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MAGAZINE
PLASTIC
ELECTRONICS
INTRODUCTION
DEFINITIONS
PLASTIC, PRINTED, LARGE AREA, TOLAE...
2 / PLASTIC ELECTRONICS / 2014
P
lastic electronics goes by a bewildering variety of names,
not all of which adequately describe an emerging field
- one of the fastest growing technologies in the world which many experts say will revolutionise the electronics industry.
The names most commonly used are plastic, flexible, organic and
printable electronics or, most recently, TOLAE (Thin-film, Organic
and Large Area Electronics). Essentially, it’s a multi-disciplinary
technology which enables circuits to be printed or deposited onto
a range of surfaces (both rigid and flexible) and so opens the door
to a new generation of innovative products that can be produced
more cheaply and in a more environmentally-friendly way than
previously viable. The potential for manufacturing is huge.
However, as Chris Rider of the Engineering and Physical Sciences
Research Council (EPSRC) funded Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Large Area Electronics (CIMLAE) points out, this is
not a new technology: “There’s nothing that we do that can’t be
done by another route. It’s about the materials that enable these
manufacturing processes. Plastic electronics is a catch-all term
for a radical new way of making electronics.”
What it does is allow electronics to be used in places it hasn’t
been used before, to create new products, as well as improve
existing electronics by either replacing some components or films
with cheaper, more robust, higher performance alternatives, or
completely replacing existing devices, such as organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays supplanting LCD displays in mobile
phones.
Many aspects of printed electronics promise to eventually be
cheaper but can often start off at a high cost base until manufacturing volume becomes significant.
The materials and components used in plastic electronics are
not always plastic but they are often carbon-based and therefore
organic, rather than traditionally silicon-based. Manufacturing
costs are reduced by printing these components directly onto a
surface and using semi-conductive inks, which brings savings not
possible with the use of traditional methods.
The products created by these new materials and methods are
often flexible (such as bendy screens and clothes with digital displays), thinner and lighter. They can be mass-produced roll to roll
(R2R) and are safe for disposal. The technology is also flexible
in the sense that it can be integrated into almost anything from
intelligent packaging, to protect goods, prevent counterfeiting or
detect when products are past their shelf life, to low-cost solar
cells in the fabric of buildings and vehicles.
It’s the gateway to edible, foldable, rollable, conformal, wearable,
biodegradable and other electronics and of vital interest to industries as diverse as consumer goods, healthcare, mobility, electronics, the media and architecture.
The market
UK-based research company IDTechEx has been reporting on
printed electronics since 2002. “The topic is broader than many
people realise,” they write. “There is strong interest in printed electronics enabling part of the Internet of Things vision; researchers
are working on bringing together 3D printing with electronics; bioelectronics...”.
Their research underlines that this is a very exciting market that’s
growing by the minute:
• The most successful (multi-billion dollar) industries stemming
from plastic electronics are currently OLED displays, eReaders and conductive ink, with the latter used for a wide range
of applications.
• The total market for printed, flexible and organic electronics
will grow from $16.04bn in 2013 to $76.79bn in 2023.
• Much of this growth will be in OLEDs (organic but not printed)
and conductive ink. However, stretchable electronics, logic
and memory and thin film sensors are also believed to hold
huge growth potential as R&D progresses.
• Over $10bn has been invested into plastic electronics in the
last 20 years and this is predicted to increase to $25bn by
2020.w
• The vast majority (approx. 94%) of current plastic electronics products continue to be fabricated on glass or other rigid
substrates, with new materials used mainly for cost and performance improvements.
• There is significant opportunity for producers of non-commodity high value chemicals, manufacturing equipment, electronic and electrical components. Companies offering commodities such as substrates, barriers, or electronics-enabled
products will also be in demand.
• Globally, over 3,000 organisations are currently involved in
pursuing opportunities in plastic electronics, including printing, electronics, materials and packaging companies.
• In the UK, 134 companies and 33 universities are involved in
plastic electronics, providing employment for over 2,500 individuals and revenue of £234m (Plastic Electronics Leadership
Group’s sector study).
Contact
EMAIL: [email protected]
PHONE: 01403
251354
ADDRESS: Bailey House,
4-10 Barttelot Road, Horsham,
West Sussex, RH12 1DQ, UK
2014 / INTRODUCTION / 3
A VERY BRITISH
TECHNOLOGY
British scientists were at the heart of the invention
of plastic electronics; at the Cavendish Laboratory
in Cambridge, Jeremy Burroughes, Donal Bradley
and Richard Friend pioneered the technology in the
1990s and span out two leading companies in the
field: CDT (Cambridge Display Technologies) and
Plastic Logic.
Initial breakthroughs and investments were in organic
materials development. This has been followed by a
focus on developing the necessary printing equipment, and the involvement of new companies and
stakeholders.
BENEFITS
R&D in the new technology has benefited from
British expertise in disciplines such as thin film technology, organic chemistry, printing and circuit design.
With milestones in materials and equipment having
been reached, the current phase sees companies
now able to manufacture components beginning
to put together complete solutions and create new
markets.
Plastic electronics produces products which often have one or more of the
following benefits:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Lower cost
Use less energy and materials
Have improved performance
Flexibility
Transparency
Stretchability
Reliability
And are better for the environment.
4 / PLASTIC ELECTRONICS / 2014
APPLICATIONS
Plastic electronics could lead to clothing which is
wired to cool or heat, reading tablets that fold like a
newspaper and wallpaper integrated with electronics to provide light; imagine an electronic display as
translucent as glass, a curtain that illuminates a room
or a smartphone screen that doubles in size, stretching like rubber.
Perhaps the most successful use of the technology to
date has been the Duracell battery reader, which uses
its packaging to estimate remaining charge. The attention grabbing aspect of the technology has meant a
great deal of activity in the FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) industry, where attracting consumers’
attention is a priority.
But however wide the application base is, there’s presently no one “killer” application for plastic electronics.
This has led critics to speculate that the technology is
a solution looking for a problem.
In the medical field, electronic strip readers for diabetes sufferers have sold billions in the past decade.
Countless health and beauty applications exist, yet
inertia combined with red tape has held up much of
the promise of plastic electronics in medical testing.
2014 / INTRODUCTION / 5
E-READERS
E-READERS
WHAT’S THE STORY?
Electronic paper or, e-paper, has its main application
in e-book readers, or e-readers, a market that has
flourished recently due to the success of devices such
as the Kindle. IDTechEx valued the market at $1.03 bn
in 2012, but possibly the last legacy of e-readers is
how instrumental they’ve been in sparking an interest
in the technology behind them.
E-paper displays mimic real paper, which can be
described as a reflective surface, non-emissive and
viewable from any angle. There’s no need for a backlight to illuminate the pixels as they reflect light, just
like paper does, and can hold text and images indefinitely without drawing power. Many versions can also
be flexible, thinner and more robust than other display
technologies.
E Ink
E-readers all use the same E Ink Pearl display. E Ink
technology was released more than two years ago and
E Ink currently holds more than 95% of the e-reader
market (excluding LCD tablets).
The reasons for this are manifold: it provides decent
contrast for reading, has an almost 180 degree viewing
angle, is bistable (meaning that the display can hold
an image without consuming power) and compatible
with roll-to-roll manufacturing using printing technolo6 / PLASTIC ELECTRONICS / 2014
gies. This has allowed the company to rapidly scale
up, producing products at high volume and high yield,
and thus a highly competitive price.
However, there are also negatives: the screen for one.
It’s not actually white but a light grey. This is because
the “white” state is only about 40% reflective (a white
page in a newspaper would be around 60% reflective). The other major problem is the lack of colour. E
Ink’s colours are obtained by adding RGB (an additive colour model in which red, green, and blue light
are added together) filters on top of a monochrome
display, this reduces the reflectance even further.
And competitors are starting to appear.
Liquavista (recently bought by Amazon) uses a technique called electrowetting which makes it possible
to incorporate a larger choice of colour pigments
into the fluids, resulting in a perception of rich colour.
However a major disadvantage with their displays is
that they’re not bistable, which means higher power
consumption.
Another company, Mirasol (owned by Qualcomm),
uses a completely different approach. Their display
has an array of microelectromechanical systems
(MEMS) which make minute, rapid movements to
tiny mirrors. This means that they are able to display
video. However, the
disadvantages are that
the displays have a narrow
viewing angle, because of
the way each optical cavity
reflects light, and are expensive
compared to E Ink ones. Qualcomm has now
stopped production and is looking to license the
technology to other manufacturers.
The future
For many, e-readers were only a transition technology which peaked in 2011. Once e-readers had been
accepted as a substitute for books, the argument is
that it’s only a small step to start reading on colour,
multi-media LCD tablets.
But e-readers are still hugely popular, not least
because of their long battery life, readability in sunlight and low price.
The expert view is that e-readers will co-exist alongside tablets in the medium term, mainly because
they are cheaper and have better battery life. But the
appearance of new, hybrid devices, which can also
be used as mobiles, indicates that dedicated e-readers are unlikely to survive.
COMPANIES TO WATCH
HP and Fuji Xerox are working on colour e-paper
displays that outperform E Ink
Gamma Dynamics: specialists in electrofluidic
display technology of e-Paper applications.
