The G24i photovoltaic panel will be integrated into a range of bags targeting the consumer market. The panel will harvest energy while used outdoors as well as in low light conditions indoors – [...]]]> G24 Innovations (G24i) and consumer electronics bag manufacturer Mascotte Industrial Associates are announcing the world’s first commercial product using Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSC):

The G24i photovoltaic panel will be integrated into a range of bags targeting the consumer market. The panel will harvest energy while used outdoors as well as in low light conditions indoors – a unique advantage of the G24i DSSC module – and repower mobile electronic devices such as mobile phones, e-books, cameras, and portable LED lighting systems. The G24i module is based on a technology invented by the internationally acclaimed chemist, Prof. Michael Grätzel, Ph. D, Director, Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne.

announce that they have jointly manufactured fully functional re-writable polymer memory products in a high-volume roll-to-roll printing process. [...] The Thinfilm re-writable memory together with a reader/writer provides a platform for Toy and Game [...]]]> PolyIC and Thin Film Electronics

announce that they have jointly manufactured fully functional re-writable polymer memory products in a high-volume roll-to-roll printing process. [...]
The Thinfilm re-writable memory together with a reader/writer provides a platform for Toy and Game designers to create the next generation of interactive and evolvable toys and games where the memory could be linked to the online world.

Press Release (pdf)

From the press release:

A joint Thinfilm and InkTec project has been successfully completed to demonstrate fully R2R printed memories with a layout and device structure developed by Thinfilm, targeting applications such as game cards [...]]]> InkTec Co., Ltd. (Korea) and Thin Film Electronics ASA (Norway/Sweden) announced fully-functional non-volatile memory devices fabricated using a high-volume roll-to-roll printing process.

From the press release:

A joint Thinfilm and InkTec project has been successfully completed to demonstrate fully R2R printed memories with a layout and device structure developed by Thinfilm, targeting applications such as game cards and toys. The work has been conducted under the Joint Development Agreement between Thinfilm and InkTec entered in June 2008.

The project has been a huge success with the realization of a R2R production worthy printing process capable of realizing printed memory cells with a yield in the 96-97 % range for the best device structure. Until now, several rolls, each with more than 100 meters of printed memory has been produced with a total of 5 printing steps.

A significant part of the work has been to develop inks suitable for the realization of the desired target. The ink compositions for the electrodes are based on InkTec’s proprietary non-particle based silver complex compound whereas the memory ink is based on a proprietary ferroelectric polymer jointly developed by Thinfilm and Solvay Solexis SA.

Via fabtech.org.

The University licensed the patent rights to the technology to Solarmer last September. The license covers several polymers under development in Yu’s [...]]]> Solarmer Energy Inc., founded in 2006 to commercialise polymer solar cell technology developed by the Yang Yang group at UCLA, are using a new semiconducting material (”PTB1″) invented by University of Chicago chemists.

The University licensed the patent rights to the technology to Solarmer last September. The license covers several polymers under development in Yu’s laboratory [...].
An advantage of the Chicago technology is its simplicity. Several laboratories around the country have invented other polymers that have achieved efficiencies similar to those of Yu’s polymers, but these require far more extensive engineering work to become a viable commercial product.
“We think that our system has potential,” Yu said. “The best system so far reported is 6.5 percent, but that’s not a single device. That’s two devices.”
By combining Solarmer’s device engineering expertise with Yu and Liang’s semiconducting material, they have been able to push the material’s efficiency even higher.

Via Science Daily

[CEO Richard] Kirk is in “advanced talks” towards a £3m funding round which will pay for the [...]]]> UK start-up PolyPhotonix are to set up a production line for large-area OLED lighting at the Printable Electronics Technology Centre (PETEC, part of NETPark in County Durham, UK).
They will be using PLED (polymer OLED) materials under license from CDT.

[CEO Richard] Kirk is in “advanced talks” towards a £3m funding round which will pay for the production line and 30 months of operations.
The firm already has some funding through the Government’s Technology Strategy Board through a project called Manufacturing Emissive Nanotechnology Devices in Polymers (MENDIPs). [...]
PolyPhotonix’ intended main markets are automotive and architectural lighting, but Kirk also expects some interest from makers of general lighting products.
The production line will initially make its OLED emitters on 200×200mm glass substrates. “We are taking the best materials as they are today,” said Kirk.
Flexible plastic substrates are also on the cards once glass-based emitters are in production.

___________________________
Update 2009-02-18: According to IDTechEx’s Printed Electronics World, PolyPhotonix have now raised GBP 4.5 million.

