UK firms inject new life into plastic electronics

Sara Ver-Bruggen - 25 Jul 2011

New start-ups, investments and commercialisation activities suggest the UK has much to offer the international organic and printed electronics industries.

Earlier in July SmartKem, which is relatively new to the global plastic electronics industry, announced that its semiconductor materials outperformed amorphous silicon in recent testing. The UK's National Printable Electronics Technology Centre (PETEC) tested the semiconductors by incorporating the materials into flexible thin-film transistor (TFT) panels.

SmartKem, which was set up in 2008, is pursuing emerging opportunities in flexible drive electronics for new and advanced displays such as e-paper, OLED and high-definition LCD.

3T Technologies is working with several partners on various projects to commercialise a highly versatile technique with the potential for achieving low-cost patterning over large-area substrates, based on simple manufacturing steps using peelable masking. The Laser Patterned Peelable Masking (LPM) has fewer steps than photolithography and dry film resist photo-patterning.

Working with commercial partner MatOx, which licenses technology and teams with industrial firms in electronics and other industries, the potential of LPM is being explored by producers of mobile phone handsets, flat-panel displays and solar panels.

Nanoco should soon see its efforts to prove and scale up production of its cadmium-free quantum dot semiconductor materials, with a partner in Japan incorporating the technology into LED backlight systems for a new flat-panel television expected to commercialise by the end of 2011

Post-Plastic Logic

Earlier UK spin-outs Cambridge Display Technology and Plastic Logic helped promote the potential of organic and printed electronics, with ambitious visions of flexible displays and OLED television screens.

Nanoco, 3T and Oxford Photovoltaics suggest a new generation of start-ups, marked by their pragmatic approaches to commercialising their respective technologies. These approaches reflect the symbiotic relationship between plastic electronics and the conventional microelectronics industry. The strategy of this next generation of firms is less about overnight sensations, and more about supply chains upturned by plastic electronic technologies.

The companies are also looking at how growing performance and design demands for new devices - touchscreen smartphones, thinner and brighter televisions -are gradually creating opportunities for plastic electronics technologies.

As 3T co-founder Stuart Speakman observes, the electronics industry is very conservative with a huge amount of invested capital assets. 3T's process has promising potential for electronics producers that are investing in new product lines and could therefore benefit from new processing techniques.

Practical

It is the pragmatic approach of Oxford Photovoltaics that appeals to David Ward, managing partner and head of cleantech investing, at MTI. His firm recently led a £650,000 (€738,000) funding round for the Oxford University spin-out.

Oxford Photovoltaics is developing a process for screen-printing clear solar cells onto glass, to make photovoltaics (PVs) a cost-effective technology for the building industry. The company, established last year, is working with partners in the construction industry supply chain to help bring its technology to market as a building-integrated solar system.

The focus on ensuring scalability of materials and process, decent yields and so on, always in relation to the target application of solar glass, played an important part in helping MTI decide the Oxford start-up was the right PV investment decision to make, explains Ward.

The next issue of +Plastic Electronics magazine is a displays special, with a series of articles on the latest technologies and emerging markets for printed and organic displays.
To sign up for your copy immediately, click the link below, contact publications@pira-international.com or visit our subscriptions page.