Capturing value from research networks in emerging technologies
About plastic electronics
- What is plastic electronics?
- Why is plastic electronics disruptive?
- Plastic electronics – a mythical market?
- Plastic electronics in the UK
- Why are research networks important for plastic electronics?
What is plastic electronics?
'Plastic electronics' and 'printed electronics' are general terms used to describe electronics based on semiconducting organic (i.e. carbon-based) polymeric materials, usually in a solution-based format, which make it possible to deposit materials onto a surface using additive or printing techniques. Organic electronics are not about to replace the silicon in conventional chips, but there are many applications for which they have the potential offer a competitive or superior mix of novel performance and manufacturing economics.
The primary attraction of printing technologies is their ability to produce lightweight and robust electronics at low cost on large area, flexible substrates. Printed electronics represents a major departure from conventional manufacture of electrical and electronic components, such as silicon chips, by making possible the production of lightweight, flexible electronic devices on cheap materials such as paper or flexible film.
Solution or liquid-based printing techniques have been utilised in the graphic arts printing industry for more than 500 years to replicate information (with pigment-based inks) on paper in high volumes and at very low cost. The application of these techniques to electronics is leading to a major paradigm shift, which has come about through ...
- the development of functional electronic materials (conductors; insulators; semiconductors; planarisation, passivation and encapsulation layers; light emitting and sensing materials etc.) ...
- with well-defined structural, chemical and physical properties ...
- that can be processed with printing from the liquid phase into a mechanically flexible format.
A paradigm shift in electronics
|
 |
Conventional processing |
Additive/printing processing |
| Subtractive batch processes (photolithography and wet/dry etching for layer definitions) | Additive continuous processes (printing, laser processing etc.) for layer definitions |
| Controlled (e.g. a vacuum environment) | Ambient temperature and pressure conditions |
| Fixed, long production runs of 'same product' | Flexible, short production runs - 'flexible' product functionality |
Source of images: Intel (conventional processing); PolyIC (additive processing)
Electronic devices and circuits can be made by printing solution-based materials onto flexible or rigid surfaces. Layers with different functions are printed, one at a time and with great precision at a micro scale, onto a surface referred to as the substrate. By building up layers using additive printing processes, combined with coating and patterning processes, an electronic device is generated. The device might be a photovoltaic cell, an emissive or reflective display, a battery or any combination of electronic components.
Innovation in printed electronics is occurring alongside wider developments in organic and thin-film electronics. It is not sensible to try to define ‘printed’, ‘plastic’ and ‘organic’ electronics as separate terms. They are different ways of describing innovations in the electronics field, but they use common materials sets, processes and device architectures.
- Some organic materials are made from small molecules whilst others use long chains of repeating molecular units (polymers). Polymers can be solution-based, which makes it possible to print them, whilst small molecules typically have to be deposited using vacuum-based processing techniques. Thus in printed electronics the materials are typically made from polymers in a solution format, and can be deposited using inkjet, screen printing or other printing techniques.
- Organic electronics involves the inclusion (either through printing or some other technique) of one or more organic components within a transistor or other electronic device. Organic devices can make use of inorganic components, such as nanoparticles of metals in an organic solution-based format for conducting electrodes. Polymer Vision’s Readius® product is a rollable display module, which has an organic semiconducting material (pentacene) and metal electrodes.
Polymer Vision’s
Readius® rollable display technology enables mobile devices to incorporate a display larger than the handset. This is being co-developed and marketed in Italy by Telecom Italia Mobile. See www.readius.com.
- Plastic electronics generally refers to devices fabricated on flexible substrates, which make it possible to produce bendable electronic products, such as electronic paper displays. Flexible substrates offer manufacturing efficiencies in that they can permit the use of reel-to-reel or reel-to-sheet production. However, flexible devices also create great production challenges because of the need for the various component layers to remain continuous and in contact when the device is rolled or manipulated, exposed to heat or cold, air or water.
Flexible does not necessary imply printed, however. For example, E Ink’s flex-ready electronic ink display media (which is used in Polymer Vision’s rollable display) is supplied as a film which is laminated to the display active matrix driving backplane.
E Ink’s Electronic Paper Display is a display that possesses a paper-like high contrast appearance, ultra-low power consumption, and a thin, light form. See http://www.eink.com/technology/index.html
Why is plastic electronics disruptive?
Conventional manufacture of displays and electronic components requires large expensive vacuum-based equipment, with sheet-layer depositions in batch processing techniques involving multiple steps at high temperatures. Photolithography is used to define a resist mask, enabling the material previously deposited to be etched off and thrown away, and leaving behind the required pattern after the mask has been removed. Conventional manufacture therefore requires huge capital investments and large material costs.
In contrast, printed electronics is cost-effective (since material is only deposited in the required areas) and can be performed with fewer steps at lower temperatures suitable for flexible, plastic substrates. Continuous roll-to-roll processes then become possible, without the need for highly specified production environments. Materials and manufacturing costs will be lower, and high customisation should be feasible. Printed electronics introduces the possibility for a huge range of new applications that are lightweight, robust and with production costs suitable for disposable electronics.
