OE-A Appoints OE-A Fellows, Announces Winners of OE-A Competition and LOPEC Start-up Forum

New visions and creative concepts in the area of organic and printed electronics are what the OE-A (Organic and Printed Electronics Association), a working group within VDMA, aims to promote in its annual OE-A Competition. Once again, there were numerous submissions coming from all corners of the world this year. The five best submissions were rewarded at LOPEC 2018, the international trade fair and conference for printed electronics, in Munich, Germany.
 
“Once again, the OE-A competition was a big success this year and attracted a lot of attention from both companies and LOPEC visitors,” said OE-A chairman Dr. Jeremy Burroughes, CTO of CDT UK and Sumitomo Chemical fellow. “The broad range spanned from OLED lights and displays to flexible sensors and printed speakers. This clearly reflects just how far printed electronics has developed over the last few years and that this technology is being implemented by ever more industries.”
 
The jury, consisting of representatives from international companies and institutes, rated 17 submissions from nine countries in four categories. LOPEC attendees were also allowed a vote. At the OE-A booth, where all demonstrators were on display, visitors were encouraged to choose their favorite exhibit. The awards were distributed during the LOPEC Dinner & Award Show to the following winners:
• Best Prototype/New Product – Self-Powered Patch for Cystic Fibrosis Diagnosis, IMB-CNM-CSIC.
• Best Freestyle Demonstrator – Flexible Supercapacitor System, RISE Acreo.
• Best Publicly Funded Project Demonstrator – 3D Force Touch Sensor, CPI.
• Printed Electronics Vision – Boxcycle – Intelligent Food Storing Container, University of Applied Sciences Munich.
• Public Choice Award – T-Book with Audio Enriched Pages, TU Chemnitz & ARKEMA Piezotech.
  
For the second time, the title of OE-A Fellow was awarded. With this award, OE-A recognizes individuals who have made significant, sustained contributions to the field of organic and printed electronics and to OE-A itself. This year, in light of LOPEC’s 10th anniversary, two people received the OE-A Fellow 2018:
• Prof. Reinhard Baumann – Chemnitz University of Technology, Fraunhofer ENAS
• Prof. Harri Kopola – VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
 
“Professor Baumann is one of the founders of OE-A and served the OE-A Board of Directors for 12 years,” said Burroughes. “His contributions by forming networks between the industry, research institutes and universities, as well as his longstanding support of LOPEC as chair of the Scientific Conference, among other positions, have led to positive developments of both LOPEC and the industry.”
 
Professor Kopola is also highly regarded by OE-A and across the industry: “20 years ago, Professor Harri Kopola, a pioneer in the field of printed electronics, set up a research institute for printed electronics at VTT. His influence on EU-level decision-making, as well as his large networks, including both academic and industrial stakeholders, have been instrumental in promoting the industrialization of printed electronics internationally,” said Burroughes. “As a longstanding OE-A member we are looking forward to continuing our overall collaboration, as well as to the upcoming OE-A meeting at VTT in Finland.”
 
Young companies are supported by OE-A at the LOPEC Business Conference. Many innovative companies are looking for investors to bring their products and ideas to life. To continue the development of their technology and marketing strategies, they presented their companies during the Start-up Forum.
 
“Through the numerous presentations by young companies, we were able to see that the printed electronics industry is continuing to develop and grow,” said Dr. Peter Fischer, LOPEC Business Conference chair, OE-A board member and COO at Thin Film Electronics. A jury consisting of international industry leaders and researchers determined the winners.
 
Two awards were presented:
• Best Business Case – Copprint – Conductive copper inks are finally ready for prime time, Dr. Ofer Shochet, Copprint.
• Most Impactful Technology Product – Printed and flexible receive coils for magnetic resonance imaging, Prof. Ana Claudia Arias, InkSpace Imaging.

The 2018 award winners at the LOPEC Dinner & Award Show. (Source: OE-A)