fantastic plastic » circuit

MaDriX: Alliance project for printed electronics launched

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 18:49:47 +0000

“PolyIC, BASF, Evonik Industries, Elantas Beck and Siemens have announced the launch of a new German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)-sponsored alliance project called MaDriX to advance the development of high-performance printable Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags. [...]

PolyIC leads the consortium engaged in the three-year joint project. The total investment sum amounts to some €15 million, with the BMBF contributing approximately €8 million. The project is funded as part of the BMBF’s 5th Framework Program “Key Technologies – Research for Innovations, Communications Technology Sector.” The German Aerospace Center, DLR, is acting as project sponsor. With MaDriX, the companies involved in the alliance and the federal ministry will secure Germany’s current leadership as a research base in the printable electronics sector. [...]

The close cooperation between the companies involved is a key to the success of the MaDriX project. PolyIC engages with the issues of component characterization, process development and setting up demonstrators. BASF, Evonik Industries and Elantas Beck will supply new materials to produce semiconductors and insulators for use in electronic circuits. Siemens is developing new real-time visual print inspection processes for quality control in the printing process. A number of universities and research institutes are also involved in the MaDriX project.”

PolyIC: first printed RFID and smart objects for the market

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 18:30:07 +0000

PolyIC, “The chip printers”, are announcing two product lines: PolyID® (RFID) and PolyLogo® (with additional display function).

Applications of products from the PolyID® and PolyLogo® lines will be presented at OEC [Organic Electronics Conference] 2007. PolyIC presents applications in the fields of brand protection, voucher systems, marketing, and logistics.

Within the PRISMA (Printed Smart Labels) project, which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and has PolyIC as its consortium manager, all tickets to the Organic Electronics Conference will have a PolyID® tag attached to them. The tickets will be evaluated with a radio frequency reader at 13.56 MHz. This ticketing field test is being coordinated by Bartsch GmbH.

The steady progress en route to products at PolyIC can also be seen with the results in the laboratory. Thus, 32- and 64-bit RFID chips have been produced in the clean room. This success shows that the production of RFID chips with more memory capacity on the basis of the polymer semiconductor polythiophene is possible.

Plastic Sheet of Power

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 23:22:06 +0000

Takeo Someya and coworkers at the University of Tokyo have created a flexible sheet comprising organic TFTs that inductively charges electronic gadgets placed on its surface.

According to this Technology Review article, the

system is designed in a way that overcomes the limitations of common induction schemes. Traditional induction systems can only spread small amounts of power over a relatively large area, and fairly large amounts of power can only be supplied to precise locations (such as a toothbrush mount). Someya’s power sheets, in contrast, can be large, and they can still supply a large amount of power to gadgets placed near them.

This new capability, he says, is enabled by a novel design and by advances in the fabrication of flexible electronics. The power system actually consists of two types of sheets: one sheet senses the position of an object, and the other sheet supplies power to the object’s point of contact, but not to the rest of the sheet. “In this way, the system selectively feeds power as high as 30 watts to electronic objects placed upon it,” Someya says.

The position-sensing sheet relies on two types of flexible electronics. Using a technique similar to silk screening, the researchers printed an array of copper coils 10 millimeters in diameter. In addition, they used a modified inkjet printer to print an array of organic transistors. Both devices are thin and flexible enough to bend with a sheet of plastic.

Gadgets would need to be equipped with a coil and special power-harvesting circuitry to use the power pad. As the gadget gets closer to the pad, the electrical resistance of the pad’s coils decreases. The array of transistors detects the exact position of the change in resistance and effectively directs the subsequent power flow, which is provided by devices on the second sheet of plastic.

This second power-supplying sheet has an array of switches and copper coils. The switches, made of silver and plastic, turn the electric current on and off, mediating its flow to the adjacent copper coil.

