LOPEC: Living Smarter with Printed Electronics

From March 22 to 24, 2022, LOPEC, the world’s leading exhibition and conference for flexible, organic and printed electronics, will open its doors on the grounds of Messe München. With a focus on Smart Living, exhibitors and speakers from all over the world will show how printed electronics can make our lives more comfortable, safe and sustainable.

From solar cells integrated seamlessly in building facades or roofs, to skis with integrated sensors, to new light therapies for combating jaundice in babies—printed electronics plays a crucial role in all these innovations, as they are thin, lightweight and flexible as well as cost-efficient to manufacture. Thanks to these qualities, circuits, sensors and other electronics components can be integrated unobtrusively into practically anything.

“Thanks to printed electronics, any product can be equipped with key functions that provide more comfort, well-being and security in all kinds of circumstances and environments,” said Armin Wittmann, exhibition director of LOPEC at Messe München. With the focus on Smart Living, the exhibitors and speakers at this year’s LOPEC will present numerous innovations that are close to market readiness or have already made the leap to application. The international exhibition will take place on March 23 and 24, 2022, with the LOPEC conference starting one day earlier.

Smart Living technologies with printed electronics are already helping little ones who have just glimpsed the light of the world for the first time. For example, the Dutch company Bilihome will be showcasing a vest for babies suffering from jaundice in LOPEC’s Innovation Showcase. Printed electronics and integrated LEDs enable a light therapy that doesn’t restrict the baby and is even suitable for babies born prematurely.

There is also an ever-increasing presence of printed electronics in the leisure sector. Among the highlights of this year’s LOPEC Innovation Showcase are skis with integrated sensors conceived by Atomic, the Austrian manufacturer of sporting goods for skiing, together with scientists from the research company Joanneum Research from Graz. In these, printed sensors and other flexible electronics components such as batteries and solar cells are laminated on the skis. Online measurements of the ski’s deformation, a factor that affects performance in Alpine skiing, are therefore possible under real conditions.

Printed electronics is also conquering the building sector. Here, it is offering impressive solutions for increasing sustainability. For example, affixable solar sheets from Dresden-based LOPEC exhibitor Heliatek are turning nearly every building into producers of green energy. The company is producing solar sheets using roll-to-roll processes.

Likewise, printed electronics offers various solutions for indoor applications. One example is the extraordinary lighting concept by LOPEC exhibitor Lumitronix. The manufacturer of LED technology combines printed wires on paper webs with surface mounted LEDs. The luminous wallpapers are available in lengths of up to 100 meters.

LOPEC will also be showcasing new printing and carrier materials as well as equipment for realizing Smart Living technologies. “With the combination of exhibition and conference, we are covering the entire value chain of printed electronics from production to application,” said Wittmann.