Demonstrators at the Printed Electronics USA 2011 tradeshow

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.

 

Together with Demonstration Street - the biggest collection of functioning printed electronics products and demonstrators- now in its second year, IDTechEx is making sure that the tradeshow is a fertile ground for exhibitors and visitors alike to witness the creative surge that's characterizing the industry. To further boost the technologies, IDTechEx and some of the exhibiting companies are making samples and demonstrators available for all attendees.

PST Sensors will be creating a printed thermistor for every attendee at the event, working in conjunction with Flexible Electronics Concepts. It consists of printed silver electrodes on 160gsm paper with printed silicon across the electrodes which acts as the thermistor. There is a partial lamination with PET film to protect the device against direct contact with liquids and mechanical damage. These are negative temperature coefficient (NTC) thermistors which demonstrate a change of resistance as the temperature rises. These Thermistors have a room temperature resistance of around 100 kilo Ohms; the decrease in resistance with rising temperature is exponential at approximately 2% per degree, giving it a precision of 0.1 degree Celsius in most applications.

 

 

 

Printed large area thermistors such as these create a temperature map over a wide area as opposed to taking temperature readings on a spot as is done presently with thermometers. The reading devices at several locations throughout the exhibition will allow attendees to plug in these sensors and see them respond as you heat or cool them. In addition, PST Sensors will be demonstrating more complex arrays of these sensors on their booth.

Ynvisible, Enfucell and IDTechEx are also going to be producing a demonstrator, in the form of interactive badges incorporating several technologies. The interactive badges produced for the Printed Electronics USA 2011 event contain an interactive graphics layer that is activated by the push of a button on the badges. Three different interactive graphics were designed for this event and are used to emphasize IDTechEx's marketing messages.

 

 

 

Technologically the interactive badges are a hybrid solution, based on a combination of printed electronics - Ynvisible's electrochromics-based interactive graphics and Enfucell's SoftBattery® - and traditional electronics, namely the printed circuit boards, buttons and wiring. Designers from IDTechEx and Ynvisible jointly designed the interactive badges, and the final assembly of the badges was done by Ynvisible.

 

"The combination of established color printing and printed interactive graphics brings new levels of interaction and communication power to everyday items. Consumers who enjoy the interactivity of on-line content and services will now increasingly start to find such features also in printed products", said Jani-Mikael Kuusisto, Chief Business Development Officer for Ynvisible.

"IDTechEx are striving to not only show attendees the Worlds largest collection of working printed electronics products in one place, but also give attendees samples to keep. Adoption of the technology will rapidly increase as adopters see and handle samples showing what can be achieved", says Raghu Das, CEO of IDTechEx, the analyst and events company hosting the event that has tracked the printed electronics market for a decade.

 

 

For more information on the event, held on Nov 30 to Dec 1, or to book your space at the exhibition which is rapidly filling up, please visit www.IDTechEx.com/peUSA. The event importantly brings together end users with developers. Hear from companies such as P&G, Decathlon, Boeing, DHL and many more describe their needs and experiences with the technology. The combined sales of companies presenting is more than half a trillion dollars - hear what they have to say. For full details see www.IDTechEx.com/peUSA.

 

Printed Electronics Europe will continue to build on these developments. It will be held in Berlin, Germany on April 3-4. See www.IDTechEx.com/peEurope for details.

 

 

Ynvisible is a spin-out from Lisbon-based YDreams, a group dedicated to the creation of state-of-the-art innovative interactivity projects, products and technologies for world leading consumer brands. Ynvisible is extending such interactive features to high volume products and wide area surfaces, through the combination of printed electronics and silicon-based electronics. The company's first solutions utilize electrochromic technology, which the company has been tailoring to the specific needs of the graphics design and advertising industry. www.ynvisible.com 

 

 

 

With main focus on printed electronics, Enfucell is a Finnish technology company with roots in the Helsinki University of Technology. Enfucell has developed SoftBattery®, a thin, flexible environmentally friendly and printable 1.5 - 6 V power source to be utilized in disposable and short lifetime products like RFID, micro sensors, displays, OLEDs, functional packaging and media, cosmetic and pharmaceutical transdermal delivery systems. Enfucell's customers and partners include many of world's largest corporations in their fields. www.enfucell.com .

 

 

Flexible Electronics Concepts FEC is a new company set up to create innovative working samples of printed electronics. Many consumer packaged goods companies and other potential end users are frustrated that they cannot obtain innovative product concepts or even simple devices such as smart labels based on the new printed electronics. They do not want components. FEC will endeavour to help by being a product integrator and concept generator for small quantities of printed electronic products. Any successes will be produced in volume by the industry leaders. www.flexibleelectronicsconcepts.com .

 

 

 

The Nanosciences Innovation Centre is unique, in that it has a dual focus on Research and Innovation into the science and application of nanostructured materials. Currently its main development focus is on printed electronics applications of silicon and other inorganic semiconductor nanoparticles. PST Sensors is a spin-out from the University of Cape Town, founded in November 2010 to commercialize the printed silicon technology, with an initial focus on printed temperature sensors. www.pstsensors.com .