One of the biggest ongoing/breaking electronics R&D and manufacturing stories is the growth in the flexible, printed, and organic (and thin film) sector, or FPO, over the past several months.
This week, two important FPO information-related events take place: Intertech's Flexible Displays and Electronics conference in Oakland (which I will attend, wearing both my Chip Shots and Small Times hats---watch for my reports) and the publication of NanoMarkets' latest research effort, Printed Electronics: A Manufacturing Technology Analysis and Capacity Forecast.
Since the middle of May, there has been a steady outpouring of FPO-related announcements. Scandanavian polymer memory company Thin Film Electronics inked two more development deals. First, it signed an agreement with Dutch equipment firm OTB Engineering, for the development of inline inkjet manufacturing processes as well as the specification of those tools needed for volume production of TFE's flexible memories. Then last week,TFE said it had joined forces with the Solexis unit of chemical giant Solvay, with a goal of developing ferroelectric polymer materials and ink formulations, again to enhance manufacturing and performance of TFE's printed memories. Along with deals with Xaar (inkjet heads) and Soligie (manufacturing) signed earlier this year, TFE has created an impressive network of development partners in its efforts to commercialize its printed memory devices.
In addition to recently touting what it called "the largest printed semiconductor-based photodetector array," Nanoident said it had finalized a deal with Dimension Data to distribute its Biometric unit's multimodal biometric sensor in Germany. The agreement also includes a pilot project with a large German bank to explore the use of Nanoident's devices in identity theft prevention and the like.
On the other side of the world, Taiwanese display manufacturer Prime View International said it has a flexible amorphous-silicon electrophoretic display in production at a volume TFT fab. The company uses its proprietary MagicMirror reflective technology as well as its exclusive license for Philips Research's EPLaR process to fabricate its flexible e-paper displays. PVI has yet to share the actual amount of "volume" (or the definition of "volume," for that matter) nor has it offered details of its manufacturing/process specs.
Last month, after attending NSTI Nanotech, Small Times' editor in chief Barbara Goode and I visited Fujifilm Dimatix in Santa Clara. Director of operations Russel Yarp and biomed-sciences manager Jan Sumerel provided an instructive overview of the company's MEMS-based, bonded-wafer inkjet-head and inkjet-head-enabled R&D printers technologies. Afterwards, Russel acted as ebullient tour guide of the 150-mm "boutique fab"---although there's nothing boutiquey about a process with more than 300 major steps and about 1500 physical steps, and several unique Dimatix-developed tools and processes! Because of strong demand and a continuing order backlog, the company is building out a fourth cleanroom bay to add capacity, with a new stepper, deep etcher, sputterer, and test gear among the equipment either waiting for installation or coming soon. Yarp told us he expects to go to a 7-day/week production schedule by July.
That same week, Universal Display and LG Philips LCD showed off prototypes of a jointly developed flexible, high-resolution, full-color active-matrix organic LED display at the SID show in Long Beach, CA. The devices are built on flexible metal foil---not plastic---and include thin-film encapsulation/barrier tech from Vitex, which also said it is making good progress with its Barix materials/processes in terms of its reliability in high temperatures and humidities.
The licensing of more than 50 issued and pending micro/nanoscale "molecular fabrication methods" patents to Nano-Terra by Harvard University's Office of Technology Development garnered a fair amount of news coverage. Included among the intellectual property treasure trove are some "soft lithography" jewels, processes related to imprint lithography and other techniques that employ printing and molding to achieve nano-level structures and patterns. Using "microcontact printing," electronically active materials (AKA functional inks) can be rapidly printed on all kinds of substrates, including flexible ones, according to the new company's info.
Although I haven't seen the entire volume yet, I have read the first chapter of the new NanoMarkets report, which I found on their Website. One thing the market research company says is "that major investors are lining up behind PE (printed electronics) for its ability to control costs and create entirely new kinds of products." In addition, "a new capacity surge is expected to occur over the next two to three years in the PE sector and will be spread across all parts of the PE value chain."
It goes on to note that "there is an important commonality at the manufacturing level that defines the emerging PE industry as a whole and separates it from other parts of the electronics sector. All of these firms are concerned to some degree with printing conductive traces, antennas, transistors (frequently organic transistors), dielectric layers, and optically sensitive materials, on a variety of substrates. These substrates are expected increasingly to be flexible." I look forward to reading more of NanoMarkets' latest tome.
On the conference/expo front, the U.S. Display Consortium has revamped its annual Flexible Electronics and Displays Conference and Exhibition, which takes place Jan. 21-24, 2008, at the picturesque Pointe Hilton Squaw Peak resort outside of Phoenix. In addition to the branding tweak of the event, USDC has added a peer-reviewed academic track to the conference and named industry vets Abbie Gregg of AGI and Dan Gamota of Motorola as event cochairs. The organization just issued its call for papers, with a submission deadline of August 15.
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