll to roll production, and we are well equipped for that.
“The Kwizzcard was the first development using displays, battery, circuitry and push buttons and realizing a function, such as a game or information,” Dr. Eibensteiner added.
prelonic has created a wide range of products for the PE field. In particular, prelonic focuses on flexible zinc/manganese printed batteries ranging from 1.5 volts to 6 volts, as well as PEDOT-based printed electrochromic displays. The company also produces printed metal conductors using either silver flakes or a carbon paste; printed RFID battery/antenna modules; and printed push buttons.
This allows prelonic to utilize multiple technologies in a single product.
“At the moment we are working on the mass process for such modules,” Dr. Eibensteiner added. “On base technology, we are working on the direct bonding of microcontrollers to foils – a fast and cheap process – to be able to produce hybrid modules with more complex function.”
Thanks to its approach, prelonic has been enjoying success in the market. Last October, prelonic moved to its new home in Linz-Urfahr, which features 550 square meters of lab and production space and enough buildings for future expansion.
The new fab offers enough space for machinery and staff. prelonic sees the future at this location. "We will build up production lines for sheet and roll-to-roll production at this location,” Dr. Eibensteiner said. “We expect the fab to be sufficient for next two to three years, but then it will be necessary to occupy a new area. But we reserved enough space in the building complex to be flexible also in the future.”
Reaching the market with entry-level products and providing designers with an idea of what PE can accomplish are two key goals for prelonic. Dr. Eibensteiner, who co-founded prelonic with Heinz Durstberger in 2007, knows the importance of bringing simpler products to the market.
“What I learned at Nanoident was that to target highly sophisticated, complex, new high tech products takes you some 10 years and you burn a lot of money to get there, and they were not successful,” he added. “When I left them and founded prelonic, I decided that prelonic should focus on market-ready elements and combine them with products. That led to the prelonic approach: let’s integrate the used elements via printing.”
With that approach in mind, prelonic is targeting three markets in particular: marketing, utilizing simple battery and display modules, including giveaways and greeting cards; active RFID modules that are battery and sensor assisted, but with a classical silicon chip; and one-way diagnostic cards, combining display, battery, sensor, logics and circuitry, for use for testing blood or environmental parameters or food analysis.
“These three markets represent in the order described an increasing market,” Dr. Eibensteiner noted. “Marketing material is a huge market itself, easier to access than the other two, but with high diversity and therefore the scale up is more difficult than RFID. Getting down costs to below €1 for a one-way data logger for different parameters will offer a huge application field with a billion dollar market.
“The third market, the diagnostic cards, shows a market potential which is living from the change of lifestyle,” he added. “People are more and more consulting the ‘internet doctor’ and are doing their own diagnostics, educating themselves via the internet, and do not trust specialists. They are looking for the means to do their own investigations. And once established, these cards will also be used by the specialists and substitute some expensive analytical equipment. The potential application field of these cards is so huge, we can't guess it.”