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US initiative to push flexible, printed and organic electronics |
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Dec 20, 2006 at 09:23 AM |
 The US Display Consortium (USDC) industry organization plans to launch a US initiative focused on the emerging flexible, printed and organic (FPO) electronics market. The aim is to provide a wide range of services to industry, academia and government to accelerate development and growth of the FPO electronics industry. The USDC's focus is on driving emerging display and related imaging technologies markets, such as organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), flexible displays, 3D displays and high-resolution imaging.
The hope is to create an FPO industry and infrastructure that will ultimately enable the production of active, ubiquitous electronics products (i.e. extremely low cost based on new, flexible form factors) that will lead to intuitive and ambient applications for human systems. Near-term applications for this market include RFID tags, sensors (chemical/biological), energy (e.g., solar cell panels, solid-state lighting, flexible batteries), electro-clothing, architectural and disposable electronics.
According to the USDC, some experts predict that the market for some applications could top $120 billion by the year 2020. More near term, NanoMarkets, a market researcher, claims that the market for organic electronics could reach $1.97 billion in 2012 (http://www.fabtech.org/content/view/2295/2/). Another researcher, IDTechEx, estimates that the 2015 market for organic electronics could be $30 billion, mainly due to logic/memory, displays and lighting. To get some perspective on these figures, the Global Sales Report from the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization puts total IC sales (mainly silicon) at $227 billion for 2005.
The USDC already holds the Flexible Displays & Microelectronics Conference that covers some FPO technologies (next one, February 6-8, 2007, with representatives from Motorola, Semprius, DuPont, Kodak and NanoMarkets due to speak on FPO technology). Moreover, the USDC has more than 30 technical projects underway or completed related to this field - resulting in $75 million in R&D investment. Based on this experience, the USDC says that it will explore the requirements and hurdles that are still impeding mass commercialization, thereby promoting company entry and investment in the emerging sector.
Michael Ciesinski, president of the USDC and appointed to head the initiative, comments: "In order to successfully enable the FPO electronics revolution, an aggressive pace of innovation must be set, resulting in a robust infrastructure and sufficient development funding and resource deployment. We intend to work with the printed and organics electronics industry, facilitating the transition from R&D to prototype manufacturing, and then to commercialization and market acceptance."
In addition to Ciesinski leading the initiative, Dr M Robert Pinnel will initially head the technical activity as interim chief technical officer (CTO).
The USDC has strong relationships with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) -- which funded early federal initiatives programs in P&O electronics -- and with the (inter)National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (iNEMI). The latter organization is to publish a P&O electronics technology roadmap in early 2007. These efforts are augmented by three significant US-government initiatives, which include the Army Flexible Display Center (FDC) at Arizona State University, the macroelectronics program sponsored by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and the Binghamton University (N.Y.)-led Center for Advanced Microelectronics Manufacturing (CAMM).
In addition to US companies, there are already dedicated flexible printed electronics companies such as Plastic Logic in the UK and PolyIC in Germany.
By Dr Mike Cooke
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