Opalux: makes the colour of previously static
photonic crystals tunable
2014 / E-READERS / 7
Towards a
flexible future
It’s been around 15 years since CDT embarked on its
quest to develop flexible displays. Progress since then
has been slower than many expected. But the feeling
that this is an industry on a tipping point is returning.
A recent report from IHS claims demand for flexible
OLEDs is expected to grow by more than 300% in
2014, with sales reaching nearly $100 m, $1.5 bn by
2016 and in excess of $10 bn by 2019.
Much of this renewed enthusiasm is down to two
companies: LG Display and Samsung Electronics.
In October 2013, LG announced mass-production of
the world’s first flexible OLED panel for smartphones,
which was followed swiftly by Samsung’s launch of
the Galaxy Round, a mobile handset with a curved
display screen.
Chris Rider of EPSRC’s CIMLAE believes the new
OLED products could be a game changer: “It
proves it’s all for real and shows that organic
materials will make it,” he says. “It’s no longer
an issue of will it make it? It has. This is the
flagship, if you like, of organic electronics.”
Although flexible, it’s not clear
whether the Samsung display
uses glass. But LG have been
more forthcoming about their
product: it uses unbreakable plastic substrates
instead of glass, is
vertically concave and
is currently the world’s
slimmest, lightest and
largest smartphone
OLED mobile display
panel.
LG has also
expressed its desire
to take an early lead
in this direction, as it
expects the flexible
display market to grow
quickly and expand
further into diverse applications including automotive displays, tablets and
wearable devices, as well as
rollable and foldable displays in
various sizes.
8 / PLASTIC ELECTRONICS / 2014
PLASTIC
LOGIC:
POSITIVELY
FLEXIBLE
Plastic Logic’s modest HQ in Cambridge Science
Park belies the powerhouse of activity inside. There’s
a large office space with 15 or so computers and a
series of research labs populated with sophisticated
mixers, an ink jet printer, ovens to bake and cool the
plastic displays and all manner of machines fundamental for understanding the critical performance of
transistors.
The labs are housed in corridors on either side of
the office space, together with the company’s clean
room where prototypes of the display technology are
produced. Cambridge, as is fitting, focuses on the
research side of the business: the diagnostics, measuring the distortion of the various new materials used
and changing their dimensions, for example.
The company’s manufacturing facility however, is in
Dresden, Germany. It’s able to mass produce their
ultra lightweight 10.7” displays, with yields comparable to those in the LCD industry.
As well as monochrome, the company can now
produce colour displays and provide video animation.
Displays boast a lifetime of over five years and more
than 10 million page updates.
As the Plastic Logic’s Research Manager, Dr. Mike
Banach has been there almost from the beginning.
2014 / E-READERS / 9
Having completed his first degree in the States, he
came to Cambridge University in the late 90’s, and it
was there that he first met Plastic Logic’s founders.
“It’s just been a fantastic ride,” he says of the past ten
years,“to go from university, where we were making
individual devices, to making demonstrators compelling enough to inspire investment and build the
manufacturing side. Now, with the technology right,
you’re more on the sales side, figuring out what the
key applications are.”
Pivotal year
It was largely the technology which let the company
down in the pivotal year of 2010. Perhaps it would
have been too much of a Cinderella style tale if in that
year, the Cambridge University spin-out had pulled the
rug out from under Amazon and Apple, and become
the go-to purveyor of the e-reader.
Instead, the company ended up abandoning their
Que proReader, having spent years, not to mention
millions, on its development, without having shipped
a single unit.
“We recognise the market has changed dramatically,
and with the product delays we have experienced, it no
longer makes sense for us to move forward with our first
generation electronic reading product,” said Richard
Archuleta, who was then chief executive of Plastic
Logic. “This was a hard decision, but is the best one
for our company, our investors and our customers.”
10 / PLASTIC ELECTRONICS / 2014
Having missed one boat, the company is now embarking on another but will they get it right this time?
Hundreds of millions
Plastic Logic was founded over a decade ago by two
Cambridge scientists, Prof. Sir Richard Friend and
Prof. Henning Sirringhaus. They raised hundreds of
millions of pounds to develop their new technology,
based on semiconducting polymers deposited onto a
plastic surface, with the promise that plastic electronics would ultimately be cheaper than silicon-based
circuits.
“I think they were too ambitious with what they were
trying to do,” says Raghu Das, CEO of IDTechEx, providers of business intelligence on printed electronics.
“As a result, it didn’t work out.”
It’s not just Plastic Logic who were caught out though,
according to EPSRC CIMLAE Director Chris Rider. At
the time, expectations of what was possible and how
long it would take to achieve, were running high.
“When it all started out, it looked like a revolution was
about to happen,” says Rider. “It was very exciting,
with the possibility of doing things which couldn’t be
done in other ways but what we’ve found out in the
last ten years is that it wasn’t quite that simple. The
problem was the materials only lasted for about a
minute and it’s taken a long time to get them to the
point when they’ve lasted longer. Meanwhile, the
incumbent technology has come along.”
Powerhouse
In May 2012, Plastic Logic’s new CEO Indro Mukerjee announced that the company would follow a
novel strategy: leveraging its R&D and manufacturing
resources to accelerate applications, developing partnerships and entering multiple new markets selling its
unique flexible plastic display technology.
And unique it is, because, in all the furore surrounding the Kindle and the iPad, it’s easy to forget that
Plastic Logic are the first business to fully industrialise
the mass production of plastic electronics, having,
in 2008, opened the world’s first organic electronics
manufacturing facility.
Not wanting to make the same mistake of focusing
on one product again, Plastic Logic are now pursuing
not one but three different strategy streams in order
to exploit their technology across the widest range of
applications and markets.
“We’re a display company that’s trying to come back
to some of the fundamental things that we were doing
when we were younger, with a more stable foundation,” explains Banach.
“Our long term agenda is to establish a foothold in
the EPD (electrophoretic display) market, but we also
want to start a flexible display market. There aren’t
really any flexible displays being sold yet.
In Cambridge, our research focus is to integrate our
flexible electronics with OLEDs. Adding OLED capability opens up a whole new set of opportunities for us
and will mean much greater demand.”
Then there are all the possibilities which currently lie
outside the display space, smart packaging and shelf
edge labels for instance. In the future, the company
sees applications for their technology not only in their
traditional consumer electronics market, but also in
diverse fields such as signage, automotive and aerospace.
Banach estimates that demonstrators featuring the
new OLED based flexible displays should be ready by
the end of 2014. However, manufacturing capability is
partner dependent, so it could be another year before
the first products are rolled out.
Seeding the market
Having being pipped to the post with their Que proReader, it would be understandable if Plastic Logic
were impatient to get their product to market, but
that’s not what the company believes will ultimately
win out; it’s more about making connections, collaboration and painstaking research.
“Seeding the market is what we want to do, as
opposed to conquering it,” says Banach.
“Also, the entire industry is based on glass at the
moment. We’re making it possible to replace heavy
and fragile glass backplanes with a plastic alternative. But it’ll be 10-15 years before all displays are
on plastic. That’s the technical challenge. Success in
the near term will require plastic electronics firms to
partner to create integrated solutions.
“We work with companies that can do things like put
the batteries and electronics in, and we’re in a lot of
conversations right now.”
With flexible displays an area that the broader technology industry is increasingly interested in, Plastic Logic
is in discussion with several third-parties, including
device manufacturers, about licensing its technology.
The company’s secondary display for smartphones
(a collaboration with Pocketbook) is one example.
Because it’s built on plastic, not glass, their device will
be shatterproof and will function as a protective cover
for the LCD or OLED display on the phone. So, for
the first time ever, a display will be protecting another
display - a good example of how flexible electronics
can be integrated into everyday objects to enable
new functions.
This device, and so-called secondary displays in
general, are attracting a lot of interest, according to
Banach. The key attractions are that the displays are
flexible and solar powered. The idea is that people
continue to use their primary, colour, mobile display
to watch videos and for the Internet, but can easily
access a secondary display for saving information,
such as plane tickets, or perhaps as a watch. Because
it doesn’t require battery power, it can always be on
and can be integrated into the plastic casing on the
phone.
With wearables and small displays becoming more
popular, sparked off by Google Glass and Samsung’s
recent launch of its smart watch, the Galaxy Gear, it’s
a logical step for the company to take.
Another possible application is a smart bracelet
displaying your hospital details and which can be
updated externally with test results, says Banach.
What’s also emerging on the back of the 3D printing
revolution, according to Banach, is a swing towards
lower volume, more bespoke products.
And the company’s Dresden-based manufacturing
facility is perfectly suited to cater for this. Obviously,
high volume manufacturing is the way to drive down
2014 / E-READERS / 11
cost but, says Banach, much of the process is digital,
which means that you can iterate.
The company is exploring the potential of catering
for personalised production through further digitisation of the manufacturing process in partnership with
the UK’s National Printable Electronics Centre at the
Centre for Process Innovation. However, currently, it’s
still very much a volume versus price negotiation.
Second time around
So there’s a lot going on at Plastic Logic HQ and a
sense of little time to be wasted. But just how far off
is success? Is this an industry at the turning point, or
is there still a way to go? And what’s the prognosis for
the future of a company which some believe is already
on borrowed time?
