Award Winners Announced at 2017FLEX

FlexTech, a SEMI Strategic Association Partner, today announced the 2017 FLEXI Award winners at 2017FLEX, the 16th Annual Flexible and Printed Electronics Conference. The FLEXIs, now in their eighth year, recognize outstanding achievements of organizations and individuals active in flexible hybrid electronics (FHE).
 
The four categories of awards include R&D, Innovation & Commercialization, Industry Leadership, and Education Leadership. This year there were five recipients with two winners in the Product Innovation category.
 
Product Innovation category nominations are evaluated on the product design and ingenuity, market adoption and revenue generation of products announced within the last 12 months.
• YUASA System Co, Ltd. received the award for their FX-FSC90 Tension-Free Ushape Folding Test Jig, a tension- and friction-free FHE testing jig that returns consistent and accurate data from bending tests. Bending is a new requirement for electronics products and customers need to ensure their products are reliable.
“It is an honor to have our innovation and technical expertise recognized by the FlexTech group and to receive a FLEXI award,” said Yasuhisa Okazaki, EVP of Yuasa System Co. “The award validates our commitment to the US market and to the flexible display industry.”
 
• NuCurrent also received the Product Innovation Award for developing efficient printed antennas for wireless power transfer. NuCurrent’s technology enables through-table power charging, addressing a true challenge in mobile electronic devices.
“We are honored to be recognized by FlexTech as this year’s Product Innovation Award winner,” said Jacob Babcock, CEO, NuCurrent. “We believe this is another validation of our high-efficiency antennas and the void we fill in the marketplace for wireless power capabilities in electronics – from mobile phones, wearables, IoT to cars – without sacrificing size, performance or charge times. NuCurrent has spent over eight years developing the world’s thinnest, highest performance, printed wireless power antennas so that wireless charging is possible for mass adoption.”
 
In the R&D Achievements category, the winner is chosen for an excellent research approach, originality and commercial potential for expanding the scope for flexible and/or printed electronics and their manufacturing processes.
• The award went to Ana Claudia Arias from University of California, Berkeley for the development of flexible medical sensors and printed flexible devices. Her breakthrough in flexible, printed receiving coils for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) devices and devices for impedance sensing has proven critical in new healthcare methodologies.
 
Those receiving the Technology Leadership in Education award are recognized for their outstanding contribution to the flexible electronics industry through education, either via a certified education institution or internal corporate workforce development activity.
• The award went to Brewer Science for establishing a company culture that fosters creativity and innovation.
 
The Industry Leadership Award recognizes an individual who has shown particular dedication to building awareness of the possibilities that FHE bring to the broader field of electronics
• This year, that award goes to Dalen Keys from DuPont for his technical acumen and business development experience. At critical junctures, Keys provided leadership that resulted in public/private partnerships among industry, government and the R&D communities. “I’m honored to receive this award and I’m pleased to be a small part in the advancement of FHE,” Dalen said. “There are more challenges ahead of us but we are at an exciting point in time for flexible hybrid electronics. There is a convergence of market, technology and process readiness that has the potential to enable revolutionary new products.”
 
This year’s awards were sponsored by Lockheed Martin and nominations were evaluated by a panel of industry and consortium executives.