OE-A Celebrates 10 Years

Their two opinions could hardly have been more different: Dr. Stephan Kirchmeyer strongly believed in the “dream” that organic and printed electronics would be on the market in high-volume applications someday. “That’s way too early. I don’t believe in the technology,” Wolfgang Mildner said in the late 1990s. The current OE-A vice chairman soon changed his opinion, recognized the potential of the new technology and – in the end – initiated the OE-A.

And the dream of Kirchmeyer, the current OE-A chairman, and many others working with organic and printed electronics came true: the technology is now on the market.

The credit also belongs to the OE-A (Organic and Printed Electronics Association). Ten years ago, the leading international industry association for organic and printed electronics was founded in Frankfurt; 35 founding members, located in four countries, had a vision to promote the young technology to become suitable for mass markets – with the help of the OE-A, whose key responsibility it is to promote networking among its members.

“Almost 230 members covering the whole supply chain from all over the world make the OE-A the largest and most international working group within VDMA,” said Thilo Brodtmann, deputy executive director of the VDMA (German Engineering Federation).

Not only the number of members has changed over the past ten years. Back then, the OE-A started with two working groups – “Applications” and “Technologies” – in which industry experts laid out a roadmap for organic and printed electronics and its market entry. In the beginning, they took on a big task. Right now, the OE-A’s experts are preparing the sixth edition of the roadmap. Today, seven working groups are contributing to it.

Ten years ago, there were many areas where there were no specific potential applications for organic and printed electronics, Kirchmeyer noted. “Market entry is just around the corner” is what experts said for years. The technology was ready, but the market was not. “Many people did not expect the path to market entry to be that long,” Mildner added.

Many years ago experts were able to build flexible and bendable displays. They were already mentioned in the first OE-A roadmap. “It was not obvious what these displays could be used for,” Kirchmeyer said. “In this area we are mainstream.” Smart watches and bendable TV-displays have made their way to the market – available for every household.

Applications have made their way into everyday life in other areas without being noticed by the consumer – seat occupancy recognition sensors in cars, test strips for diabetes patients that measure their blood sugar, OLED- and e-reader-displays, just to mention a few examples. Hybrid technologies combine silicon and printed electronics. This is a requirement to enable many future applications. Automobile, packaging and healthcare are important industries. As organic and printed electronics are thin, light-weight and flexible, they enable applications that could not be produced with silicon electronics.

At the beginning of this year, the OE-A published its first business climate survey. “That would not have been possible back in 2004”, Kirchmeyer said. What was based on R&D back then has developed to its own industry. According to the survey, OE-A members expect an increase of more than 15 percent in sales turnover for next year.

“LOPEC is what best displays the evolution of the industry,” Mildner said. He is also LOPEC general chair. The OE-A organizes the international exhibition and conference in cooperation with Messe Munich. “In the beginning, many companies were showing ideas and technologies”, he remembered. What once used to be small display areas are now often professional booths where exhibitors show products and production machinery.

“The OE-A has always taken on topics that support current trends”, Mildner said. The OE-A initiated additional working groups that deal with organic photovoltaics, hybrid systems or standardization, among others. With the Demonstrator Project – an annual competition – the OE-A promotes the integration of new technologies into applications.

Yet there are still a lot of challenges to be overcome, as Kirchmeyer pointed out. The OE-A will have to continue to make contact to end-users to explore new mass markets; the OE-A has to continue to make international contacts – especially in Asia; and the OE-A has to continue to foster the network among its members and set priorities.

The OE-A has taken action. For two years now, the OE-A has been hosting working group meetings in Asia, which attract more than 100 attendees. At LOPEC, there are introductory events geared towards end-users – starting with next year’s event they will be topic-specific. There are always end-users present when the OE-A invites its members to meetings in Europe, North America and Asia to promote networking.

“We are on a very good path,” Dr. Klaus Hecker said. Since the establishment of the OE-A 10 years ago, he has been its managing director. The young industry has developed into an $18 billion, he explained. “But we do know that there are a lot of markets that have not been explored yet.” This century’s trends are mobility, healthcare and energy. Organic and printed electronics will have a great impact on all of these markets, Hecker says.

The OE-A is going to celebrate its 10th anniversary at a working group meeting in Beerse, Belgium, at the end of October. “Organic and Printed Electronics for Healthcare” is the special topic. Janssen Pharmaceutica will host the meeting and invite the attendees on a company tour. There will be a special guest as well: Khalil Rouhana, Director for Components & Systems at the Directorate General CONNECT of the European Commission (EC), is going to give a key note address on the European position on future opportunities for organic and printed electronics. That underscores that the EC has an eye on the technology.