Experts Share Their Views Ahead of Printed Electronics Conference in Tokyo

Ahead of IDTechEx's Printed Electronics Asia conference and exhibition to be held in Tokyo September 10-11, here are some views from the presenters and organizer.

Speaker Dr Yasuyuki Watanabe of the Center for Frontier Science at Chiba University, says, “We believe that printed electronics is the key technology for advanced flexible electronic devices employing organic materials." He will talk on the hot topic of vertical transistors which can have better current handling and higher frequency performance. For example, ORFID in the US is printing vertical transistors.

Speaker Dr Zie Zhang from the Printed Electronics Department of Motorola in the USA says, “I am looking forward to this exciting event too. I believe that printed electronics offers a unique solution for applications that require low cost and conformal form factor. These are realized by high throughput printing manufacturing technologies and lower cost flexible material systems. Organic and inorganic inks are coexisting and complimenting each other. Skillful integration between organic and inorganic material systems by those creative engineers and scientists will result in creation of a large application portfolio. Printed electronics is capturing and creating markets where traditional silicon microelectronics is too rigid and expensive to apply.”

Raghu Das, Chief Executive of IDTechEx, says, “We shall explore all the applications and hot topics, including the impediments to commercialization of printed electronics such as the slow progress in replacing indium tin oxide.”

For example, whereas use of carbon nanotubes, quantum dots or antimony indium oxide to replace ITO are speculative and unproven at present, speaker Dr Ron Lubianez of H.C. Starck Inc in the US says, “We believe that the impending indium shortage is serious and our high conductivity BAYTRON coating as an ITO replacement is a viable alternative." Recently, it has been used successfully in OLED displays in the USA and in OLED lighting in Europe to replace ITO, and Fujitsu America has recently announced an organic ITO replacement in its new touch screens, available in volume in Q3 of 2007. The transparency/ conductivity compromise is not the same as ITO and this will be discussed at the conference.

The printed electronics industry is full of surprises. For example, OLEDs have attracted the largest number of developers because they have a great future in flexible lighting and flexible displays when the reliability problems are overcome – a big challenge. However, the less glamorous electrophoretic displays are creating new markets right now, including e-books, e-posters and e-billboards.

“It is clear now that electrophoretic displays are set for very rapid growth and it is true that organic TFT starts to play a very critical role to enlarge the E-Paper market,” says Ryosuke Kuwada, talking of the flexible Thin Film Transistors (TFTs) that are needed. He is Vice President, Sales and Marketing, of E-Ink, the leading supplier of “imaging ink” for this purpose. Color versions are also coming along, so his lecture will be very interesting.

Nanoparticle inks are coming in very rapidly because they are more flexible and use less material and Seiko Epson and ULVAC will share their latest advances on this, with Konica Minolta revealing improved ink jet technology. Nanomaterials, and the challenges of printing them, will be a hot topic explored at the conference. Masaaki Oda of ULVAC says, “The printing dispersed nanoparticles will be very important for printed electronics in future. Of course ULVAC is a major supplier of equipment used to manufacture printed electronics already. I look forward to participating in this important conference." Nissan Chemical, Japan Research Institute and others will also make new announcements.

www.idtechex.com/peASIA