Printed Electronics Asia is the leading conference on printed electronics in the region. It is set to double in size when it is staged on October 8-9 in Tokyo. Analyst IDTechEx, which owns the conference, has a unique ability to attract speakers and organise visits to local centers of excellence that are not generally available.
The leading company in the world that is printing Dye Sensitised Solar Cells DSSC reel to reel is the secretive G24 Innovations of the UK and Professor Shozo Yanagida of G24i has now agreed to present at the conference. There will be Masterclasses led by global experts and visits to Toppan Printing, Toppan Forms, Sony, the University of Tokyo and Dai Nippon Printing.
The latest manufacturing technologies from across the world will be on display in the exhibition and presented in the lectures. The stand of OTB Engineering/ Pixdro of the Netherlands is one example.
Materials breakthroughs
Materials companies are heavily involved in this subject and unusually, they are represented this year by lecturers from Asahi Kasei Chemicals and Hitachi Chemicals. From the USA, we shall hear DuPont, Kodak, E-ink and the less known Frontier Carbon Corporation which develops fullerene for printed photovoltaics. The German chemical companies BASF, HC Starck and Merck will also present. Indeed, the famous Professor Iain McCulloch of Imperial College London UK will speak. He has recently won awards for his record breaking printable organic semiconductors.
Huge demand
Dr Peter Harrop of IDTechEx says, "Over $25 billion US dollars will be spent on materials for printed electronics in ten years from now and that will rise to over $200 billion in twenty years." It is therefore not surprising that chemical companies are racing to provide the huge variety of specialty chemicals that will be needed. Together with electronics companies and device users, they will be attending this conference to find partners and acquisitions and appraise the leading edge advances.
Device breakthroughs
Important new technical aspects will be covered such as invisible electronics and Kovio's breakthrough in nanosilicon printed transistors in Silicon Valley USA. This will also be important in photovoltaics. Hewlett Packard will reveal how it is printing electronics by self-aligned nanolithography. We shall hear Gifu University, Toppan Printing, the University of Cambridge in the UK and others that are working on the hot topic of zinc oxide semiconductors that greatly outperform organics.
Nano-ePrint of the UK will describe how its single layer printed transistors can outperform silicon chips. Organic and inorganic versions are available. The leading European company printing memory - Thin Film Electronics AB of Sweden - will describe how it is now approaching commercialisation with partner Solvay, the chemical giant in Belgium. It prints ferroelectric organic materials.
Full details can be found at the Printed Electronics Asia conference website.
