Plextronics and NTERA demonstrate solar-powered NanoChromics™

Printed Electronics companies Plextronics, Inc. and NTERA teamed up at the Large-Area, Organic & Printed Electronics Convention (LOPE-C) in Frankfurt, Germany last week, to provide a working demonstration that combines the key aspects and attributes of their respective technologies.

 

The functional demonstrator features NTERA's innovative NanoChromics™ display technology, and is directly powered by a Plextronics Organic Photovoltaic (OPV) solar cell printed with Plexcore® ink technology. This integrated demonstrator does not require any active electronic components, which captures the simplicity of combining these printed electronic technologies.

 

Printed color changing displays, such as the one in this demo, are being utilized on smart cards, novel packaging solutions, point of purchasing advertisements, and a host of other emerging product applications. By combining energy harvesting technologies (such as OPV) with printed displays, it's possible to achieve cost-effective, self-powering solutions for these applications.

 

Greg Holland, Director of Product Engineering at Plextronics, said, "The demonstrator showcases the fact that organic solar technology - Plextronics' specialty - can easily provide enough voltage, even in low light conditions, to power NTERA's NanoChromics™ display. This opens up a world of opportunities and possible product applications for our industry."

 

"We are really excited about this joint demonstration with Plextronics because it shows the value that integrated printed electronics solutions can deliver to the market today," said Chris Giacoponello, Vice President of Business Development and Marketing for NTERA. "By combining our two technologies, we can create self-powered display systems that are incredibly cost-effective and broadly applicable. The functional integration of printed electronics technologies is a key milestone in the evolution of this industry, and our demonstration highlights what is possible with technologies that are available today."

NTERA, Inc. is the leading developer of advanced, fully printable electrochromic materials enabling display and color change applications for Smart Cards, Smart Packaging and Smart Objects.

 

NTERA's NanoChromics™ Ink Systems enable cost effective manufacturing of printed electronic displays on a variety of flexible substrate materials using industry standard printing techniques and equipment.

 

These ultra-thin, sunlight-readable, low power NCD™ displays can be integrated into any number of products, including plastic cards, packaging, smart labels, RFID systems, greeting cards, toys and games, and consumer electronic devices. NTERA, Inc. is based in suburban Philadelphia, PA USA, with research and development facilities in Dublin, Ireland.

 

NTERA, NanoChromics and NCD are trademarks of NTERA.

For more information about NTERA, please visit www.ntera.com .

Plextronics, Inc. is an international technology company that specializes in printed solar, lighting and other organic electronics.

 

Headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA, the company's focus is on organic solar cell and organic light emitting diodes (OLED), specifically the conductive inks and process technologies that enable those and other similar applications.

 

With a company vision of enabling 15 billion printed electronic devices by 2015, Plextronics is creating technology capable of commercial-scale manufacturability and performance.

 

The company's device design, process technology and Plexcore® branded inks enable the formation of active electrical layers - the key drivers of printed electronics.

 

The privately held company was founded in 2002 as a spinout from Carnegie Mellon University, based upon conductive polymer technology developed by Dr. Richard McCullough. Over the past seven years, Plextronics scientists have refined and further developed this technology to deliver exceptional performance for printed electronics.

 

For more information about Plextronics, visit www.plextronics.com .