ORFID and BASF team up to develop printable organic electronics

Thu, 06 Jul 2006 22:53:54 +0000

ORFID Corporation [...] has signed an agreement with BASF Future Business GmbH (BFB), a subsidiary of BASF Aktiengesellschaft, to collaborate on the development and commercialization of printable organic electronic devices for use in display backplanes, RFID tags and other next generation electronic products.
Under the agreement, BFB will provide organic materials, materials expertise and financial resources for the development and commercialization of printable electronics. ORFID will build certain organic devices and develop processes for printing and testing the devices.

ORFID’s technology is based on research by Prof. Yang Yang’s group at UCLA: using a Vertical Organic Field Effect Transistor (VOFET) structure allows ORFID to fabricate TFTs with very short channel lengths (and thus high on-currents), without the need for high-resolution patterning methods.

ORFID has developed a breakthrough in organic electronics, called the VOFET (Vertical Organic Field Effect Transistor). Due to its unique architecture and use of conductive polymers (plastics that conduct electricity) in its fabrication, the VOFET offers performance characteristics similar to conventional, wafer-based silicon transistors, but can be produced at significantly lower cost, while offering other important advantages. Using organic materials, the VOFET can be manufactured using low-cost printing techniques. ORFID’s goal, and that of electronics manufacturers around the world, is to enable the production of a new generation of ultra-thin, light-weight and flexible electronic products, such as displays and “smart packaging” that incorporates printed RFID tags.

[press release]

Organic electronics market forecasts

Fri, 05 May 2006 21:51:51 +0000

NanoMarkets predictions for the OLED and e-paper, smart packaging, and thin-film photovoltaics industries:

Markets for OLED and Paper-Like Displays to Total $10.2 Billion by 2011:

combined sales of OLED displays and paper-like displays will reach $10.2 billion by 2011 and then go on to reach $14.7 billion by 2013.
shelf-edge displays will be the biggest opportunity for the paper-like display business in the next few years, generating $1.2 billion in annual revenues by 2011.
OLED televisions will reach $2.2 billion in revenues in 2011
by 2011, flexible displays will account for $1.7 billion in revenues.

Smart Packaging Market to Reach $4.8 billion by 2011:

The global smart packaging market will grow to $4.8 billion in 2011 and reach $14.1 billion in 2013
Smart packaging will account for over $1.1 billion in printable electronics components by 2011 growing to $4.2 billion in 2013
Smart packaging will also consume $1.1 billion in printable and chip-based RFID tags by 2011

Thin Film and Organic Photovoltaic Market To Reach $2.3 Billion ($US) in 2011:

Integrated building and construction products such as PV enabled roofing and window materials are projected to be the largest market opportunity measuring $800 million ($US) in 2011 with large project and consumer electronic products the second and third largest market opportunities.
On the materials front, amorphous silicon, the best established of the various thin-film PV materials, will represent an $800 million ($US) opportunity followed by organic and hybrid organic/inorganic materials and then CIS/CIGS.
Thin film/organic PV is also generating buzz in the industry and several companies have received large VC rounds. Major multinationals are also supporting this technology as Honda has announced it will soon start full-scale production of thin film PV and Shell has just sold off its conventional PV business to focus on thin film. On the other hand, NanoMarkets points out that thin film and organic PV is also a technology space that has received its fair share of hype and controversy with competing claims by different manufacturers on where and how it can be applied and disputes over conversion efficiencies and costs per watt.

Ring Oscillator on Carbon Nanotube

Fri, 24 Mar 2006 21:08:41 +0000

As reported in Science magazine (”An Integrated Logic Circuit Assembled on a Single Carbon Nanotube”; 24 March 2006; Vol. 311, no. 5768, p. 1735), researchers at IBM in New York and co-workers have created a ring oscillator on a single carbon nanotube.

According to the BBC, running at 50 megahertz,

the circuit is 100,000 times faster than any previously recorded for a device made with a carbon nanotube [...].

