David Savastano, Editor12.03.09
The printed electronics field appears to be moving ever closer to commercial production, say industry leaders who are gathered this week in San Jose, CA, for Printed Electronics USA 2009. While many of the conference’s presentations center on potential new applications and technologies, company executives are also discussing what they are seeing in the marketplace.
More applications are moving from R&D toward commercialization, they observe, although hurdles remain to be overcome.
“The printed electronics market is in transition,” said Dr. Klaus Hecker, managing director of the Organic Electronics Association (OE-A). “A lot of companies are investing in ramping up production, and we are seeing additional products coming online. We are also seeing lots of interest on the information level.”
“If you take a look at the printed electronics market, there are so many branches,” said Matthew Ream, vice president of marketing for Blue Spark Technologies. “There seems to be a lot of growth and development in materials, and we’re seeing significant awareness of printed batteries.”
Ream said that the interest in printed batteries that Blue Spark is receiving is due more to its flexibility and size rather than cost. He added that Blue Spark’s joint efforts with NTERA and Novalia, notably on Novalia’s Interactive Printed Media (IPM) projects, show much promise.
“Our experience is that people are more interested in the form factor,” Ream said. “We are not going to replace coin cell batteries in their applications. We are working with Novalia and NTERA on joint sales and marketing, and that is starting to take off. Interactive Printed Media offers a huge value proposition, and the sheer numbers could be tremendous.”
The economic slump took a toll on some investment into PE, and there remains a need for some major projects to be converted into production.
“I think the market is coming,” said Wolfgang Mildner, managing director of PolyIC GmbH, and chairman of OE-A. “There are a lot of potential applications, but some customers aren’t quite ready to pursue them because of the cost or time. They also feel that the technology is not mature yet, and in truth, we need the customers to make it more mature. We need to see the level of openness to innovation in Europe and North America that there is in Asia.”
“A lot of money is invested in the technology, and a lot of ideas on what the markets can be,” said Markku Paukku, president of Enfucell Inc. “There are a lot of components in place, but the key is to have the whole chain come together.”
Some of the vendors noted that they are seeing growth on their end, as products make the transition from R&D to production.
“The printed electronics market is still developing, but it is expanding in two dimensions,” said Stan Farnsworth, vice president of marketing for NovaCentrix. “Groups are investigating the suitability of printed electronics for producing their projects, while companies with we are working with continue to make internal development gains and are getting closer to adoption. We are really excited that the level of interest is so high.”
“Our business is the best we’ve ever had, as we doubled our sales last year,” said Mike O’Reilly, product management for Optomec. “We are starting to see our customer migrate from R&D to pre-production with the goal of full production in mid-year 2010.”
“As a vendor, I can tell you that the printed electronics market is growing, and that companies are moving from R&D to production,” said Yair Kipman, president of ImageXpert.
Key printed electronics manufacturers are also seeing more projects move into the R&D and production pipeline, which is a good sign. Soligie and GSI Technologies are reporting seeing more projects moving forward.
“We are concentrating on developing projects,” said Matthew Timm, president of Soligie. “We have a pretty good funnel of projects right now that could lead to significant volumes for us. Early in the year, it seemed like companies pulled back on funding projects, but in the last three months there’s been an uptick again, and the larger companies are redeploying their resources into development.”
“We are working with a number of businesses, start-ups as well as Fortune 500 companies, who are either in pilot or recently launched their products on the market,” said Gordon Smith, chief technology officer for GSI Technologies, a specialist in functional printing and industrial graphics. “We are very excited about the opportunities.”
More applications are moving from R&D toward commercialization, they observe, although hurdles remain to be overcome.
“If you take a look at the printed electronics market, there are so many branches,” said Matthew Ream, vice president of marketing for Blue Spark Technologies. “There seems to be a lot of growth and development in materials, and we’re seeing significant awareness of printed batteries.”
Ream said that the interest in printed batteries that Blue Spark is receiving is due more to its flexibility and size rather than cost. He added that Blue Spark’s joint efforts with NTERA and Novalia, notably on Novalia’s Interactive Printed Media (IPM) projects, show much promise.
“Our experience is that people are more interested in the form factor,” Ream said. “We are not going to replace coin cell batteries in their applications. We are working with Novalia and NTERA on joint sales and marketing, and that is starting to take off. Interactive Printed Media offers a huge value proposition, and the sheer numbers could be tremendous.”
The economic slump took a toll on some investment into PE, and there remains a need for some major projects to be converted into production.
“I think the market is coming,” said Wolfgang Mildner, managing director of PolyIC GmbH, and chairman of OE-A. “There are a lot of potential applications, but some customers aren’t quite ready to pursue them because of the cost or time. They also feel that the technology is not mature yet, and in truth, we need the customers to make it more mature. We need to see the level of openness to innovation in Europe and North America that there is in Asia.”
“A lot of money is invested in the technology, and a lot of ideas on what the markets can be,” said Markku Paukku, president of Enfucell Inc. “There are a lot of components in place, but the key is to have the whole chain come together.”
Some of the vendors noted that they are seeing growth on their end, as products make the transition from R&D to production.
“The printed electronics market is still developing, but it is expanding in two dimensions,” said Stan Farnsworth, vice president of marketing for NovaCentrix. “Groups are investigating the suitability of printed electronics for producing their projects, while companies with we are working with continue to make internal development gains and are getting closer to adoption. We are really excited that the level of interest is so high.”
“Our business is the best we’ve ever had, as we doubled our sales last year,” said Mike O’Reilly, product management for Optomec. “We are starting to see our customer migrate from R&D to pre-production with the goal of full production in mid-year 2010.”
“As a vendor, I can tell you that the printed electronics market is growing, and that companies are moving from R&D to production,” said Yair Kipman, president of ImageXpert.
Key printed electronics manufacturers are also seeing more projects move into the R&D and production pipeline, which is a good sign. Soligie and GSI Technologies are reporting seeing more projects moving forward.
“We are concentrating on developing projects,” said Matthew Timm, president of Soligie. “We have a pretty good funnel of projects right now that could lead to significant volumes for us. Early in the year, it seemed like companies pulled back on funding projects, but in the last three months there’s been an uptick again, and the larger companies are redeploying their resources into development.”
“We are working with a number of businesses, start-ups as well as Fortune 500 companies, who are either in pilot or recently launched their products on the market,” said Gordon Smith, chief technology officer for GSI Technologies, a specialist in functional printing and industrial graphics. “We are very excited about the opportunities.”