David Savastano, Editor01.05.11
Last week, we looked back at how acquisitions and financial investments are helping key printed electronics companies move ahead in the field.
However, money does not tell the whole story. Without products that are tangible, there would be no interest in investing money in the first place.
During the past year, a number of PE manufacturers and their suppliers have made headway in terms of developing new products and potentially heading into production. Universities and start-ups alike are coming up with new ideas all the time; sometimes it just seems one’s imagination is the limit.
What, then, have been the a few of the major advances that signal good opportunities for printed electronics?
Smart Packaging and Printed Batteries
PE has done well in the fields of packaging and greeting cards. For example, Nano ePrint Limited, a specialist in the design and manufacturing of planar nano-electronics, announced that in partnership with Novalia Ltd., it is developing all-printed electronic greeting cards for Tigerprint Ltd., a subsidiary of Hallmark. The company is discussing these concepts with a variety of consumer goods and packaging companies.
In July, GSI Technologies and NTERA announced they successfully demonstrated the first hot-laminated display card modules using NanoChromics display (NCD) technology. It is printed on a flexible substrate, and driven by a conventional, off-the-shelf microcontroller chip.
Printechnologics, a 3M New Ventures funded company, announced the availability of its “AirCode touch” technology, which uses existing multi-touch smart phone displays to read invisible digital information printed on paper, cardboard or foils. “AirCode touch” can be used for a broad variety of marketing and consumer information applications. The data tags can be printed on standard offset printing systems allowing very low production cost.
prelonic technologies GmbH 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.
Thin Film Electronics ASA, a provider of advanced printed memory technology, and Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) are working together to provide next-generation memory technology enabled through PE.
Kovio, Inc. and Nissan Chemical Industries, Ltd. (NCI) announced a joint collaboration and development agreement. NCI will commercially produce Kovio's proprietary silicon ink technology and supply Kovio with silicon ink products for its RF products.
Perhaps the most interesting news occurred at Pack Expo International 2010, where Graphic Packaging International (GPI), one of the world’s largest producers of folding cartons and a global leader in coated, recycled boxboard and specialty bag packaging, was named a finalist in the “Package of the Future” competition, a key component of Project 2020: The Consumer Experience.
Working with Blue Spark Technologies, a leader in the printed battery field, and Novalia, a leading PE designer, GPI produced a box of cookies that transforms into an interactive toy fire truck after the cookies are consumed.
Photovoltaics
The field of thin-film photovoltaics saw more growth in the past year, both in terms of new efficiency standards and in production. On the printing side, Heliovolt announced that it reached 11.5 percent CIGS module efficiency in December.
MiaSolé reported that U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) independently confirmed the 15.7% efficiency of its large area production modules (one square meter in size).
Innovalight, a specialist in silicon ink-based high efficiency solar cell materials and technology, announced that the company achieved a new record of 19 percent conversion efficiency with silicon ink-processed solar cells. The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) in Germany, an official independent solar cell testing center, also measured the results on industry standard size cells made by Innovalight.
Organic photovoltaics (OPV) are a much more recent technology development that offers opportunity for printing solar cells. In July, Solarmer Energy achieved a then-new world record of 8.13% for their organic photovoltaic (OPV) cell efficiency, certified by NREL. More recently, Konarka Technologies reported that NREL certified that Konarka’s OPV solar cells demonstrated 8.3% efficiency, while Heliatek GmbH also reached an efficiency of 8.3% on an active surface area of 1.1 cm2, independently confirmed by the Fraunhofer ISE CalLab.
On the production side, Nanosolar announcing the expansion of its San Jose, CA printed CIGS solar cell factory to 115MW nameplate capacity in early fall. Odersun launched its second thin-film CIS solar factory, SunTwo. In May, Ascent Solar Technologies announced that it successfully began initial production of monolithically integrated flexible CIGS modules from its high volume FAB 2 production plant in Thornton, CO. Ascent Solar also received an R&D 100 Award for its flexible CIGS on plastic substrates.
Displays
Displays have been an important opportunity for PE, and gains were made in this field as well. Color display technology moved forward in 2010. In early 2010, Liquavista BV launched LiquavistaColor, which offers bright full color capability and the advantages of full interactivity and hi-fidelity video at ultra-low power to future advanced eReader devices for the first time. E Ink Holding announced the release of its next generation display technology, E Ink Triton, which enables color e-paper solutions.
MFLEX announced that Pelikon’s MorphPad technology has been integrated into the Toshiba Biblio ebook reader mobile phone, which features a touch screen with a slide-out keyboard using MorphPad display as a numeric keypad in the portrait orientation that automatically morphs into a full QWERTY keypad in landscape mode. MorphPad displays can use various colors, set on a black background, providing high contrast and visual impact using SmartInk technology.
Universal Display announced significant advances in the performance of its UniversalP2OLED solution-processible, phosphorescent OLED material systems for use with solution-based manufacturing processes. Through the development of optimized ink formulations, the company has also demonstrated inkjet printed P2OLED devices with comparable performance to devices made by spin-coating.
Add-Vision has also moved forward this year, as its printed P-OLED technology continues to make progress in terms of device lifetimes and manufacturability.