“While the market’s moved, there’s still nobody who
is doing what we are,” says Banach. “There’s no
doubt that our competitors have flexible electronics
programmes, but they’re doing it in different ways.
It’s just a matter of which technology wins and how
long it takes. As with all technology, it takes longer to
develop than you’d expect.
Samsung and LG have certainly been at each other
throats to get their products out to market, but that
certainly doesn’t mean they have it all sussed out.
And it’s also fuelled the interest in flexible displays so,
in that sense, it’s good to have competition.”
The world’s leading electronic manufacturer is certainly a formidable competitor to have, but Plastic
Logic’s reputation is also something to be reckoned
with, according to Chris Rider:
“Plastic Logic are absolutely world class,” he says,
“they just haven’t got a big market at the moment,
they’re trying to find it.”
12 / PLASTIC ELECTRONICS / 2014
And there’s more at stake here than
Plastic Logic alone. Rider believes
the industry as a whole was also
somewhat to blame for raising
hopes regarding what was possible,
and that may also have contributed
to Plastic Logic’s initial failure.
“We completely sold this the wrong
way, we over hyped it, and I think it’s
very important that we now present
this in a way that is realistic,” he
says. “Now people are excited but
have the right expectations.”
And that’s how it should be because,
although it’s a hugely exciting field,
it’s also a fledgling industry and it
needs successes. It can’t afford to
take any more risks with investor
confidence. With the technology
almost there, many, including
Mike Banach, believe the future is
flexible:
“If you look at the benefits of flexible displays: robust,
thin, lighter weight... In the future I think all displays
will be flexible. Why keep it on glass if you can do it on
plastic? But there are certain performance attributes
needed and until companies can do it without our
technology, we still have a very valuable role to play.”
PLASTIC LOGIC
COLLABORATIONS
An integrated, plastic digital timetable:
dresden elektronik with Plastic Logic
Large-area (40”) flexible digital signage:
TOPPAN Printing Co. Ltd. and
Plastic Logic
“Papertab” - a flexible paper computer:
Queen’s University, Intel Labs and
Plastic Logic
Developing graphene as a transparent, highly
conductive layer for plastic backplanes and
transistors:
Cambridge University’s Graphene Centre
and Plastic Logic, June 2013
A secondary display for smartphones:
Pocketbook
and Plastic Logic, September 2013
A plastic image sensor:
ISORG and Plastic Logic, November 2013
THE PLASTIC
ELECTRONICS PLATFORM
P
lastic electronic devices can vary significantly in design and complexity. In
the simplest design case, a few circuit elements are attached to a substrate.
Sensors, resistors, capacitors, inductors and switch elements are printed
onto the substrate material along with conductive traces to create the circuit layout.
Active elements, such as LEDs, transistors and integrated circuits are directly
attached using conductive adhesives.
Alternatively, where limited low-power active circuitry is required, a fully plastic electronic design is possible, with the active circuit elements fabricated as thin film
(diodes or transistors) by depositing additional layers of organic solution-processed
materials directly onto the conductive traces printed on the substrate.
In the more complex cases, such as large area active matrix backplanes fabricated
on plastic, the final device may contain millions of micron-sized switching transistors that are themselves part of an additional device such as a sensor array or flat
panel display.
2014 / INTERACTIVE APPLICATIONS / 13
INTERACTIIVE APPLICATIONS
NOVALIA:
Everything is intera
E
ven after nine years,
there’s still very much
an air of excitement
and determined enthusiasm surrounding a
small Cambridge based
company called Novalia.
At demos, their products
invariably elicit gasps of
amazement and delight.
They’re testaments to what’s possible with a little
technology, a large dose of creativity and a heap of
integration. Now there’s also a belief that the world
may have finally caught up with their way of thinking,
that it’s possible to create a lot with very little.
It’s a philosophy propagated by the company’s
founder, Dr. Kate Stone:
“My Gran told me: “You cut your coat from the cloth at
hand,” which sort of makes sense,” she muses. “It’s
not about looking at a polymer transistor and thinking
what is the ideal way that I could make this? If I had
an infinite amount of money, what machines would I
build and what materials would I develop? If the material your coat is made out of is from the environment
you’re in, it’s more likely to fit in with it. So using the
processes that are already used means its much more
likely that there’s a fit with the industry.”
14 / PLASTIC ELECTRONICS / 2014
Stone is talking about the printing industry. She cut
her teeth (along with her coat) in plastic electronics,
while working on circuit design at Plastic Logic, and it
was there that she became inspired by printing.
She set out to visit manufacturers and learn about
print processes and ways of depositing material, converting, laminating at high speed, how to dye cut and
all manner of other high volume manufacturing processes.
Not put off by printers telling her it was impossible to
print electronics on a conventional press, she bought
her own, installed it in her garage and taught herself
how to print.
She called the company she started, with backing
from Solon Ventures, Novalia. They use traditional
print processes including flexography, offset lithography, gravure and screen, and work closely with a
number of UK print & packaging companies; they recommend, for instance, which components, inks and
substrates should be used, and specify the design
and software.
A chip on a circuit board
The electronics they add to the process essentially
comprise little more than small electronics modules
attached to everyday materials such as paper, card,
sounds simple but it’s actually been really challenging
and we’ve had to solve a lot of problems.”
In the process, the company has accumulated 30
patent applications half of which have been granted.
Everything is interactive
active
and plastic, for a very low cost at high volume.
“It’s just a chip on a circuit board that we stick on a
piece of paper, and then we print conductive inks on
that paper that connect to the circuit board,” explains
Stone.
The Novalia concept may be simple, but its not pure
printed electronics, it’s a hybrid: the platform integrates conventional electronics, low-cost slender,
silicon chips, with printed electronics. With a circuit in
the corner, these can be distributed even over a large
area. It’s an effective way of manufacturing electronics, on a press, without the need for glass.
But the resourceful Stone doesn’t think the hybrid
nature of their products is a problem, in her view it’s
an advantage:
“There’s a mindset, a holy grail of everything being
printed,” she explains, “and I think that’s the wrong
goal. The right goal is to create interactive products
that can change people’s lives, because people don’t
care if it’s all printed, they don’t worry about the technology. The majority only think about the experience
and about it being affordable. That’s their goal and
that’s our goal.”
“We’re looking at how traditional print and traditional
electronics can come together in a way that creates
a good experience, and is easy to manufacture. It
Novalia see a world where any printed item can be
enabled with interactivity; bringing it to life with traditional printing techniques, using processes and manufacturing capabilities that are available right now.
Commissioned product designs can involve writing
interaction, software, circuit layout or creating graphics. By proving a wall-to-wall service, Novalia are able
to collect a design or royalty fee on their products,
which goes to fund future research and development,
creating IP in printed electronic devices, methods of
manufacture and applications. “The innovation is in
the integration,” says Stone.
And the integration is key because, in this multidisciplinary field, distinctly different skills are needed
throughout the process - from graphic design to print
production and, naturally, electronics. Stone leads a
small, tightly knit, team. Rather than a scientist, the
first person hired was a designer, a creative - rather
telling in an industry dominated by technologists.
“In everything that we’ve done, we put art, design
and creativity before technology,” says Stone. “You
can create more value, use less technology and have
something that costs less if you get the concept right.
Understanding people and the market is the most
difficult thing. It’s not about showing off high tech.
Because our tech isn’t visible, people have said: ‘it
can’t do that!’ People expect it to look high tech. The
future won’t be like that.”
Being ahead of their time has been something of a
challenge for Novalia. It’s why Stone believes that it’s
taken nine long years to get to this stage. But, in a
world where the Internet of Things lies just around the
corner, where technology is ubiquitous and everything is interactive, Novalia’s moment may finally have
arrived.
Keyboards, drum kits and card
Having already developed a range of product demonstrators, many in collaboration with customers,
Novalia are currently engaged in innumerable exciting
projects and one that’s even in production, although
Stone is reticent about revealing the details. There’s
a book project with a musician and a paper-thin DJ
deck demoed on TEDx by Stone.
But it’s not all been plain sailing. In July 2013, Novalia
invited small investors to be a part of their story by
backing their work through crowdfunding site Kickstarter, with a project to manufacture an A2-sized
capacitive touch poster of a drum kit. With the integration of innovative sound technology, the whole
surface becomes a speaker. Not only does the user
hear the beats, but they also feel them when they
touch the drums or cymbals.
2014 / INTERACTIVE APPLICATIONS / 15
The demo led US magazine Adweek to ask: “Is this
musical poster with interactive paper the future of
print and outdoor ads?”
As often with their products, there are two different
versions: the first connects via Bluetooth to an app
running on an iPhone or iPad and plays through the
device; the second is a standalone version that plays
straight out of the poster.
But the project hasn’t been as successful as the
company hoped:
“I think we created something that people just didn’t
understand,” Stone explains. “When you tell someone
you can play drums on a poster, they just don’t get it.
But it was unbelievable to see the shock and delight
on their faces every time I showed someone. They
wanted to buy it straightaway! People love it but they
have to experience it.”
Another project on the go is a fully-functional
QWERTY keyboard printed with conductive ink on
a regular sheet of A4. It employs a single embedded
Nordic Semiconductor System-on-Chip (SoC), with
interactivity provided via a smartphone or tablet app,
and it requires very little manual assembly or wiring.