These differences mean that plastic electronics (whether printed or deposited using some other process) is a disruptive technology. It offers products/service offerings into new markets, as opposed to competing head-to-head with incumbent electronics players and applications.
Plastic electronics – a mythical market?
There are considerable uncertainties about the size of the market but some bullish predictions have been made. IDTechEx predicts that the plastic electronics market will be worth $300bn by 2030. Suggested application domains include flexible displays (sometimes referred to as e-paper), electronic RFID tags (the tags that set off store alarms use RFID technology), intelligent packaging, bio-sensors, disposable electronics and intelligent textiles.
There are possibilities for creating new product categories. NanoMarkets lists electronic paper, roll-up displays, photovoltaic cells, and sensor-laden laminates and coatings as examples. Packaging with sensors could make smart packaging possible - for example labels that change colour if a product exceeds a certain temperature or shelf life. Disposable RFID tags could make it possible to tag and remotely detect every item in a supermarket, expediting the check-out process. Organic materials might be used for computer memory or processors, if the economics become attractive and the required product functionality can be shown.
There are many reasons why products based on printed electronics are intuitively appealing. Devices made from organic materials generate very little heat, and typically use smaller amounts of power compared with inorganic devices. Printing a device onto a flexible substrate, such as plastic or paper, is suggested to radically increase the scope for new portable and wireless applications such as electronic paper and roll-up displays. In addition, the use of organic materials could create possibilities in healthcare, such as biocompatible dressings and flexible sensors.
Caption: Plastic Logic “take anywhere, read anywhere” displays. See http://www.plasticlogic.com/news-detail.php?id=300
Many of these possibilities are just that at the moment – possibilities. Few devices have reached full production in significant numbers. To date, most research activity is focused on producing functional materials in small quantities, and combining them into prototypes or demonstrators. These demonstrate the principle of printed electronics, but large-scale production is still a long way off.
Moreover, consumer demand for the suggested new products has yet to be proven, and will inevitably be sensitive to price. For printed photovoltaics, for example, the price of solar cells and their lifetime need to be comparable with inorganic alternatives before the market potential is clear. Notably, Intel has abandoned its pursuit of organic technology.
Even if organic products were entering production in significant numbers, inorganic products are evolving just as rapidly; in effect they are moving targets. Organic electronics are unlikely to compete with crystalline silicon chip-based materials on the basis of performance. Organic electronics may be able to compete on cost in certain markets, but it is not clear what those markets will be, or their size. One scenario is that new product categories based on low-functionality cheap disposable items (such as interactive trading cards for children) might be the first point of departure for a printed electronics market.
Plastic electronics in the UK
The UK has the potential a global leader in many aspects of plastic electronics. Universities and companies based in the UK are leading the development of substrates, functional materials, organic semiconductors and new device architectures.
It remains to be seen whether volume production of printed electronics devices will actually take place in the UK on a large scale, or whether the UK will remain an IP shop. Other countries are investing heavily to attract inward investment in production. The UK firm, Plastic Logic, is making a US$100m dollar investment in production facilities in Dresden, heavily subsidised by the German government. At present, there is no evidence that the UK government is planning to do the same.
Nonetheless, to capture a share of the global market in the development of new technologies, the UK needs to extend its leadership in display technologies and materials, and focus these technologies on market needs.
This project has generated a Competence Matrix charting where the UK has a presence in the various technology areas and value chains that are necessary to bring Plastic Electronics products and technologies to market. For a more detailed analysis of plastic electronics in the UK, and to download the Competence Matrix, click here.
Why are research networks important for plastic electronics?
Printed electronics involves the convergence of many industries and scientific disciplines and sectors that do not conventionally choose to work together. Developments in printed electronics are relevant to the chemicals, printing, paper, plastics, and packaging industries as well as to the electronics industry.
The new applications projected for printed electronics require collaborative projects across different types of boundary:
- Collaboration across scientific disciplines. Organic and solution-based chemistries are at the heart of printed electronics. Moving beyond materials to processes and devices, the problems and challenges span the disciplines of chemistry; physics; and electronic, systems and process engineering. As biomedical applications are developed, collaboration with biochemists and clinicians will also be necessary.
- Collaboration along the value chain. The value chain in printed electronics begins with basic research in universities and with the development of materials and extends through the development of components to the final assembly of devices and their integration within applications. Collaboration is needed at all points along the value chain to identify new markets.
- Collaboration across university-industry boundaries. Much of the expertise in basic research is within universities, and it is more efficient for companies to access university expertise than to attempt to recreate the same knowledge within. Arizona State University’s Flexible Display Centre is an example of companies leveraging research expertise within a university.
- Collaboration across international boundaries. Expertise in materials processes and integration is distributed globally. Research alliances inevitably span international boundaries in order to tap into the optimal sources of knowledge.
The plastic electronics industry requires efficient and effective research networks to be formed across all of these boundaries.
This project will offer insights into the costs and benefits of collaborative partnerships from the perspectives of different players in the emerging 'ecosystem' of plastic electronics (academics, scientists and engineers in commercial companies, R&D managers, company directors, and funders of research). It will help to reveal whether and how partnerships can be fostered through research networks, and how public funding contributes to making collaboration worthwhile.
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