Hands-On Printed Electronics Workshop at the Sonoco Institute

On June 7-9, 2011 the Sonoco Institute will present a hands-on workshop on Printed Electronics. The two day workshop, Printed Electronics 101, will cover many aspects of printed electronics at an introductory to intermediate level. Some of the topics include: markets, devices, technologies, practices, challenges, manufacturing, and growth opportunities.

These will be re-enforced with engaging Hands-On printing activities, resulting in working components and devices that participants can take home. This workshop will include presentations combined with hands-on activities and industry networking. Two optional primers will cover basic concepts of printing processes; and electronics and electrical components.

One of the workshop leaders is Dr. William Ray of Nth Degree Technologies. He will discuss and demonstrate their new printed LED lighting. This technology allows the mass production of extremely energy efficient lighting, and was recently called by Reuters the “number 1 most intriguing invention” at the ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit.

Alain Briancon, CTO of NTERA, will discuss some of the manufacturing and material challenges that went into the production of the recent Canvas cover – a mass produced magazine cover which was made interactive using printed electronics.

Previous workshop participant Jim Sutton, department head, Kodak Research Laboratories said “The lectures presented potential benefits of printing electronic materials, balanced with a realistic view of the very demanding limitations and impediments to be resolved before effective commercial application”.
In the hands on workshops, participants will be among the first people to use Sonoco’s new Omet state-of–the-art printing press.

This modular printing press, called “the Swiss army knife of Printed Electronics” by Dr. William Ray, can do both flexographic and gravure printing inline simultaneously. The individual printing stations are modular and can be configured differently, depending on the application. This press also features new tunnel dwhich allow rapid inline drying and curing of printed materials. To show the versatility, a number of differentkinds of materials, including nanomaterials, will be printed, dried, and cured.

Multi-layer as well as single layer components and devices will be produced. Attendees will have the opportunity to use all of the most commonly used printing processes (for printed electronics), including flexo, gravure, screen, and ink-jet printing.

One of the most popular activities is when the participants get to fabricate their own electroluminescent lamps. In other hand-on activities, participants will learn the right way to measure conductivity, and how to use optical profilometry to examine and measure printed feature topology.

Greg Markiewicz, VP, AZ Electronic Materials said “[The course] was a very informative tutorial of the opportunities and challenges in the printed electronic sector. The hands-on lab session was an outstanding introduction to manufacturing approaches.”