Because of its powerful processor, it can run Bluetooth and capacitive touch at the same time.
The control module which houses the battery and
electronics is just 2mm deep, while the keyboard area
can be as thin as 0.005mm, ten times thinner than
any other keyboard ever produced. And all this can
be printed at 100 metres-per-minute on a standard
print press.
A simpler version called ‘Switchboard,’ which comprises only eight touch buttons, can be configured to
control (or be controlled by) any Bluetooth enabled
device and can conduct an eight-piece Jazz band
(audio being replayed through a smartphone or tablet),
control iTunes and even send Tweets.
“We printed what’s known as an xy matrix, which
means the chip knows where you’ve touched,”
explains Stone. “Software works out what key it is
and the chip, running bluetooth software, scans the
matrix very quickly and communicates back. So you
have a very responsive bluetooth keyboard based
on one chip and a piece of print - that has to be the
lowest cost way of making a keyboard. It’s caught a
lot of people’s attention and we’re collaborating with
a company about taking this to market.”
Throwing it in the bin
Because it’s produced so cheaply and is so thin, Novalia’s keyboard is also totally disposable. When I meet
him, Chris Jones, the companies ink and print specialist, dramatically demonstrates the point by taking
the keyboard he’s been showing me and scrunching
up the plastic sheet, as you would do with a piece of
paper before throwing it in the bin.
Jones is enthusiastic in describing how plastic electronics can open up a whole new world of possibilities:
16 / PLASTIC ELECTRONICS / 2014
“You’ll see traditional touch interfaces disappearing into actual physical items,” he says. “Books and
keyboards which are flexible, foldable, can sit in your
pocket and are disposable.
Even things like “liking” something in Facebook,
could be done electronically; you can go into a cafe,
for instance, and physically like it.”
“The future potential for this technology is enormous
and unlimited,” echoes Stone. “Imagine being able to
touch a shop display and the product information is
instantly downloaded to your smartphone; a magazine
you simply touch to personalise the cover; a printed
advert with a built-in social media sharing button.”
Advertising and media are areas Novalia are increasingly interested in, believing there’s a big opportunity
at point of sale. Getting consumers engrossed in an
experience, believes Stone, has huge value. There’s
also the potential for interactive direct mail and for the
advertiser to be made aware of who is touching what,
why, how and when. One outdoor project they have
in mind is making bus shelter advertising interactive,
possibly even with their drumkit poster.
With so many major brands headquartered there,
there’s also been a lot of US interest in Novalia recently
with Stone making frequent trips across the pond.
Undoubtedly, a major attraction is the low cost associated with their products. Conductive ink requires only
a small press and the electronics used are also inexpensive. Also key is the fact that the products don’t
require a built in display or speaker to function; lights,
music, etc can come either from the point of interaction or via a mobile. Using an external device also
keeps costs low as display technologies and good
quality speakers are expensive and need an independent power supply.
“If we can put the bare minimum of technology on
the print,” says Jones, “things can be produced at the
lowest cost. People already have a smartphone available they can use. But also, rather than pulling your
phone out all the time, you can use it to interact with
the world around you, as we can embed the touch
technology on screens, displays, in books and services.”
It also allows their products to be device agnostic; able
to communicate with a computer, a mobile phone or
the point of sale technology in a store.
Jones is convinced that this method, rather than producing a stand-alone device, is the way forward:
“The problem is that, once you’ve developed a really
cool display, you’ve got to go out and persuade people
to use it,” he explains. “Whereas If you produce a
printed matrix you can buy that mass produced in
China for less than 10 cents. From a marketing perspective it’s all about making these things as low cost
as possible.”
But instead of China, says Jones, Novalia’s strategy
also focuses on localised manufacturing:
“Companies producing their own things have to set
up their own production line, our production line is
the entire printing industry right round the world. It
democratises manufacturing. We’re not paying over
the odds for a special dedicated manufacturing line,
we’re producing these,” he says, holding up an electronic keyboard, “on a machine that’s running ordinary print jobs too.”
Just to underscore the point. Jones tells me there’s
a very good reason behind his bleary eyed appearance on the morning we meet. The night before he
was celebrating, after a ceremony where Novalia was
the recipient of the Flexotech International Print and
Innovation Award for 2013.
“This is quite special to me personally,” he says,
“because it’s an award about printing and underlines
that we’re doing this using standard printing
processes.”
Britain has a long history of innovation in printing,
beginning with the first press, set up at Westminster
by William Caxton; there’s a vibrant, modern print &
packaging industry that’s the fifth largest producer
in the world. But technology is encroaching fast and
many, up to now, have considered print a dying industry. So, it’s ironic that a technology which sprung up
with e-Readers should also potentially become print’s
saviour.
For Kate Sone, it’s special for another reason too:
“In particular I would love to see this technology being
used to make everyday physical objects we all know
and love, such as books and traditional music packaging, that have recently been in terminal commercial
decline, perhaps being updated and possibly even
made relevant again. And low cost keyboards made
of paper could also form part of charitable and NGO
initiatives to enable even the poorest people in the
developing world to access modern technology for
the first time. The possibilities are endless.”
With Novalia, there is a tangible air of a business at
the brink of success and, after nine years hard slog, it
will be well deserved, but Kate Stone is wary of cracking open the champagne just yet:
“A real business is a business that makes more money
than it spends and we’re not yet a real business,” she
explains. “We still rely on grants and investment to
keep us going, we’re almost breaking even but not
quite. If you’re a musician or an artist, overnight
success often takes about ten years! So, if I make it
this year, I’m slightly ahead of schedule. The moment
of success is when everyone else would have given
up and you didn’t. But the moment of perceived
success, when you’re cracking open the champagne,
that could be five years later.”
2014 / INTERACTIVE APPLICATIONS / 17
INTERACTIVE
ELECTRONIC
APPLICATIONS
Wearable electronics
Woven materials and fibres can also perform electrical functions such as low-power generation and storage, as well as
providing lighting and display.
Award winning UK company, Peratech, is working to commercialise a material called QTC (Quantum Tunnelling Composite) which can used to create new forms of switches
and sensors. It’s washable and can be applied to textiles.
This will not only create new market opportunities in fashion
design, but also improve safety in products such as illuminated jackets for emergency workers.
The military are also exploring ‘electronic camouflage’ which
can cover people and equipment and is capable of dynamically changing to reflect its current environment.
In the last decade, fifty percent of jobs in the European
textile industry have been lost, mostly as a result of manufacturing shifting to South Asia. Technical textiles and smart
textiles hold out one big hope and the market within the EU,
currently valued of €45bn, is growing by 3.2% per annum,
as opposed to a declining trend in the conventional textile
industry of 4%.
Cigarette packaging
Tighter regulations mean that tobacco companies may
soon be forced to introduce plain packaging. Reluctant to
lose shelf visibility, they’re mooting alternatives and at least
one manufacturer is looking at printed electronics.
Incorporating electrical circuits into the packaging will cost
manufacturers just a few pence per unit, and it’s already
possible for individual cigarette packs to appear blank while
on the shelf, but magically reveal their branding once in the
consumer’s hand.
Difficult to copy, printed electronics could also act as a
security feature and counterfeiting deterrent.
The Internet of Things
Norway-based Thin Film Electronics has now raised $24m
which it plans to use embedding sensors, displays and
other devices into the Internet of Things, which sees everyday objects take on network connectivity, allowing them to
send and receive data.
The company’s key product is a printed, integrated, electronic tag, which can potentially replace product bar codes
and costs a fraction of the price of competing products to
manufacture.
The company has taken three printed components —
memory, logic, and a temperature sensor — and integrated them. The circuitry is sprayed onto surfaces, such
as thin films, in a process which resembles inkjet printing.
The device senses temperature and writes the results to
memory. The data can then be output to a display and can
enable tracking for goods such as pharmaceuticals and
perishable foods.
However it will be a few years before the system is in mass
production.
18 / PLASTIC ELECTRONICS / 2014
APPLICATIONS
Batteries with integral
battery tester...
made by Duracell
Musical rum bottles which light
up when you pick them up...
from Coyopa
Optiks - an anti-counterfeiting
technology...
from banknote printers DeLaRue
Talking pizza boxes...
from the US National Football
League with Mangia Media
Various anti-theft devices...
in development by Wal-Mart
and Tyco ADT
Compliance monitoring
blisterpacks and bottles...
from Fisher Scientific, Vitaly Inc.,
Animated board games...
from Hasbro and
Character Vision
Place mats at McDonalds
RFID for tracking...
being developed by Tesco &
Metro and Alien Technology
An interactive tablecloth...
from Hallmark
Magazine covers and greeting cards...
from a variety of manufacturers
including Tigerprint and PragmatIC
A fake interactive boarding pass...
Sata Airlines and Ynvisible
Time temperature label to
monitor Findus meatballs...
designed by Bioett
Posters and keyboards...
from Novalia
A cookie heater pack...
by T Ink
A fly seeking spray...
by Reckitt Benkiser
Theft detection devices...
being tested by Swedish Postal
Service and Deutsche Post
Aardex and Medicom
among others
Real time locating systems...
