Leaders of the Organic and Printed Electronics Association (OE-A) are noting a worldwide upward trend in organic and printed electronics.

“We see a rapidly growing interest by companies and investors in organic and printed electronics worldwide,” said Wolfgang Mildner, chairman of the board of directors of the Organic and Printed Electronics Association (OE-A).

“The market potential for printed electronics is huge. In parallel with the upward trend in this technology the interest in OE-A is growing too,” said Mildner. “Last year the OE-A membership increased by more than 30% , to more than 160 members from 27 countries.”

Flexible thin lighting elements for automotive and buildings interiors provide new opportunities for car designers and architects. Thinness, flexibility, robustness and easy integration are the competitive advantages of this new technology. Flexible solar cells, RFID-tags for brand protection, printed batteries or e-reader are additional applications enabled by organic and printed electronics. Integrated systems printed roll-to-roll at low-cost render the possibility of having consumer goods as well as industrial electronic systems that are extremely compact and energy efficient.

“Organic and printed electronics is an emerging technology well on its way to mass markets,” said Mildner in the recent video, “Printed Electronics – Ready to Go!”

Large-area, Organic and Printed Electronics (LOPE-C) 2011 will be held from June 28-30t, 2011 at Messe Frankfurt, where the latest applications, equipment and technologies will be presented live. The OE-A is a working group within the German Engineering Federation (VDMA) and was founded in December 2004.