Plastic electronics: Opportunity on edge of commercialization

GRENOBLE, FRANCE: The Plastics Electronics Conference and Exposition, Europe’s premier event focusing on the latest developments in printed, organic and large area electronics,will co-locate with SEMICON Europa.

Plastic Electronics 2014 (PE 2014) is themed “Enabling Applications beyond Limits in Electronics” and will be held at Alpexpo in Grenoble on 7-9 October. PE2014 is an ideal forum to meet technology leaders and professionals from industry, academia, and research organizations focused on developing the next-generation of plastic and organic electronics.

According to analysts, the plastics electronics market is growing rapidly and is expected to reach $13 billion by 2020 driven by increasing applications in the semiconductor and electronics market. Applications like large area displays, solar panels and printed electronics are now responsible for a substantial portion of the PE market, and emerging applications like OLED , thin-film batteries, and sensors are emerging growth opportunities.

Manufacturability of Plastic Electronics has made major steps in the last year, moving from research level to industrial relevance.  Still, numerous barriers to commercialization must be overcome — from material development to integration, manufacturing, processing, and assembly issues. PE2014 covers these issues currently driving development and impeding progress.

Plastic electronics' imminent transition from the R&D phase to the industrialization stage is highlighted by several keynote presentations at the PE2014. Fiddian Warman, founder and managing director, SODA, will present on, “How design type approaches can be effective in facilitating innovative technological development and open up new markets and opportunities,” and John Heitzinger, president, Soligie Inc., will delve into “Advances in Additive Manufacturing of Electronics.”                

The exposition and conference cover the entire span of Plastic Electronics —Hybrid and Heterogeneous Integration; Organic Electronics; OLEDs, Displays, and Lighting; and Flexible Photovoltaics — offering the latest developments for engineers, material experts, manufacturing professionals and industry strategists. Highlights are:

Business Case session —  speakers from imec, ISORG, Nokia, Philips Research, Plastic Logic, SODA, STMicroelectronics, Valeo, and Yole Developpement.

Manufacturing Panel Discussion on “Building a Leadership Position in PE” — panelists from Bosch, Cambridge, CEA, Joanneum Research, and Ynvisible.

Manufacturing Session — presenters from Applied Materials, Beneque, CEA Tech, Dupont Teijin Films UK Ltd, Joanneum Research, NovaCentrix, Roth and Rau B.V.,  Soligie, Universal Laser Systems, Ynvisible — as well as Cambridge University, the European Commission, and VTT (Finland).

Technologies/Materials Session — features speakers from Arkema, Arizona State University, CEA-LITEN, Corning, Fraunhofer, imec, and Sunchon National University.