(source: IDTechEx)
Jackson Healthcare Hospitals
and Awarepoint
2014 / INTERACTIVE APPLICATIONS / 19
SMART
PACKAGING
F
rom winking rum bottles and talking pizza
boxes to electrically charged insecticide that
chases the bug, electronics are already used
in packaging and developers have long seen highvalue consumer goods, such as tobacco, alcohol and
cosmetics, as possible springboards for electronic
printing.
20 / PLASTIC ELECTRONICS / 2014
Now, even in fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), at
least one major manufacturer is talking about adding
printed electronics to their top range, reportedly for a
nine figure sum and, according IDTechEx, the global
demand for electronic smart packaging devices is
currently at a tipping point and will grow rapidly to
$1.45 bn within 10 years.
The technology is attractive to packaging manufacturers as the products have the potential to touch consumers at many points: when a consumer first gets to
know about the product or during an advertisement,
when they first come across it and when it’s used for
the first time. Plastic electronics can play a critical role
at each of these junctions.
It’s also a solution to the ageing population’s need for
disposable medical testers and drug delivery devices.
It can address the fact that, even in middle age, onethird of us have difficulty reading ever smaller instructions. Living in a technological age, consumers can be
more demanding, and have more disposable income.
As a bonus, interactive packaging presents a convenient way to get around tougher legislation (with cigarette packaging, for instance), deal with counterfeiting
and even terrorism.
An answer without a question?
But while developers are printing batteries on pieces
of paper or producing posters that act as loudspeakers, their prototypes have sometimes been labelled
as answers in search of questions. Only occasionally,
argue critics, have technologies been scaled up.
“One of the best examples of printed electronics is
the Duracell battery tester which has been in use for
about ten years,” says Raghu Das, of IDTechEx. “It’s
boring to most people, but its probably one of the
few sustainable applications of printed electronics
in packaging. It’s very crude and very simple. Quite
often companies are trying to do something that’s too
complex.
And there’s a lot of technology, but very few actual
products. Users don’t know what to do with a printed
battery, for example.”
The main issue seems to be that developers, up to
now, have been focusing on individual components, a
battery or a display rather than an integrated or complete device - the solution which end users require.
A complete product
But, according to Das, a few companies, having not
had much revenue over the last few years, are now
collaborating to build devices.
One example is the Norwegian printed memory
company, Thin Film Electronics. Collaboration has
enabled them to create an integrated electronic label,
which takes temperature readings and has a display.
The first products are expected in 2014.
“It’s only beginning to work now because they’re not
relying on someone else to integrate it for them,” says
Das. “They’re working with other suppliers to make a
complete product.”
But it’s still early days: in order to gain very high volume,
and therefore the lowest costs by selling across all
industries, basic hardware platforms such as a very
low cost talking label must be developed. Getting
companies often involved in different disciplines to
collaborate is key.
“Most SME’s don’t
have resources or
the capability to put
a complete system
together”,
says
Chris Rider, Director of the EPSRC’s
new £5.6m Centre
for Innovative Manufacturing in Large
Area
Electronics
(CIMLAE).
“We’re trying to
grow a brand new industry but customers who are
not part of the manufacturing supply chain just want
the thing to work, they don’t want to have to organise
different companies to do that.”
And that’s exactly what CIMLAE seeks to address:
“It’s the power, it’s an input sensor to start, the start
button, timer, output, there are at least four components in every system,” says Rider. “So, if Proctor &
Gamble say we want a smart label to go on a hair dye
bottle with a built in timer, it’s doable but you have to
speak to about three or four different companies. And
how you power it? The problem the centre is going to
try and solve is how to put it all together.”
Prior to EPSRC’s CIMLAE, Rider headed up the Cambridge Integrated Knowledge Centre (CIKC), just one
of five Centres of Excellence around the UK which
have helped many new companies in the printed electronics field. He believes that smart packaging holds
good early opportunities for the technology: “Companies are starting to know how to put the bits together,
Novalia is one of them and PragmatIC Printing too.
Some technologies will be in volume production within
5 years, but not necessarily mass market.”
Technology companies are also starting to involve creative design agencies earlier in the process; they’ve
seen that getting the tech right is really only half the
job and that developers may not be the right people to
design the creative products that really excite people
and make them want to buy.
“The way we’re seeing companies approach it now
is that they’re building lots of different prototypes for
different people and they’re seeing which one snares
their client’s interest,” says Raghu Das. “Some end
users fund projects, but at the moment, most of them
have only been used for a promotional period because
of the higher cost; they’re only doing orders of a few
million.”
But when these problems are finally resolved, smart
packaging is on course to provide a host of consumer
benefits that will make the competition look very tired
indeed. With modern merchandising, a new disruptive
trend will emerge and we’ll progress beyond the static
of current modes of packaging. We’ll also be seeing
dramatically better consumer propositions.
2014 / INTERACTIVE APPLICATIONS / 21
HEALTHCARE & MEDICAL
HEALTHCARE
AND MEDICAL
TESTING
22 / PLASTIC ELECTRONICS / 2014
In the not-too-distant future, it’s completely feasible
that chronic and even acute medical conditions might
be monitored and treated in the home in a smoothly
unobtrusive way: technology that reads vital signs can
already easily be built into T-shirts, belts and shoes;
bed sheets can check your vital signs; biosensors can
live in the body, communicating directly with medical
professionals. There’s even therapeutically-enabled
smart furniture - these are all conceivable advances
in the medium term.
Cost savings riding on the back of these advances
mean that they’ve attracted considerable interest
from governments and insurers, particularly in the US,
fueling R&D.
Market Trends
Raghu Das, CEO, IDTechEx:
“At present, the most successful medical testing
device is the glucose strip. About 20 billion are printed
annually, so it’s a big industry. There’s a lot of interest in doing printing around sensing but on the other
hand, there’s also been a lot of inertia - largely due to
the huge potential liabilities and low rates of adoption.
The medical industry can be very slow to move unless
it’s legislated to.
Things like smart blister packs have real potential, the
idea being that each time you push a pill through, it
breaks a circuit, so doctors can monitor whether a
patient’s taking their pills on time. This can also be
immensely helpful in clinical trials for new drugs. At
the moment, drug companies have to pay people
to call up and ask if participants have been taking
drugs at the right time, which is expensive. However,
even through smart blister packs have been on the
market for nearly five years, they haven’t been widely
adopted. Again, this is down to the inertia of many
drug companies.
So, while plastic electronics has the potential to
improve healthcare in many different ways, adoption
rates vary hugely. A lot of it could be helped by the
government, which may need to mandate the technology in some cases.”
Market Statistics
•
•
The printed and flexible sensor market was worth
$6.3bn in 2013 and IDTechEx forecasts that, by
2020, this figure will have increased by more than
$1bn.
Smartphones and other electronic gadgets with
digital camera functionality will be able to use
conventional silicon-based image sensors in
combination with organic electronics. Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS)
•
•
•
image sensors - for increased range and sensitivity - are expected to quickly become the second
largest market.
Piezoresistive sensing is already an established
market, and is expected to triple by 2018, with a
compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23%.
The global breath analysers market was valued
at $402.1m in 2012 and is estimated to reach
$4,518.4m in 2019, a CAGR of 41.3% from 2013
to 2019 (source: Transparency Market Research)
Integrated circuits - with System-on-Chip in combination with printed electronics - are ideal for
use in the medical device market. This sector
is showing growth of 8% p.a. and will be worth
£74bn by 2018. Areas such as bladder control,
nerve stimulation for people with epilepsy and
paraplegia, as well as temperature sensors, all are
key for commercial expansion (IDTechEx).
A brilliant future for blister packs?
It’s estimated that globally, only half of all medication
is taken as prescribed. This doesn’t just affect patient
health, it hampers research and can compromise
drug trials. The economic burden of non compliance
has been put at $100bn a year.
IDTechEx has found that the demand for electronic
smart packaging devices is currently at a tipping point
and will grow rapidly to $1.45bn within 10 years; it’s
the obvious way to tackle compliance issues.
In the US particularly, there are a large number of companies currently working on smart blister packs, They
typically function by means of a tiny, hidden microprocessor and printed, conductive inks which record the
date, time and location of each pill removed from the
package. The outer packaging helps patients remember
to take their medication, through customised “prompt
technologies” including light, sound or vibration.
Glowpack, made by Vitaly Inc., is just one example. It
can measure liquid medicines as well as oral solids,
injectables and topical ointments and provides both
visual and audible reminders at dosage time. It fits on
most prescription bottles, via a cap containing a wireless chip that communicates with a light plug—akin to
a night light—which pulses orange and chirps, when
you’ve forgotten to take a pill. Due to go on sale in the
US in early 2014, it’s priced at $79.99 plus a monthly
service fee.
For other products, additional features may also be
integrated, such as questionnaires to record patient
feedback, to record any pain, for instance.
As well as compliance, blisterpacks are also thought
to boost sales. Research by the Swiss drugmaker
2014 / HEALTHCARE AND MEDICAL TESTING / 23
Novartis and consulting firm Xcenda found that
patients who received medicines in blister packs with
calendars bought refills five days sooner than those
getting them in traditional amber bottles. They also
stayed on their medication 22 days longer over the
course of a year.
American pharmacies like Wal-Mart and Kroger
already use smart blister packs for some drugs to
set themselves apart from competitors and Wal-Mart
intends to expand their use in 2014.
