As more and more flexible devices are becoming available, the need for better performing barriers and encapsulation materials at lower cost points intensifies.

Today, only one type of film - Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) - is used for almost all transparent conductive films with a market size of over $2 billion this year.

There have been three billion-dollar success stories in printed and organic electronics so far - and in each Asia has been a key driving factor.

Conductive inks are a simple and unglamorous layer but they will constitute a hefty $2.86 billion market in 2012.

IDTechEx recently visited South Korea as part of a UK Trade and Investment mission. Here we summarise some highlights of the trip.

Designed to serve as an important link to assist communications between the various organisations active in Printed Electronics, it will carry a list of organizations segmented by their activity and alphabetically - compiled from our extensive database.

The annual printed electronics award winners were announced at the IDTechEx Awards Dinner in Berlin, Germany on April 3rd. The awards recognize outstanding progress in the development and commercialization of printed electronics, an industry that produces a huge amount of technical innovation which will be used in many products.

The gross sales of presenting companies at Printed Electronics Europe next week - including end users, integrators and providers, is more than €700 Billion annually. Attend the event in Berlin, on April 3-4 to learn how these organisations are progressing printed electronics.

Shipment of tablets with touch screen technology is expected to reach 100 million units in 2012.

Printed electronics manufacturing is becoming increasingly integrated as companies work on putting together different printing, lamination, substrate handling, curing and finishing processes.

At the forthcoming event, Printed Electronics and Photovoltaics Europe 3-4 April in Berlin, one third of the 94 presentations and masterclasses primarily concern organic compounds but two thirds primarily concern inorganic and composite devices. The organisers did not steer it that way: the customers did.

This includes devices not yet printed today but which are moving towards being printed. Of this market, 30% of the devices studied are made predominately by printing, and 6% are on a non-rigid substrate.

Electronics and electrics on or in paper is being used for security, safety, crime prevention, brand enhancement and merchandising.

OLED versus LED lighting, the energy storage gold rush, replacing ITO and more.

IDTechEx's Printed Electronics Europe 2012 event in Berlin, Germany on April 3-4, will be the largest gathering of end users discussing their needs and experiences with the technology. The event matches technology providers with adopters.

Last week IDTechEx held the largest (worldwide) printed electronics and photovoltaics conference and tradeshow in Silicon Valley (Santa Clara Convention Center, California). This show brought together more than 1300 attendees from 28 countries. Players active across the entire value chain were present; covering the full range from research organisations to end-users, and from small start-ups to multi-billion internationals.

Next week the 8th annual IDTechEx Printed Electronics USA event opens at the Santa Clara Convention Center in CA, USA, on Nov 30 - Dec 1. Pre-registrations are 22% higher compared to this point last year and the number of exhibitors has grown by 19%. Pre-registered attendees are coming from 29 countries, with a particularly large contingent from Korea, Japan and Taiwan. Attendees are also coming from afar as China, Australia, India, South Africa and all over Europe.

This article shares some of the research carried out for the new IDTechEx report, {{RFID in Russia, CIS, Baltic States 2012-2022| http://www.idtechex.com/research/reports/rfid-in-russia-cis-baltic-states-2012-2022-000285.asp}}.

Three weeks remain until the IDTechEx Printed Electronics USA 2011 conference and tradeshow, the biggest event in the world on the topic. This year's tradeshow will be the largest Printed Electronics exhibition to date, with 105 exhibiting companies already confirmed to exhibit on the 46,000 sq.ft. tradeshow floor of the Santa Clara Convention Centre.

Screen Printing is one of the more established technologies utilised in the manufacture of what a lot would consider "conventional" electronics. And although they represent a hybrid state between fully printable electronics and electronics processed in silicon fabs, they also represent the intermediate step that leads to more accurate, fully automated atmospheric processing at very high volumes, with equally high yields.