A large toy maker in Asia has made pre-production orders for Thinfilm's printed electronic labels and its newly developed memory controller device.
The order is small, but it marks the beginnings of the first commercial application for the Swedish start-up's technology.
Thinfilm has developed a non-volatile memory using semiconducting polymers that can be printed to fabricate the device. In non-volatile memories, information in the chip is not lost when the memory is switched off. In 2009 the company succeeded in producing the memories on a roll-to-roll production line.
One of the first demonstrators made by the company was an interactive gaming card, integrated with the memory, and therefore able to store and update information. Cartamundi is one of Thinfilm's potential licensing partners for the technology. Supply chain partners Thinfilm is working with include PolyIC, Soligie, Solvay and Inctec.
Readers
Information is written to the card using a handheld reader. For a toy application the reader device can be designed into a game set. Thinfilm's memory controller, a key component of the reader, is an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC).
As well as its printed memory work, Thinfilm is also developing a hybrid memory that combines silicon control circuits in with layers of polymer memory. The company is working with Intel on an internal R&D programme to develop 512Mb production-ready hybrid passive array memory, which has led Intel to take a minority stake in Thinfilm and also gain the right to use the hybrid memory in applications.
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Thinfilm
The Swedish technology producer is working on printed electronics for cards and toys
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