In the short term, it’s easy to see how smart packaging can deliver clear healthcare improvements
and it could also be a powerful weapon against drug
counterfeiting. Furthermore, in the US, the tracking of
patient compliance will become increasingly important with upcoming changes to healthcare funding in
the Affordable Care Act.
Under the new Act, which comes into effect next year,
reimbursements to health plans for Medicare patients
can be docked if patients don’t keep up prescriptions
for their cholesterol, blood pressure and diabetes
drugs, meaning insurers may be looking for packaging ploys that boost adherence.
As well as fundamentally changing the way the
package interacts with the consumer, this upcoming
wave of technological innovation will have other implications and is expected to come to fruition over the
next fifteen years.
Packaging may feature inexpensive displays as
conductive inks will allow “screens”, that could be
updated interactively, with video clips to prompt or
educate.
But there’s also cause for concern. As the market for
smart medical packaging grows and moves increasingly online, it will be vital to keep an eye on how well
private medical data is protected. After all, the inappropriate disclosure of personal medical information
could set smart packaging back a long way, before
it’s even got started.
A big issue is also that smart blister packs are still
expensive to produce - one study estimates that costs
are up to three times more than typical pill bottles
- and more research is necessary to judge whether
their potential to increase drug adherence outweighs
their higher cost.
But sensing a shift, some in the market are already
responding. Having gained US Food and Drug
Administration approval for its smart blister packs,
Northern Ireland-based contract manufacturer Almac
has invested about $10m in a Pennsylvania packing
plant.
Richard Shannon, head of business development in
Europe for the company, said it has seen a move by
the industry toward blister packs and wallet cards to
improve patient adherence to dosing regimens. “We
have invested heavily in blistering packs and wallet
card automation based on where we see the market
moving in the U.S. and Europe,” he told online publication, Fierce Pharma Manufacturing.
24 / PLASTIC ELECTRONICS / 2014
COMPANY WATCH
PolyPhotonix, a poly-capable startup
Richard Kirk, CEO of Durham-based PolyPhotonix,
doesn’t claim to have all the answers for tech-based
startups. But when it comes to bringing innovation to
the marketplace, his argument is sound.
PolyPhotonix is pioneering the early adoption of
organic light. They work with designers and potential
end-users, to create new products and to support the
design process right through to largescale manufacture.
“We started as many companies
do, as one person with an idea. We
managed to get that funded through
an early Technology Strategy Board
(TSB) project, that offered significant
investment of £3.5m, over 3 years. We
were very fortunate in that we were
then able to work with the Centre for
Process Innovation (CPI), which was a
good place to incubate the company
and work with their scientists and management. Fairly quickly, we were able
to work as a larger company might
because we had the back-up and we
had the systems.”
But what differentiates PolyPhotonix from other science-led start-ups is their keen sense of the commercial imperative. When their first brainwave proved
more costly than they’d thought to develop, they
diversified.
“Our great strength is that we’re driven by the market,
not by our technology and we’ve been very good at
talking to one potential funding body and linking them
with another. The TSB, the Department for Business
Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the NHS have all been
supremely helpful to PolyPhotonix. We’ve managed
to migrate between these big, powerful organisations
with a clear message and to pull a little bit of support
from here and from there - joining all those dots to get
the right outcome.”
Their clear message has managed to
raise £12m in four years. Which sounds
like a lot for joining some dots - and it
is. A lot of that has gone through PolyPhotonix to the seven universities that
are currently running long-term clinical
trials for its new treatment for macular
eye disease.
They’re feeling confident, but are cautious about attracting premature publicity for the treatment: “We’re three
years away from finishing trials. People
who are losing their sight are understandably desperate for any therapy,
immediately. It’s just not fair to make
big statements until we’re ready to go to market.”
In the meantime, Kirk and his colleagues are constantly looking for the next brainwave. “We talk continuously to other scientific sectors. It’s great to get
physicists, medics and biologists - people who are
all at the top of their game - together in one room to
spark ideas off each other. I love to engineer those
meetings - and I make sure we do it frequently.”
WE’RE
BUSINESS DRIVEN.
AND WE’RE
GOOD AT
JOINING
THE DOTS.
2014 / HEALTHCARE AND MEDICAL TESTING / 25
EPIDERMAL
ELECTRONICS
26 / PLASTIC ELECTRONICS / 2014
BODY AREA NETWORKS
The body area network (BAN) field is an interdisciplinary area exploring the possibility of inexpensive and
continuous health monitoring with real-time updates
of medical records through the Internet. BANs rely
on the feasibility of implanting very small biosensors
inside the human body that are comfortable enough
for the wearer to go about their business normally.
The implanted sensors would collect various physiological data in order to monitor the patient’s health
status, whatever their location. The information would
be transmitted wirelessly to an external processing
unit. This unit would then transmit information in real
time to doctors throughout the world. If an emergency
is detected, the patient would be informed through
the system by the sending of appropriate messages
or alarms.
At present, the quality of information provided and
energy resources capable of powering the sensors
are limited. While the technology is still in early stages,
it is being widely researched.
Initial applications of BANs are expected to appear
primarily for patients suffering from chronic problems such as diabetes, asthma and heart disease.
The benefits are clear. A BAN might call the hospital
even before the patient has a heart attack, alerted by
changes in their vital signs. On a diabetic patient it
could auto inject insulin through a pump, when levels
decline to a risky point. However, the potential drawbacks of BANs need to be addressed - e.g. the risk of
data interference, data consistency and information
security.
THE BARE FACTS ABOUT E-SKIN
Advances in materials, fabrication strategies and
device designs for flexible and stretchable electronics
and sensors make it possible to envision a not-toodistant future where ultra-thin, flexible circuits based
on inorganic semiconductors can be wrapped and
attached to any imaginable surface, including body
parts and even internal organs.
Robotic technologies could also benefit as e-skin
allows surgical robots to interact in a soft contacting
mode with their surroundings through touch.
Human skin is a sensitive detector of both pressure
and temperature and efforts to develop electronic
sensors with comparable capabilities are widespread.
In the past decade, with the increased availability
of new materials and processes, the pace of e-skin
development has raced ahead.
Perhaps the most obvious characteristic of human
skin is its ability to stretch and flex. But it has other
crucial sensing capabilities including tensile strain
monitoring and grasp control.
Fabricating the large-area flexible arrays needed for
the batch production of e-skin is a challenge. Many
groups have turned to polymer micromachining,
which is more cost effective and typically involves
using photolithography or moulding to pattern device
structures, such as air gaps for capacitive sensors or
resistive strain gauges. Large-area solution processing and printing technologies have gained popularity
as low-cost, high-throughput techniques.
As tactile sensing requires a multitude of sensors distributed over a large area, effective ways of collecting and processing a large amount of information are
essential. Modular approaches involve creating arrays
that can be combined to order. By implementing
computing capabilities into each module, signal processing or data analysis can occur within the sensor
network itself. Modularity also provides the ability to
expand a sensor network to meet the needs of any
application.
E-skin might even be augmented beyond the capabilities of human skin through the integration of chemical
and biological sensors to monitor of a whole range
of compounds - from environmental pollutants and
chemical and biological warfare agents to medically
relevant biomarkers.
SKIN TATTOOS THAT CAN CHAT WITH MOBILE DEVICES
Someday soon, a picture of a hospital patient hooked
up by wires and monitors will seem as out-dated
as one of an iron lung. The era is fast approaching
when electronic patches will be temporarily tattooed
onto patients’ bodies - enabling them freedom of
movement and allowing medics to monitor their vital
signs without poking and prodding. Patients wearing
neck patches will even be able to communicate with
robots, who will translate throat muscle movements
into simple speech.
In May 2012 the company Motorola Mobility, owned
by Google, lodged a patent application for a device
described as a “tattoo that could be applied to the
throat....and would include an embedded microphone, a transceiver for enabling wireless communications, and a power supply to receive energising
signals from a personal area network associated with
your mobile devices.”
A similar idea was published in 2011 by research teams
at the University of Illinois. Described as a patch that
mounts onto the skin like a temporary tattoo, it combines electronics for sensing, medical diagnostics,
communications and human-to-machine interfaces.
The healthcare potential is compelling. By “reading”
the movement of facial muscles, this could aid technologies that help people who cannot speak; smart
skin patches could make it easier to monitor newborn
babies, or people with sleep disorders.
The devices might even laminate onto a portion of
muscle that is atrophied, or onto a wound site, and
could electrically stimulate muscle contraction, to aid
healing.
2014 / HEALTHCARE AND MEDICAL TESTING / 27
Wearable
electronics for
healthcare
T
he development of
electronics that can
be bent, stretched
or moulded without loss of
function, or can store energy,
has attracted a great deal of
research. Companies such as
UK’s Peratech, which focuses
on the innovative material QTC, and PowerWeave
(funded through the EU’s FP7 programme) which is
developing textiles for energy generation and storage,
have made great progress in harnessing the potential
of printed electronics in this area.
Commercialisation hasn’t quite kept pace with the
technical breakthroughs, but exciting possibilities are
continuing to emerge.
Temperature monitoring insoles to keep diabetics
on their feet
In partnership with Reebok, Massachusetts-based
MC10 have launched a wearable device designed to
take the on-the-pitch guesswork out of head trauma.