This article at the New Scientist explains how this research might help to increase the speed of future microprocessors with ever smaller feature sizes:

The problem is that as electrical paths shrink, electrical resistance increases proportionally. Also, the process of doping â€“ adding impurities to the silicon to alter its electrical properties â€“ means that the impurities left behind scatter electron flow, which becomes more of a problem at smaller scales.
The major reason behind the resistance, however, is an odd phenomenon known as plasmonic resonance, in which an electronâ€™s path is hindered when it becomes coupled with vibrations in the surrounding lattice structure. But because the carbon nanotube is a single molecule with electrons passing along the tube, this problem is averted and resistance minimised, even at tiny scales.
Additionally, smaller silicon pathways make it easier for electrons to “jump tract” and leech into other nearby components. But in a nanotube circuit, this would be highly improbable as electrons would be carried down the molecular tract of the nanotube, Appenzeller explains.

Thin Film Electronics printed polymer memory: cheap, fast, high-density, low-power

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 11:32:15 +0000

Thin Film Electronics (TFE) are developing low-cost non-volatile memory, consisting of a bistable polymer layer between two arrays of orthogonal addressing lines. This technology provides several advantages compared to conventional, silicon-based memory. As the memory function is a property of the acticve layer, no circuitry is required in the actial memory element. Further, the simple architecture allows stacking of multiple layers for greater capacity per unit area. Using printing methods to deposit the solution-based promises low manufacturing costs.

From recent coverage of Printed Electronics USA 05 by IDtechEx (Feb 13, 2006):

Thin Film Electronics of Sweden described how it can print memory on plastic film. It has now demonstrated kilobit level memory but seeks to license not produce and the gigabyte on a postage stamp, with its immense commercial potential, is still elusive.

TFE’s website does not provide a lot of information on the material used for the active layer, but according to some of their patents (US 6,982,895, US 6,937,500, US 6,841,818) a polymeric ferroelectric or electret material, such as PVDF, can be used. A more recently filed patent (US200524343) concerns interlayers (e.g. metal oxides or ternary ceramics) between the electrode(s) and the active polymer layer.

Novalia: printed electronics for packaging and toys

Fri, 10 Feb 2006 20:19:57 +0000

As reported here, the UK start-up Novalia

expects to launch its patented electronic card game by the end of 2006.
Printed electronics company Novalia is in advanced discussions with a printing company to produce the electronics on the cards. [...]
Stone [Nick Stone, founder of Novalia] says that it is likely Novalia will be working with packaging companies and other end users within the next year and use the same technology on promotional packaging.
Stone is looking at various printing methods for the cards and says they could be printed using litho printing, screen printing or flexography. [...]
Novalia had considered licensing out the technology but has instead decided to provide the printing company with the electronic technology. This decision will enable Novalia to work with other packaging and toy companies and provide them with the technology first hand.
Possible packaging applications could include a cereal box that could be cut up to form part of an electronic card game. [...]
Stone says that the next stage of advancement will be to print the batteries, display and transistors as part of the process, although this will be some time in the future.

By using existing printing technology and focusing on simple applications, Novalia aims to keep costs low and allow the technology to progress more quickly.

Holst centre to develop wireless microsystems and system-in-foil technologies

Mon, 19 Sep 2005 13:05:28 +0000

The Holst centre, an independent research center set up by IMEC and TNO,

will develop future generations of wireless autonomous transducer solutions and systems-in-foil. [...] Philips, a leading player in the field of polymer electronics and microsystems, has committed to become the first industrial partner.

The centre, to be located at the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven (NL),

will start with two strategic program initiatives. IMEC will lead the wireless autonomous transducer solutions initiative. The system-in-foil research and development initiative will be managed by TNO. The synergy between both initiatives will be fully utilized by the creation of joint strategic R&D activities. [...]
Within the Holst Centre, IMEC will expand its current research for wireless autonomous microsystems with focus on ultra-low-power radio; ultra-low-power signal processing; micro-power generation, storage and management; sensor and actuator technology. [...]
TNO [...] has built expertise around the industrialization of microsystems and polymer electronics, which it will contribute to the Holst Centre. In the Holst Centre, capabilities in the fields of printing of polymers, large-area deposition and structuring of thin layers and design of device architectures will be further developed. The Centre will use these capabilities to create and demonstrate â€˜sensing and acting surfacesâ€™, large-area, thin-layered products such as organic lighting and signage, sensor tags and organic electronics.