At ECN, organic photovoltaics are being researched for almost a decade. The knowledge of materials, system designs and production processes has come to a point where transition to large scale [...]]]> The ECN (Energy research Centre of the Netherlands) is teaming up with the Holst Centre to transfer their lab-scale solar cell processing to Roll-to-Roll production:

At ECN, organic photovoltaics are being researched for almost a decade. The knowledge of materials, system designs and production processes has come to a point where transition to large scale manufacturing has to be envisaged.
At Holst Centre, the recently opened Roll-to-Roll research line for printed electronics will be used to complement the knowledge of ECN and support the further research towards low-cost, large-area manufacturing. To guarantee the low-cost potential, the upscaling will initially be done with active materials that are abundantly available, although an eye will be kept on new high-performance materials. In a first phase the investigated processes will be slot-die coating and gravure printing. Within the ECN labs, efficiencies of over 4% have been obtained. Aim is to at least sustain this level of efficiency when going towards roll-to-roll production.
Being research centres, ECN and Holst Centre will not take any of the technology in production themselves. The open-innovation program aims at industrial parties to subscribe and assign resident researchers to join the research teams on site.

“We want to [...]]]> From the press release:
Ciba has developed a deep red phosphorescent OLED emitter that functions optimally in combination with the Novaled PIN OLED™ technology, delivering a lifetime of 50,000 hours at an initial brightness of 1,000 cd/m2. The new material supports the market trend toward high-performance, low-voltage OLED devices for display and lighting applications.

“We want to provide the market with efficient phosphorescent materials,” says Rolf Drewes, Global Head of Business Line Electronic Materials at Ciba. “In this project, we are developing the full color range of emitters compatible with Novaled’s proprietary OLED technology. Our deep red, the first to become commercially available, offers customers not only long-lifetime performance but also excellent thermal stability. Green and blue are now in progress.”

“Phosphorescent emitter materials together with low-voltage devices are mandatory for the future of the OLED industry, and Novaled is very pleased to see a key industry player developing such materials,” adds Gildas Sorin, CEO of Novaled AG. “This deep red phosphorescent material provides a long lifetime at a lowest operating voltage of 3.3 V as well as good power efficiency of 8.1 lm/W, making it suitable for displays as well as for completely new lighting applications. OLED technology even has potential to surpass the efficiency of energy-saving bulbs.” [...]

In 2006, Ciba and Novaled entered an industrial collaboration to create organic dopant and transport materials for the Novaled PIN OLED™ technology, which enables highly power-efficient OLED performance.

PolyIC leads the consortium engaged in the three-year joint project. The total investment sum amounts to [...]]]> “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.”

have signed a joint agreement to accelerate the development, manufacturing and commercialization of polymer-based organic photovoltaic (OPV) technologies for consumer and electronic applications. Under the agreement, the mutual goal is to bring Konarka’a organic photovoltaic material, Power Plastic®, to market.

“Konarka’s Power Plastic is [...]]]> Konarka (organic photovoltaics) and Toppan Forms (Data Print Services and information management services)

have signed a joint agreement to accelerate the development, manufacturing and commercialization of polymer-based organic photovoltaic (OPV) technologies for consumer and electronic applications. Under the agreement, the mutual goal is to bring Konarka’a organic photovoltaic material, Power Plastic®, to market.

“Konarka’s Power Plastic is flexible, thin, printable and low in cost, providing our organization with promising new business opportunities as we strive to become an integrated information management service company,” commented Masanori Akiyama, president and CEO of Toppan Forms. “With the full-fledged advent of the ubiquitous society under way, we need an ever-present power technology that can be integrated with pervasive networked devices for information collection and distribution. We are delighted to collaborate with Konarka, the world leader in OPV technologies, to accelerate the commercialization of this transformational power technology to the market place.” [...]

“The partnership with Toppan Forms represents a key milestone for the commercialization of Power Plastic,” commented Rick Hess, president and CEO of Konarka. “This relationship enables each company to focus its expertise and resources on key product development processes, continuing our go-to-market strategy of partnering with leading global companies for a variety of applications.”

