 Press Release
2009/04/16
Near-Term Opportunities for Large Area Flexible Electronics
Source : Printed Circuit Design & Fab
In 2007, the iNEMI Roadmap included (for the first time) a chapter on Organic and Printed Electronics. For the 2009 edition, the scope of this chapter has been expanded to include the variety of technology platforms being investigated in this emerging field. Also, the name of the chapter was changed to Large Area Flexible Electronics to reflect this broader technical scope, and to be gagnostich to materials (organic, inorganic, hybrid) and manufacturing processes (printing, vacuum, lithography).
Large area flexible electronics is expected to become a multi-billion dollar clean-tech industry that will revolutionize how society interacts with intelligent and responsive electronics-based systems. The unique properties of these systems – flexibility, ultra-thin profiles, light weight, potential for low cost, and high reliability – could have enormous impact on consumer electronics, aviation and space electronics, life sciences, lighting, power, military applications and telecommunications. They will enable a broad range of electronics components and products not possible today, such as: 1) smart medical bandages that sense the presence of infection, alert medical staff to changes in a patientfs vital signs, and deliver needed medication; 2) lightweight, foldable, rugged solar panels for terrestrial and space applications; 3) clothing with integrated distributed sensors and displays for physiological monitoring; 4) phased array antennae for distributed mobile communications networks; and 5) low-profile, ultra-efficient lighting solutions.
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