Called Checklight, it uses a core technology called
BioStamp, with a stretchable, sensor-laden surface to
measure the speed and impact of blows to the head,
providing information to athletes and medics.
MC10 also intends to launch a sticking-plaster-sized
BioStamp vital-sign monitor in the next five years it will be smartphone-compatible and priced at less
than $10 per unit.
Diabetes is associated with numbness in the extremities and an increased risk of foot ulcers. Any untreated
wound can, in the worst case, lead to gangrene.
However, foot inflammation can be readily monitored via temperature and a new pressure monitoring
system, named SurroSense, has now been developed
by Orpyx Medical Technologies Inc. of Canada to help
prevent diabetic foot ulcers. A spring 2014 launch is
anticipated in the UK.
Thin, sensor-embedded inserts, which monitor the
pressure exerted on various areas of the feet, are
worn in the patients’ shoes and the information sent
wirelessly to either a smartwatch or a mobile app.
Philips Bilirubin blanket
Smart Diapers
MC10 & Reebok: brain-impact sensor
The Philips Bilirubin Blanket is the antidote to the
intrusive photo therapies used, up to now, for the
treatment of jaundiced newborns.
The blanket incorporates LEDs in its textile technology which - because it emits little infrared and ultraviolet radiation - is safe to use.
28 / PLASTIC ELECTRONICS / 2014
Babies of the future may be wearing Pixie Scientific’s
Smart Diapers which have in-built sensors and a QR
patch on the front that changes colour when wet.
When scanned with a phone, the data can be analysed for urinary infections, dehydration and kidney
problems.
FROM HEART DISEASE AND
DEEP VEIN THROMBOSIS
TO GASTRIC CANCER
Heart disease is the UK’s biggest killer — one in five
men and one in seven women can expect to die from
it. Its cost to the UK Healthcare System was estimated
at £625m in 2011. In the US Healthcare system, the
bill is a mighty $34.4bn.
Currently, Chronic Heart Failure (CHF) is tackled via a
combination of drug therapies and surgical intervention. In all, up to 40 percent of sufferers of CHF die
within the first year of diagnosis.
However, researchers at Nottingham Trent University
may have a new solution. They’ve developed a “smart
pump” that can be grafted on to the aorta. Made from
a smart material, it responds to a voltage by expanding and collapsing, to create a pumping mechanism
and is powered by a remote and self-contained,
implanted battery.
Not a publicity stent
For blocked arteries, the main method of treatment
is currently coronary angioplasty, where a short wiremesh tube is inserted via the wrist into the artery,
effectively, propping it open.
English hospitals perform over 61,000 angioplasty
procedures a year and a significant number lead to
complications. It’s estimated maybe 20% of angioplasties may not even be the best therapeutic option
and an angiogram doesn’t always help. A new option
is to insert a tiny wire with an extremely accurate
sensor in its tip that precisely measures blood flow
and pressure in the artery.
The disposable pressure wire costs £330, which is
about the same as a stent and studies have shown
positive results.
DIY test for DVT
Long-haul air travelers may soon be able to check if
their blood is clotting with a simple test during flights.
With just one drop of blood needed for analysis by a
biochip for clotting markers, a disposable single-use
device could be carried by anyone at high risk of clotting disorders.
The deep vein thrombosis (DVT) diagnostic test could
also be available for hospitals and GPs’ surgeries.
This means patients would no longer have to wait
days for a lab result.
Ten leading European research institutes and high
tech firms are currently working on the “Do-It-Yourself” DVT diagnostic. They’re also developing a sensor
wristband which could provide long-term monitoring
of various vital stats for older patients and athletes,
such as hydration levels and “electric smog,” to warn
pacemaker wearers of strong
electric or electromagnetic
fields in close proximity.
A digestable test for
early-stage gastric
cancer
Researchers
at
Chongqing University in China have
developed a capsule which
can detect tiny quantities of
“occult” blood for screening of early-stage gastric
cancer.
The capsule, which is swallowed, carries inside a detector, power supply, and wireless
transmitter, encased in non-toxic,
acid-safe polycarbonate. It transmits data to an external monitoring
device in real time for diagnosis by
a physician.
Laboratory tests have demonstrated its simplicity and
reliability, the researchers say.
Optical sensing research for faster
cancer detection
Laser-printed paper-based sensors that can be used
to detect biomarkers in cancer patients and see how
they are responding to their chemotherapy treatment
are being developed by the UK’s Optoelectronics
Research Centre (ORC), with the aid of an EPSRC
research grant.
The technology could transform the care of cancer
patients, or people with infections, in their own homes.
The sensors would also be telemedicine-enabled
allowing transfer of valuable clinical diagnostic information between patients and their care team through
a mobile.
Biomarkers for breast cancer have already been identified, validated and are now being used to study the
response of patients receiving chemotherapy.
If successful, these paper-based sensors would prove
invaluable in rapidly testing for detection and diagnosis of conditions including cancer and infectious diseases such as influenza, HIV and tuberculosis. They
would allow the rapid testing for these conditions in
a safe, inexpensive and flexible way that would have
enormous benefits in time, cost and improvement of
patient care.
2014 / HEALTHCARE AND MEDICAL TESTING / 29
MATERIALS
Materials
Electronic components such as chips, displays and
wires are generally made from metals and inorganic
semiconductors — materials with physical properties
that make them fairly stiff and brittle.
So, in the quest for flexibility, many researchers have
been experimenting with semiconductors made from
plastics (polymers), which bend and stretch readily.
Over the last two decades of the 20th century, a huge
number of new organic and inorganic materials were
invented in the UK’s universities. These include highperformance organic and inorganic transparent and
opaque conductive materials, organic semiconductor
materials and both organic and inorganic dielectric
materials, light emitting materials, protective materials, materials that are flexible and/or transparent,
barrier materials and substrates.
How does plastic electronics differ from conventional
electronics manufacturing?
Conventional
Electronics
Plastic
Electronics
Needs high-temperature
processes.
No need for high-temperature
processes.
Relies on subtractive ‘coat,
pattern and etch back’ processes
resulting in excessive waste
materials with environmental
implications.
Individual circuit devices
are fabricated at the point
of manufacture using new
solution-processed materials
and delivery methods. Active
circuit elements can be printed
using carbon-based semiconductive inks.
High-investment manufacturing
cost which means a limited
number of global manufacturers
dominate production.
Processes can be used by
non-electronic printing and
packaging companies in existing
production lines.
30 / PLASTIC ELECTRONICS / 2014
Organic
vs.
inorganic
and
composite
materials
Many people don’t realise that plastic is classified as an organic material because it’s carbon-based. Organic materials are the preferred
choice for use as substrates for flexible electronics because they’re
light weight, low cost and have a wide range of mechanical flexibility.
Polymer films are most often used today, but paper, cardboard, thin
glass and stainless steel are also prominent candidates. Plastics are
higher priced because of special advantages like increased heat or
chemical stability.
Inorganics include various metals and metal oxides, used as transparent conductors (such as fluorine tin oxide or indium tin oxide) or
as transistor materials and inks (nano-silicon, copper or silver). Then
there are tiny inorganic nano particles, known as quantum dots,
carbon structures such as graphene, nanotubes, buckyball magnets
and the amazing new metamaterials that can even render things invisible and lead to previously impossible forms of electronics.
IDTechEx forecasts a market of $45bn for printed electronics by 2022,
expected to be more or less evenly divided between organic and inorganic materials.
Over the next ten years, inorganics are likely to win out as a choice
for the majority of conductors (electrodes, antennas, touch buttons,
interconnects) as improvements are made possible with the use of
nanotechnology. As opposed to organic alternatives, which will remain
poorly conductive and expensive.
2014 / MATERIALS / 31
CHALLENGES
Finding a replacement for ITO
Today, more than 50% of the cost of a capacitive
touch screen module comes from its indium tin oxide
(ITO) sensor. The replacement of this widely used ITO
sensor electrode material will not only change the
game entirely in terms of costs, but also open the
door to bendable, rollable and stretchable electronics
with touch functionality.
Replacement possibilities include metal meshes, graphene, organic materials and carbon nanotubes. But
despite significant efforts to develop alternatives, ITO
coating remains the favoured technique for producing clear conductive substrates suitable for OLED
displays.
How to seal materials that are otherwise sensitive to air
Many of the materials used in printed or organic electronic displays are chemically sensitive and will react
with environmental components such as oxygen and
moisture.
Using substrates and barriers such as glass and metal
to protect them results in a rigid device unsatisfactory
for many applications. Whereas a big problem with
plastic substrates and transparent flexible encapsulation barriers is that they are semipermeable, which
could allow air and water to leak into the device. To
avoid this, there are a range of approaches to encapsulation where the plastic is coated and barrier layers
applied.
Progress has recently been made with hybrid barrier
and encapsulation layers, in which organic interlayers decouple small defects in inorganic barrier layers,
reducing the number of layers needed for an acceptable barrier.
This challenge highlights that beyond flexibility, printability and functionality, encapsulation is an important requirement for plastic electronics. Because to
be commercially successful, they must be robust
enough to survive for the necessary time and conditions required of the device.
According to IDTechex, by 2023, flexible barrier manufacturing will be a market of more than $240m.
32 / PLASTIC ELECTRONICS / 2014
Plastic isn’t the answer to everything
Plastic has different properties to glass, so manufacturers have to find ways to use it without compromising a screen’s image quality or responsiveness.
