Confidence builds in paper electronics

Sara Ver-Bruggen - 08 Oct 2010

3M has become the latest industrial player to back the potential for low-cost, paper-based electronics.

The US company, through its 3M New Ventures arm, has invested in Printechnologics, a Germany-based printed electronics startup. Printechnologics, previously called Menippos, is commercialising printed electronic circuitry on paper or foil.

Printechnologics focuses on adapting conventional printing techniques, using available materials and conductive inks, to add functionality to paper-based products such as packaging, coupons and tickets.

Trading cards was one of the first markets Printechnologics, a Technical University Chemnitz spin-out, targeted (as reported in +Plastic Electronics volume 2, issue 1). The company developed a process for printing circuitry to cards to make them interactive online to increase functionality, novelty and value of cards for collectors.

Labels

Other applications the company has its sights on are developing anti-counterfeiting labels and packaging using its technology. One of 3M's established businesses includes producing and supplying electronic article surveillance (EAS) labels and tags to prevent shoplifting.

According to Voyl Divljakovic, VP and general manager of 3M's electronic solutions division, Printechnologics' technology could be used to develop smart packaging to prevent counterfeiting in the gaming industry, one of 3M's end-use markets.

Like another printed electronics start-up - Novalia, in Cambridge, UK - Printechnologics is attracting interest because it is focused on using existing printing equipment and conductive inks to enhance paper and other low-cost materials that are found in many everyday items and products. The companies are not reliant on unproven advanced materials and processing techniques as their core offering to the market.

Novalia is working with small and medium enterprises, with government support, to show them how it is possible to create interactive media - including posters, packaging, greetings cards and other low-cost items - by printing electronic circuitry to fabricate buttons, sensors, power, connectors and other components to enable interactivity.

Printed batteries

In the same field Brunel University, in the UK, is working on lithographic printing techniques to produce printed batteries, for use with greetings cards to replace coin cell batteries, which have to be stuck and folded into cards during production. The printed battery in development is based on zinc manganese dioxide chemistry, with silver current collectors.

Recently researchers at Stanford University in California succeeded in producing thin, flexible, rechargeable lithium-ion batteries on paper that could be used for smart packaging and RFID applications. Separate projects at MIT and Technology University Chemnitz are making good progress in printing and coating solar cells directly onto paper for developing low-cost disposable energy sources for a range of future applications.

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