Printed Electronics Awards Recognize Top Achievements

Nine companies received awards last week at the Printed Electronics Europ conference and exhibition in Dresden, Germany, in recognition of outstanding achievement in the industry. The awards are sponsored by IDTechEx, the producer of the show.

The award categories and winners are:
• Printed Electronics Europe Champion: Germany Trade & Invest
• Technical Development Manufacturing Award: Thin Film Electronics and InkTec
• Technical Development Materials Award: Applied Nanotech
• New Product Development Award: Kovio
• Commercialization Award: Power Paper
• Academic R&D Award: University of Massachusetts working with Brewer Science and Optomec

The Printed Electronics Champion Award is given to an individual or organization that has done an extraordinary amount of work to promote and develop the industry. IDTechEx CEO Raghu Das said of the winner, “This award is to recognize the enormous work Germany Trade & Invest has done to advance this industry. Their contribution has had a profound effect on the commercialization of the technology and has resulted in Germany becoming the global leader in this field.”

Oliver Seiler, director of mechanical and electronic technologies for Germany Trade & Invest was in attendance to accept the award: “It is such an honor for us to receive this award. We are proud to have been recognized for our contribution in this growing field and hope that companies will continue to benefit from the services we offer.”

InkTec Co., Korea, and Thin Film Electronics, Norway, received the Technical Development Manufacturing Award for their work on a joint project that demonstrated R2R printed memories with a layout and device structure developed by Thin Film Electronics, suitable for applications such as game cards and toys. Up to now rolls with more than 100 meters of printed memories has been produced with a total of five printing steps.

Kovio won the New Product Development Award for its printed silicon RFID platform. The company demonstrated the world’s first silicon-ink based 128-bit HF (13.56MHz) RFID tag. Based on ISO 14443 standards, this product features integrated synchronous analog, logic, anti-collision, and read-only memory blocks. With data rates of 106kbps, this product is 100-1000X higher than previously reported printed organic tags. The breakthrough performance is enabled by Kovio’s proprietary IC design and high performance silicon transistors – high mobility (~100cm2/v.s) and low power (CMOS). Volume production is due to start later this year.

Applied Nanotech, a NASDAQ listed company, won the Materials Development Award for the creation of an inkjettable conductive copper ink. The ink can be processed in air with a drying temperature at under 100° C. Silver is widely used but is expensive and alternatives are needed for many applications. The launch of this ink offers a lower cost alternative to silver based inks.

Power Paper won the Commercialization Award for use of its printed thin film batteries. Over one million batteries are made each month, which are used for a diverse range of applications. Big successes include the use of batteries integrated into skin patches to significantly speed up the delivery of the cosmetic or drug. Customers include Estee Lauder.

The University of Massachusetts, Brewer Science and Optomec won the Academic Award for printing carbon nanotubes to create 5 GHz transistors. The aerosol jet deposition process from Optomec was used to completely print all four layers of the thin film transistor including materials with a wide spectrum of viscosities.