The annual printed electronics award winners were announced at the IDTechEx Printed Electronics event this week in Santa Clara, California - the World's largest event on the topic.
The awards recognize outstanding progress in the development and commercialization of printed electronics, an industry that produces a huge amount of technical innovation which will be used in many products, and is now being widely adopted. The entries were judged by an eminent panel comprising of
- Professor Malcolm Keif, California Polytechnic State University, USA
- Professor Takao Someya, University of Tokyo, Japan
- Professor Toshihide Kamata, AIST, Japan
- Professor Iain McCulloch, Imperial College London, UK
- Dr. Ken McGuire, Procter & Gamble, USA
The winners each received a unique prize - the World's first e-paper certificate, supplied by E-ink.
A summary of the awards are as follows:
Best Product Development Award - Cambrios Best Commercialization Award - T-ink Best Technical Development Manufacturing Award - VTT Technical Research Center, Finland Best Technical Development Materials Award - Incubation Alliance Inc and Scrum Inc Academic R&D Award - Georgia Tech - Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics Best Poster - Prof. Fernando Seoane - University of Boras
Best Product Development Award - Cambrios Cambrios won this award for their ClearOhm transparent conductive material which is starting to replace indium tin oxide (ITO). Touchscreens using the material are already on the market and high performance OLED's, photovoltaic devices flexible displays have been demonstrated. Cambrios' silver nanowire-based ClearOhm solution is suited to deliver high conductivity (ranging from <10 to 300 Ohms/square) with optical performance that not only meets but exceeds the performance of ITO. The suspended nanowire solution can be coated at low processing temperatures (< 120C), to create a flexible transparent conductive layer on the surface of various substrates such as glass or plastic.
Cambrios ClearOhm material is successfully enabling commercially available consumer electronics devices today. Among these, the LG CEM division of LG Electronics (LGE-CEM) uses ClearOhm material in the 23" touch panel for the LG V325, a new Windows 8 certified All-in-One PC. The popular Japanese Docomo NEC N-07D Medias X Smartphone is also equipped with Cambrios ClearOhm material, which allows for its incredibly thin (7.8mm) and light (119g) design, as well as its clear, vibrant screen.
Best Commercialization Award - T-ink
T-Ink received the Product Development Award at the Printed Electronic USA Conference in December of 2010. Now T-Ink's Smart Surface InMold system has been commercialized in the recently launched 2013 Ford Fusion - the first Smart Surface 3D Overhead Consoles are just now being delivered into Ford's award winning 2013 Fusion.
The Smart Surface process allows T-Ink's specially formulated "thermo-flex" inks to conform to any shape and size substrates and allow T-Ink to print on the "B" side (opposite) of the substrate to create a uniquely interactive capacitor application. The process can be thermoformed without losing conductivity, can be exposed to extreme heat scenarios and can be tuned to be activated via touch or defined distances.
Best Technical Development Manufacturing Award - VTT Technical Research Center, Finland VTT won this award for development of a hybrid manufacturing pilot facility, allowing for the printing of active and passive layers, discrete components integration and assembly, lamination and over-moulding. The judges agreed that the combination of manufacturing capability and expertise in one location gives unique opportunity to develop new products quickly and effectively from prototypes to proof-of-production level piloting.
Best Technical Development Materials Award - Incubation Alliance Inc and Scrum Inc Incubation Alliance Inc. and SCRUM Inc. won this ward for using a proprietary high-speed CVD process to successfully mass-synthesize graphene without the use of substrates, catalysts, or stripping. "GRAPHENEFLOWER" is a mass of graphene that has been grown into individual flower pedal shapes, which together form a unified mass of graphene. As a GRAPHENE FLOWER dispersion, it is possible to apply graphene to a variety of applications via coating graphene stabilized in an organic solvent to a substrate, primarily through a wet process, or by dispersing the graphene in a material.
Academic R&D Award - Georgia Tech - Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics
Researchers at COPE won this award after having discovered a universal technique to reduce the work function of a conductor for organic electronics. Using a polymer modifier containing simple aliphatic amine function groups to reduce the work function in a wide range of conductors, including noble metals such as Au and Ag, conducting polymers, metal oxides, or graphene, air-stable low-work function electrodes were created. These polymers are inexpensive, environmentally friendly and compatible with existing roll-to-roll mass production techniques. The method is applicable to organic electronic devices including organic solar cells, organic thin-film transistor, and organic light-emitting diodes. The Georgia Tech Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics (COPE) is an international, interdisciplinary, research and educational research center.
Best Poster
Of the posters in the exhibit area, the best poster was awarded to Prof. Fernando Seoane of University of Boras in Sweden for his poster entitled, "Stretchable Circuit Board technology enabling Seamless Textile-Electronic Integration for Electrical Muscle Stimulation Therapy".