At the 13th IDTechEx Printed Electronics Europe conference and exhibition, four companies were honoured for their great achievements in developing and commercialising printed electronics technologies. The judges of the awards were Mr. Ashutosh Tomar, Principal Engineer, Technology Strategy at Jaguar Land Rover and Professor Ulrich Moosheimer of Munich University of Applied Sciences.
The awards were presented by Mr. Raghu Das, CEO of IDTechEx and Mr. Ben Cooper, VF Global Innovation Center and were hosted at Printed Electronics Europe 2017, Europe's leading event on the topic in Berlin on 10 May 2017. A summary of the awards and winners are as follows:
Technical Development Manufacturing Award -XTPL SA
Technical Development Materials Award - Copprint
Best Institute/Academic R&D Award - Holst Centre
Best Product Award - FlexEnable
Technical Development Manufacturing Award - XTPL SA
XTPL has developed ultra-fine printing of a wide spectrum of nanomaterials. The method under development is innovative on a global scale and it allows to produce lines which are below 150nm-wide, i.e. over 400 times narrower than the standard lines used for digital printing or screen printing.
The technology allows users to create ultra-thin and transparent electrically conductive lines which may be used, for example, in manufacturing a new generation of TCF (Transparent Conductive Films) applied in the production of displays, touch screens and flexible electronics.
One of the judges reported "XTPL have demonstrated ultra-fine resolution printing without complex pre or post processes - a significant development for printed electronics manufacturing."
"The Technical Development Manufacturing Prize awarded by the jury whose members represent the major companies from the global printed electronics sector has special importance to us. We have just presented our first product, the printer that allows to print nanomaterials cost-effectively, and it was immediately appreciated. This award which we received during the IDTechEx Show! in Berlin, the top international trade fair of printed electronics, confirms that our solution answers the needs of the market. The XTPL technology will find its application in many sectors of economy. We are happy that from now enterprises around the world will be able to look for and develop their own applications for our solution" said Dr Filip Granek, CEO at XTPL.
Technical Development Materials Award - Copprint
Copprint has developed a nano copper ink which is self-sintered at low temperatures. For many years people have been using expensive silver inks for conductive patterns and failed to strongly commercialize copper ink, as oxidation prevented conductivity. Copprint's patented nano-based copper ink solves this issue using a self-sintering mechanism. It is substantially cheaper than silver ink and achieves 20%-50% bulk conductivity after just 2 seconds at 120º-300ºC (air environment).
Copprint expects that the technology will disrupt the billion dollar market of silver inks and will open new applications such as RFID tag antennas printed on paper, printed PCBs, touch panel bezel contacts, heaters & defoggers, wearables and many more.
"Copprint has achieved exciting, market-beating performance for copper ink," reported one of the judges.
"We are honored to receive the award from IDTechEx, the leading analysts of printed electronics. After years of great hype but failed expectations of players in this field, Copprint succeeds in overcoming the oxidation problems that other conductive inks suffer from, and is releasing a robust, highly conductive copper ink" said Dr. Ofer Shochet, CEO & Founder Copprint.
Best Institute/Academic R&D Award - Holst Centre
Holst Centre won this award for a functional demonstrator using in-mold electronics (IME) technology, which creates a large opportunity for intuitive human-machine interfaces (HMIs) in automotive electronics and consumer appliances. Starting from electronics printed onto 2D plastic films, high pressure thermoforming yielded the 3D plastic structure.
Developed by a group of key industry players led by Holst Centre, the demonstrator, a car center console, features a mobile phone storage space with integrated NFC connectivity and touch controls illuminated by flexible OLEDs. Light and conformal, IME technology integrates all this functionality directly into a 3D plastic surface just 1.5 mm thick. The demonstrator shows how IME technology could be applied in anything from shavers to car cockpits.
The console demonstrator highlights IME's potential for transforming 'dumb' plastic structures with embedded intelligence to enable enhanced and intuitive user experiences. All the electronics are fabricated on a stretchable, flexible and formable smart skin that is then integrated into the plastic during standard thermoforming or injection molding processes. The technique can be used to create 3D smart objects or extremely thin functional surfaces of any form.
One of the judges reported "In Mold Electronics for wiring and capacitive switches is an exciting near term opportunity. By adding more functionality such as OLEDs and NFC, the Holst Centre opens up further opportunity for new user interfaces."
"We're excited to receive this award. A couple of years ago, when we started our IME activities, industrial interest was still limited. To our pleasant surprise, interest has grown beyond expectations. The number of companies exploring this disruptive way of integrating electronics into parts has become large. We are proud to have played a role in this as one of the pioneers in this field" reports Dr Jeroen Van den Brand, Program Director, Holst Centre.
Best Product Award- FlexEnable
FlexEnable launched its new 12.1" glass-free, conformable organic liquid crystal display (OLCD) platform in December 2016, marking an important milestone in the commercialisation of large area flexible displays.
The OLCD uses organic transistors on a plastic sheet, making the display four times thinner (less than 0.3 mm) and more than ten times lighter than conventional glass-based displays. The OLCD can run vivid colour and smooth video content and can meet the immediate market needs for applications including automotive, consumer electronics, and digital signage.
When mass manufactured, the technology will provide the same display quality and reliability customers have come to expect from glass-based LCDs, but with the added benefit of thinness, lightness, robustness and conformability.
"This 12.1" OLCD prototype shows the viability of OTFTs for consumer electronics products today, helping LCD panel makers differentiate and open new markets by moving away from flat and brittle glass based displays" said one of the judges.
"We are very excited to be recognised with the Best Product Development Award. The recent breakthroughs we have made allow the manufacture of large area, conformable, plastic OLCDs with high brightness and long lifetime - opening up a range of applications that are not viable with any other flexible display technology. For example, in automotive, conformable displays not only bring new applications for displays in cars, such as invisible A-Pillars, but also allow the displays to be larger because they can be curved and conformed to existing surfaces. Plastic OLCDs bring a new level of design freedom without any performance trade-off compared to glass LCDs" says Chuck Milligan, CEO of FlexEnable
The next IDTechEx Printed Electronics award ceremony will be held in Silicon Valley in Santa Clara, CA on November 15 & 16. For more details visit www.PrintedElectronicsUSA.com
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