Researchers are also experimenting with glass/plastic
hybrids and “crystallisation,” an industrial process for
making plastics.
A team at London’s Imperial College has now found
that adding small amounts of chemical additives in
the formulation of plastic electronic circuitry enables
it to be printed more reliably and over larger areas,
which would reduce fabrication costs in the industry.
The researchers found the additives gave them precise
control over where crystals would form, meaning they
could also control which parts of the printed material would conduct electricity. Crystallisation also
happened more uniformly and faster than normal
and without the need for exposure to high temperature (which is used to speed up the process, but can
degrade the materials).
The team now plan to focus on the industrial exploitation of their process, working with printing companies
and aided by EPSRC’s new CIMLAE.
Improving materials
Materials R&D is, as a whole, one of the strongest
areas in UK plastic electronics, but challenges in
improving electrical performance, processability and
stability of materials still exist.
Inks
Printing electronics requires inks with electrical properties that can act as conductors, resistors or semiconductors. There are a number of materials which
can be used to print flexible electronic circuits directly
onto materials like plastic or fabrics.
IDTechEx find that the overall conductive ink market
size was in decline in 2013 due to less use in photovoltaics. However, they believe that the market will
stabilise and grow as applications for conductive inks
emerge and predict that sales will increase to $3.36bn
in 2018, with $735m captured by new silver and
copper nanostructure inks.
These values reflect the fact that conductive inks are
the most successful segment of printed electronics. This is because of their use in a great variety of
end applications, enabling products to be developed
using traditional printing methods.
Copper conductive ink
Although not as good a conductor of electricity as
silver and not as stable as gold, copper-based inks
have a big advantage in that they’re inexpensive. To
take advantage of copper’s reduced costs, efforts are
underway to identify solutions, such as novel curing
processes including laser or flash sintering, which can
improve the material’s shortcomings.
One example is Dr David Hutt’s research at Loughborough University. His team has replaced copper
oxide with a protective coating, which disappears
during thermal curing, leaving a pure copper conductive path. Whilst the conductive material is still wet,
components can be put in place and the assembled
whole cured.
US company Novacentrix are also working in this
sphere. Since 2009, they’ve produced nanocopper
inks which are reduced in-situ.
Silver conductive ink
Silver is a better conductor of electricity than copper,
but silver is expensive and tricky to print because it
melts at 962°C. However, by making silver into particles just five nanometres (billionths of a metre) in
size, a US manufacturer, Xerox, has produced a silver
ink which melts at less than 140°C. This allows it to
be printed using inkjet and other processes relatively
cheaply.
Gold conductive Inks
Gold is valued in the electronics industry due to its
stability which promotes high reliability and longevity.
Also, unlike silver, when gold is used, there is no crystal
growth which leads to tarnishing. These advantages
make gold suitable for applications varying from thin
film transistors to emerging photovoltaics, photodetectors and other types of sensors.
However, gold’s high cost is an important disadvantage, with prices for silver inks already considered too
high.
Most R&D work in this material is some way from
commercialisation, but IDTechEx estimates that the
market opportunity for nanoparticle gold inks will
reach $10m by 2016.
2014 / MATERIALS / 33
UK companies involved in materials development
Merck: this Southampton based company is developing novel materials systems for organic
photovoltaics and flexible displays.
SmartKem: leading the way with their proprietary polymer organic semi-conductor that is not only
air stable, but can also be inkjet printed.
Intrinsiq Materials Ltd: currently manufactures the world’s leading copper based inkjet ink with
laser curing capabilities making on the fly processing on a reel-to-reel platform possible.
CDT: a reputation for making the best-in-class Polymer-OLED materials with over 300 patents filed
in the plastic electronics area.
34 / PLASTIC ELECTRONICS / 2014
KEY MATERIALS
RESEARCH
Graphene
The UK’s “miracle material,” graphene, has a key role
to play in printed electronics.
Said to be hundreds of times stronger than steel and
able to conduct electricity at super high-speed, graphene could revolutionise computing and even usurp
silicon. There are at least six major potential applications for graphene in plastic electronics, among them:
screens and displays; memory chips and electronic
processors; biomedical devices and sensors; batteries; coatings, inks, fillers and materials.
Display screens are thought to have the most initial
potential, as graphene combined with plastic provides
strength and will also conduct electricity.
Flexible display specialist Plastic Logic has been
working with the Cambridge University Research
Centre on graphene to create flexible LCD and OLED
screens for mobile devices.
“It has fantastic potential for flexible electronics, says
the company’s Research Manager Mike Banach. “To
make a display you need several layers that have different functions, a graphene layer would allow things
to be much more flexible.”
However, although it has fantastic properties, transitioning that into a practical way of making devices is
another thing altogether and graphene has yet to be
produced in commercial quantities.
But there’s plenty of research going on:
Making graphene magnetic would allow for the switchable on/off states that are so integral to electronics.
Scientists at the University of Manchester are working
on achieving this so that, in the future, graphene can
be used in hard disks, memory chips and sensors.
Graphene also has application as a solution processable ink, it’s cheap, scalable to match specific application needs and doesn’t require much processing
after printing in comparison to other conductive inks.
Aided by a CIKC grant, researchers at the University
of Cambridge are developing a portfolio of graphenebased inks for printable electronics. By the end of
2014, the goal is to produce three litres per day for
R&D work and standardisation to enable compatibility with commercial print processes, such as flexo,
gravure and offset litho.
The team is working with specialist printed electronics company Novalia to validate the inks on its indus-
trial printing machines. An early-stage demonstrator,
a flexible piano keyboard, has already been created
using the graphene-based ink. In early 2014, the TSB
established the Graphene Special Interest Group,
accessible at graphenesig.net., to support the exploitation of the UK industry.
Carbon Nanotubes
Carbon Nanotubes (CNT’s) are tiny but long and
hollow tubes, with walls made of carbon sheets
covered in electrons, making them extremely conductive. They’re also flexible, transparent and cost
efficient and so have a huge potential in electrical and
electronic applications.
CNTs are used for making transistors and inks, as
conductive layers and transparent conductive films
(TCFs). They’re also considered a viable replacement
for ITO transparent conductors in some applications.
Because of their multiple uses, IDTechEx forecasts
that the value of devices that partly incorporate these
materials will reach over $63bin in 2022.
Much research is focussed on this area. One example
is the study led by Dr Mark Baxendale, of Queen Mary
College, London. His team are experimenting with
using carbon nanotubes to create a very disorganised
structure, something that looks very much like a plate
of spaghetti under a powerful microscope.
It’s this disorganisation which enables the network
to cope with movement and distortion. Because the
super-conductive tubes criss-cross in random patterns, connectivity is maintained even when the material changes shape.
It’s expected that carbon nanotubes will be commercially available in volume from 2016
QTC
Quantum Tunnelling Composite (QTC) is a unique,
patented electronic material which can be used to
make completely new forms of switches and sensors
capable of carrying large currents and sensitive to
various stimuli.
A UK company, Peratech, was founded in 1996 to
commercialise QTC, which is at the heart of a rapidly-growing number of commercial products and has
received many national and international awards, the
most recent being the Queen’s Award for Innovation
2012.
2014 / MATERIALS / 35
COMPANY WATCH
3D PRINTED ELECTRONICS
Optomec, based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, has
developed systems for a variety of industries. It can
print electronics directly onto a pair of glasses, for
“augmented reality,” it can make a plastic water tank
that uses embedded electronics to measure how full
it is and turn pumps on or off; it can print sensors on
military armour; or an antenna on the case of a mobile
phone.
In 2012, Optomec collaborated with a US producer of
unmanned aerial vehicles and a 3D-printing company
to print circuits, sensors and an antenna onto the wing
of a small drone, using its Aerosol Jet technology. In
the future this would allow lightweight drones that can
be customised for specific missions and printed on
demand.
Aerosol Jet atomises nanoparticle-based print materials into microscopic droplets.
The system can print electronic features smaller than
a hundredth of a millimetre wide from a variety of
materials.
Instead of assembling an item from many separate
components, 3D-printed electronics make it possible
to print an entire product and commercial applications
are thought to be less than a year away. But although
it’s possible to print transistors, and thus produce
logic circuits, it’s not yet possible to print the billions
of tiny transistors found in microprocessors and other
chips.
UK applications
With BAE Systems announcement in January 2014
that its engineers had created and flown a 3D printed
metal part for the first time on-board a Tornado fighter
jet, the way ahead for using 3D printed parts in other
military kit is opening up.
Aerosol printing has many advantages over silicon
versions, including lower set-up costs and increased
flexibility of design. The Welsh Centre for Printing and
Coating, at Swansea University, is involved in a range
of projects involving aerosol jet deposition.
One project, supported by 3D semi conductor specialists Interposers GmBh, focuses on the development of aerosol printed so-called interposer layers to
interconnect silicon chips.
With the ability to tailor treatments and devices to
the individual, 3D electronic printing promises a
wealth of applications in the medical sphere. Using
a smart material which expands when a voltage is
applied, researchers at Nottingham Trent University
(NTU) and Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust
have designed a 3D-printed electronic smart pump
to increase the efficiency of the human heart. Their
design was a focal point of NTU’s September 2013
Expo.