David Savastano, Editor09.26.12
Leading international corporations from a wide variety of disciplines have looked at ways to enter the printed electronics (PE) market, and Stora Enso is no exception. A leader in the fields of paper, biomaterials, wood products and packaging, Stora Enso has been long active in printed electronics, and is moving forward with new advances in the field of intelligent packaging.
Simo Siitonen, research engineer at Stora Enso, noted that Stora Enso started activities in printed electronics in 2007, when the company’s first commercial intelligent pharmaceuticals packaging product, Pharma DDSi, was launched.
“It uses printed conductive traces connected to electronic module to alarm, track and record patient pill takings accurately and reliably,” Siitonen said.
While intelligent packaging is an ideal application for printed electronics, Siitonen believes that hybrid solutions combining traditional electronics will be the first to market.
“As a packaging company, we believe that intelligent packaging can be one of the first major sectors in the future to utilize printed electronics,” Siitonen said. “If printed electronics manufacturing processes can be combined with normal packaging production processes, it enables a clear cost advantage compared to traditional electronics. But in the near future, applications utilizing printed electronics will be hybrid solutions, which combine printed and traditional electronics. It will still take some time before printed logic can bring features to replace even most simples ICs.”
Siitonen added that there are several potential end use cases related to intelligent packaging, including brand enhancement and packaging interactions.
“Automation of logistic processes, logistics follow-up and anti-counterfeiting will be such application areas where clear benefits and savings can be identified via different kinds of intelligent packaging applications,” he said. “Brand enhancement and marketing actions with intelligent interactive packaging are also expected to be one of first application areas to take printed electronics into high volume manufacturing. Packaging interaction with the end user is also important in some niche sectors like healthcare applications and packaging for special groups like blind or elderly people.”
Stora Enso focuses its role to be as integrator, and is able to use many different technological solutions from different providers to create new products which are producible in large volumes.
“This has required and will require still more work on production and process development to enable really low cost solutions on the market,” Siitonen noted.
Stora Enso continues to develop innovative solutions for customers. For example, Stora Enso recently developed a new solution for intelligent pharmaceutical packaging called Pharma DDSi Wireless, which uses GSM modules to create real-time interaction with package and healthcare providers.
Partnering with industry leaders is also providing opportunities for Stora Enso to develop new products.
“The most recent development work has been done together with Ynvisible to develop and integrate electrochromic displays into packaging,” Siitonen added.
Ultimately, Siitonen believes that there is an excellent future for printed electronics.
“There will be more and more printed electronics components like power sources, displays and sensors on the market, and hopefully these components can be standardized so that it is not needed to design everything from scratch,” Siitonen said. “It will be interesting to see if printed logic development can meet its expectations. My own opinion is that at the moment, it is too much to expect printed transistors to replace silicon ICs, but maybe new production methods can bring simple logic to applications where it has not been possible earlier.”
“It uses printed conductive traces connected to electronic module to alarm, track and record patient pill takings accurately and reliably,” Siitonen said.
While intelligent packaging is an ideal application for printed electronics, Siitonen believes that hybrid solutions combining traditional electronics will be the first to market.
“As a packaging company, we believe that intelligent packaging can be one of the first major sectors in the future to utilize printed electronics,” Siitonen said. “If printed electronics manufacturing processes can be combined with normal packaging production processes, it enables a clear cost advantage compared to traditional electronics. But in the near future, applications utilizing printed electronics will be hybrid solutions, which combine printed and traditional electronics. It will still take some time before printed logic can bring features to replace even most simples ICs.”
Siitonen added that there are several potential end use cases related to intelligent packaging, including brand enhancement and packaging interactions.
“Automation of logistic processes, logistics follow-up and anti-counterfeiting will be such application areas where clear benefits and savings can be identified via different kinds of intelligent packaging applications,” he said. “Brand enhancement and marketing actions with intelligent interactive packaging are also expected to be one of first application areas to take printed electronics into high volume manufacturing. Packaging interaction with the end user is also important in some niche sectors like healthcare applications and packaging for special groups like blind or elderly people.”
Stora Enso focuses its role to be as integrator, and is able to use many different technological solutions from different providers to create new products which are producible in large volumes.
“This has required and will require still more work on production and process development to enable really low cost solutions on the market,” Siitonen noted.
Stora Enso continues to develop innovative solutions for customers. For example, Stora Enso recently developed a new solution for intelligent pharmaceutical packaging called Pharma DDSi Wireless, which uses GSM modules to create real-time interaction with package and healthcare providers.
Partnering with industry leaders is also providing opportunities for Stora Enso to develop new products.
“The most recent development work has been done together with Ynvisible to develop and integrate electrochromic displays into packaging,” Siitonen added.
Ultimately, Siitonen believes that there is an excellent future for printed electronics.
“There will be more and more printed electronics components like power sources, displays and sensors on the market, and hopefully these components can be standardized so that it is not needed to design everything from scratch,” Siitonen said. “It will be interesting to see if printed logic development can meet its expectations. My own opinion is that at the moment, it is too much to expect printed transistors to replace silicon ICs, but maybe new production methods can bring simple logic to applications where it has not been possible earlier.”