There are many other new applications for PE, and it is certain that more lie ahead in 2011.
Photo courtesy of Thin Film Electronics. |
During the past year, a number of PE manufacturers and their suppliers have made headway in terms of developing new products and potentially heading into production. Universities and start-ups alike are coming up with new ideas all the time; sometimes it just seems one’s imagination is the limit.
What, then, have been the a few of the major advances that signal good opportunities for printed electronics?
Smart Packaging and Printed Batteries
PE has done well in the fields of packaging and greeting cards. For example, Nano ePrint Limited, a specialist in the design and manufacturing of planar nano-electronics, announced that in partnership with Novalia Ltd., it is developing all-printed electronic greeting cards for Tigerprint Ltd., a subsidiary of Hallmark. The company is discussing these concepts with a variety of consumer goods and packaging companies.
In July, GSI Technologies and NTERA announced they successfully demonstrated the first hot-laminated display card modules using NanoChromics display (NCD) technology. It is printed on a flexible substrate, and driven by a conventional, off-the-shelf microcontroller chip.
Printechnologics, a 3M New Ventures funded company, announced the availability of its “AirCode touch” technology, which uses existing multi-touch smart phone displays to read invisible digital information printed on paper, cardboard or foils. “AirCode touch” can be used for a broad variety of marketing and consumer information applications. The data tags can be printed on standard offset printing systems allowing very low production cost.
prelonic technologies GmbH 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.
Thin Film Electronics ASA, a provider of advanced printed memory technology, and Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) are working together to provide next-generation memory technology enabled through PE.
Kovio, Inc. and Nissan Chemical Industries, Ltd. (NCI) announced a joint collaboration and development agreement. NCI will commercially produce Kovio's proprietary silicon ink technology and supply Kovio with silicon ink products for its RF products.
Perhaps the most interesting news occurred at Pack Expo International 2010, where Graphic Packaging International (GPI), one of the world’s largest producers of folding cartons and a global leader in coated, recycled boxboard and specialty bag packaging, was named a finalist in the “Package of the Future” competition, a key component of Project 2020: The Consumer Experience.
Working with Blue Spark Technologies, a leader in the printed battery field, and Novalia, a leading PE designer, GPI produced a box of cookies that transforms into an interactive toy fire truck after the cookies are consumed.
Photovoltaics
The field of thin-film photovoltaics saw more growth in the past year, both in terms of new efficiency standards and in production. On the printing side, Heliovolt announced that it reached 11.5 percent CIGS module efficiency in December.
MiaSolé reported that U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) independently confirmed the 15.7% efficiency of its large area production modules (one square meter in size).
Innovalight, a specialist in silicon ink-based high efficiency solar cell materials and technology, announced that the company achieved a new record of 19 percent conversion efficiency with silicon ink-processed solar cells. The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) in Germany, an official independent solar cell testing center, also measured the results on industry standard size cells made by Innovalight.
Organic photovoltaics (OPV) are a much more recent technology development that offers opportunity for printing solar cells. In July, Solarmer Energy achieved a then-new world record of 8.13% for their organic photovoltaic (OPV) cell efficiency, certified by NREL. More recently, Konarka Technologies reported that NREL certified that Konarka’s OPV solar cells demonstrated 8.3% efficiency, while Heliatek GmbH also reached an efficiency of 8.3% on an active surface area of 1.1 cm2, independently confirmed by the Fraunhofer ISE CalLab.
On the production side, Nanosolar announcing the expansion of its San Jose, CA printed CIGS solar cell factory to 115MW nameplate capacity in early fall. Odersun launched its second thin-film CIS solar factory, SunTwo. In May, Ascent Solar Technologies announced that it successfully began initial production of monolithically integrated flexible CIGS modules from its high volume FAB 2 production plant in Thornton, CO. Ascent Solar also received an R&D 100 Award for its flexible CIGS on plastic substrates.
Displays
Displays have been an important opportunity for PE, and gains were made in this field as well. Color display technology moved forward in 2010. In early 2010, Liquavista BV launched LiquavistaColor, which offers bright full color capability and the advantages of full interactivity and hi-fidelity video at ultra-low power to future advanced eReader devices for the first time. E Ink Holding announced the release of its next generation display technology, E Ink Triton, which enables color e-paper solutions.
MFLEX announced that Pelikon’s MorphPad technology has been integrated into the Toshiba Biblio ebook reader mobile phone, which features a touch screen with a slide-out keyboard using MorphPad display as a numeric keypad in the portrait orientation that automatically morphs into a full QWERTY keypad in landscape mode. MorphPad displays can use various colors, set on a black background, providing high contrast and visual impact using SmartInk technology.
Universal Display announced significant advances in the performance of its UniversalP2OLED solution-processible, phosphorescent OLED material systems for use with solution-based manufacturing processes. Through the development of optimized ink formulations, the company has also demonstrated inkjet printed P2OLED devices with comparable performance to devices made by spin-coating.
Add-Vision has also moved forward this year, as its printed P-OLED technology continues to make progress in terms of device lifetimes and manufacturability.
There are many other new applications for PE, and it is certain that more lie ahead in 2011.