Voltera, Information Mediary Corp. Receive 2017 Innovation Awards at CPES2017

The Canadian Printable Electronics Industry Association (CPEIA) named the winners of the Commercialization Award and the New Product Award at CPES2017, Canada’s premier conference and trade show exhibition for printable, flexible and wearable electronics.
 
CPES2017 ran from May 24-26 at Centennial College’s new Conference Centre in Toronto.
 
“The Innovation Awards showcase the capacity of Canadian industry and the world-class innovation that is coming out of the Canadian ecosystem,” said Peter Kallai, president and CEO of the CPEIA and chair of the CPES Organizing Committee. “Our winners may not yet be household names, but they have been toiling for years to develop compelling new products that meet unmet needs in the marketplace in what are fast becoming high-growth sectors.”
 
The winner of the CPES2017 Commercialization Award is Voltera Inc. of Waterloo, ON. This company’s award-winning Voltera V-One is a desktop solution for printing circuit boards, dispensing solder paste and reflowing components, allowing users to go from concept to creation in minutes. Prototyping cycles for PCBs that can take weeks or even months of iterations with third-party partners can now be reduced to days or even hours.
 
 “With more than 500 units shipped to 50 countries, Voltera is already beginning to revolutionize the circuit board prototyping business for sectors ranging from automotive to telecom and consumer electronics,” said Kallai.
 
The winner for CPES2017 Product Innovation Award is Information Mediary Corp.  of Ottawa, ON. IMC manufactures award-winning intelligent devices to address the global problem of poor patient adherence to prescription medication. The American National Pharmaceutical Council estimates the cost for non-adherence adds more than US$400 billion to the U.S. health care system alone. Canada, too, faces comparable challenges with patient adherence.
 
IMC’s Med-ic Syringe Pack uses NFC to connect a temperature monitored smart package with printed electronic traces. The Syringe Pack knows when medication is removed by the patient, and more importantly, when not. It records the real-time information when each syringe is removed from its package, logs the injection points, and lets the patient know if there was a breech in temperature, with a visual YES or NO display.
 
“IMC is addressing key pain points for the pharmaceutical industry by ensuring proper medication usage by patients, particularly for chronic and life-threatening illnesses like cancer and diabetes,” said Kallai. “Ensuring proper usage is crucial to the success of drug trials that cost tens of millions of dollars to conduct and determines if a new drug secures regulatory approval.”