POLARIC revolutionises production of organic electronic circuits

A new EU-funded project POLARIC was launched in January 2010 to develop roll-to-roll printing of high-performance organic electronic circuits.

 

This project revolutionises the way printed electronic circuits are made by combining large-area fabrication methods with high-performance organic electronic circuits on a scale not previously attempted.

 

So far the appearance of organic thin film transistors and circuits in industrial products has been limited. The main obstacle for substantial market penetration of such organic electronic components has been the inability to achieve the necessary device performance combined with the necessary high-volume production methods.

 

The high performance of the organic circuits means high speed (kHz-MHz range), low operating voltage (below 5 V), low power consumption, and low parasitic capacitance. At the same time, the manufacturing process will be focused to produce components and circuits with extremely high yield using large-area compatible, high-volume methods.

 

To achieve these goals, the POLARIC project will develop further roll-to-roll (R2R) printing methods, e.g. R2R compatible nanoimprinting technologies for short channel configuration of the electrodes. Proper material selection will lead to high performance complementary circuit devices. The POLARIC project will also provide solutions for the fabrication of R2R tools in order to make serial replication viable.

 

Finally, the circuit design, modeling, and characterisation of organic electronics will be developed to offer a toolbox similar to that of silicon-based microelectronics.

 

After the project, high-performing organic electronic building blocks and manufacturing platforms can be used in all areas of printed electronics such as sensors, memories, batteries, photovoltaics, lighting and any combination of these devices.

 

The European Union funds the 48-month POLARIC project with 9.9 Million euros and the work is divided between 13 partners from 7 different countries. The partners are VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland (the coordinator, Finland), 3D-Micromac (Germany), AMO (Germany), BASF (Switzerland), CSEM (Switzerland), Cardiff University (UK), Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft IZM (Germany), IMEC (Belgium), Imperial College London (UK), Joanneum Research (Austria), micro resist technology (Germany), Obducat Technologies (Sweden), and Asulab, a division of The Swatch Group Research and Development Ltd.(Switzerland).

 

 

Further information visit www.polaricproject.eu .

 

For more attend Printed Electronics Europe 2010 

and Printed Electronics & Photovoltaics USA 2010  .