Sumitomo Chemical Company (Sumitomo Chemical) and Cambridge Display Technology (NASDAQ: OLED) (CDT) today jointly announced that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement whereby Sumitomo Chemical will acquire CDT, a developer of technologies based on polymer organic light emitting diodes (P-OLEDs). Under the merger agreement, Sumitomo Chemical will acquire all outstanding [...]]]> From the press release:

Sumitomo Chemical Company (Sumitomo Chemical) and Cambridge Display Technology (NASDAQ: OLED) (CDT) today jointly announced that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement whereby Sumitomo Chemical will acquire CDT, a developer of technologies based on polymer organic light emitting diodes (P-OLEDs). Under the merger agreement, Sumitomo Chemical will acquire all outstanding shares of CDT common stock at a price of $12 per share in cash, for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $285 million. The merger consideration represents a 107 percent premium over CDT’s 90-day average closing share price and a 95 percent premium over CDT’s closing share price of $6.15 on July 30.

CDT and Sumitomo Chemical have been working together under the Sumation joint venture since 2005.

BASF and Bosch are to cooperate in the innovative field of organic photovoltaics (OPV) and are founding members of the technology initiative of Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). [... ] Last year, photovoltaic modules had a global market volume of €8 billion. The segment is expected to [...]]]> From the Press release: (pdf, html)

BASF and Bosch are to cooperate in the innovative field of organic photovoltaics (OPV) and are founding members of the technology initiative of Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). [... ] Last year, photovoltaic modules had a global market volume of €8 billion. The segment is expected to grow by more than 20 percent annually until 2020. The BMBF will provide €60 million for research to develop this highly attractive market, while the initiative’s current industry partners – which include, alongside BASF and Bosch, Merck (Darmstadt) and Schott (Mainz) – plan to spend up to €300 million. [...]

Stake in Heliatek

To further develop the new technology, BASF and Bosch are also cooperating on special research activities with the Dresden-based company Heliatek GmbH. BASF Venture Capital GmbH and Robert Bosch GmbH are each investing €1.6 million in the start-up company, which was founded in 2006. The other investors are Wellington Partners and the ‘High-Tech Gründerfonds’. Heliatek specializes in the manufacture of new-generation organic solar cells. The company is working on an ultra-efficient technology to build large-scale modules on cheap, flexible substrates using a roll-to-roll production process.

BASF is conducting research into semi-conductive organic materials with high thermal and photo-thermal stability. [...] BASF contributes its broad-based expertise in the field of organic electronics and the design, synthesis and production of complex organic compounds to the project. [...]

The researchers want to develop organic solar cells that convert at least ten percent of the incident light into energy and offer a service life of more than ten years. BASF’s “Joint Innovation Lab – Organic Electronics”, which was opened last year in Ludwigshafen, acts as a cooperation platform for the industry and university partners. Experts from a range of disciplines are also working on organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) at the JIL, a technology also based, like organic photovoltaics, on organic semi-conductive materials.

The joint development agreement will build on Thinfilm’s intellectual property for soluble memory materials, as well as extend Solvay’s intellectual property for functional polymer materials. Under the agreement, Solvay Solexis could acquire certain [...]]]> Solvay, through their specialty polymer subsidiary Solvay Solexis, and Thin Film Electronics have announced plans to jointly develop materials for printed memory applications.

The joint development agreement will build on Thinfilm’s intellectual property for soluble memory materials, as well as extend Solvay’s intellectual property for functional polymer materials. Under the agreement, Solvay Solexis could acquire certain production and commercialization rights to Thinfilm’s memory technology.

are paving the way for the production of a new generation of high resolution polymer organic light emitting displays (P-OLED) through the development of an inkjet printing solution capable of producing P-OLED displays at up to 200 pixels per inch (ppi).

have produced a number of 5.5 inch full color active matrix polymer OLED (P-OLED) displays using a roll printing method. A demonstrator will be shown at the SID conference in San Francisco. The displays – believed to be the first of their type ever produced – are the result [...]]]> Cambridge Display Technology (CDT) and Toppan Printing

have produced a number of 5.5 inch full color active matrix polymer OLED (P-OLED) displays using a roll printing method. A demonstrator will be shown at the SID conference in San Francisco. The displays – believed to be the first of their type ever produced – are the result of close co-operation between the two companies and part of their joint development activity announced in February 2005.

Solution processing of P-OLED displays is more commonly associated with inkjet printing, and the companies believe that roll printing represents a promising alternative production technique which offers the potential for very good display uniformity, very high display resolution and low capital and operating costs. [...]

The technique is based on relief printing, a well-established method for the transfer of soluble materials onto a range of substrates, but which has been developed by Toppan into a highly precise technology capable of producing patterned pixels of small size and highly uniform distribution. The companies believe that the process is capable of scaling to large substrate size and very high resolution, potentially over 200 ppi.

press release