LOPEC 2014 Turns Focus to Latest Developments in Organic and Printed Electronics

By David Savastano

As LOPEC 2014 heads into its second day at Messe Munich today, the OEA and Messe Munich, the organizers of the conference, have created a program with talks by end users, suppliers and researchers, examining the present and future of organic and printed electronics, as well as a manufacturing demonstration showing how these applications can be produced.

LOPEC 2014 begins with the Plenary Session, with Wolfgang Mildner, general chair LOPEC, managing director of PolyIC GmbH & Co KG, and OE-A vice chairman, offering welcoming remarks. Mildner will be followed by Rolf Najork, COO of Heraeus Holding GmbH, who will analyze “Heraeus’ Strategy Towards Future Growth Markets.”

The European Commission has much interest in organic electronics, and in his talk on “EU Strategy for Organic Electronics and Photonics,” Khalil Rouhana, director-general for communications networks, content and technology for the European Commission, will offer the EC’s perspective. Jaap Lombaers, managing director of the Holst Centre, will then cover “Flex Nodes for Connected People.”

LOPEC breaks into five concurrent session, with two sessions dedicated to Technical topics. Track 1 opens with the subject of Organic Electronic Systems, with Henrik Sjoeberg
 of Thin Film Electronics AB, discussing “Recent Progress in the Development of Integrated Stand-alone Electronic Systems.”
 Dr. Eugenio Cantatore, 
TU Eindhoven, will cover “Complementary Organic Transistors Printed on Foil: From Process Technology to Circuits and Systems
.”

Dr. Delattre Anastasia
, CTP will offer insights into “Electrical and Printing Integration for Printed Eectronic on Paper,” while Dr. Gary Li, 
FPInnovations, will close the segment with “Applications of Printed Electronics on Paper-based Substrates: Creating Sustainable and Functional Packaging.”

Technology and Manufacturing Advances in OPV and Battery Technologies is the second segment of Track 1. Dr Christian Uhrich of Heliatek will open the session with ““Towards Roll-to-Roll Mass Production of Efficient Organic Cacuum-Deposited p-i-n Tandem Solar Cells.” “High Efficiency Polymer Semiconductors for Organic Photovoltaics with Improved Stability” will be presented by Dr. Owen Lozman of Merck Chemicals.

Dr. Lozman will be followed by Dr. Charles Roger of Dia Solar, whose topic is “Custom Made OPV by Ink Jet Printing. Blue Spark Technologies’ John Gannon will close the segment with “Thin Batteries and Their Applications.”

Emerging Technologies for Organic and Large Area Electronics is the closing segment of Track 1. This session begins with “Flexible Thin Film Plastic Photovoltaics for Energy Harvesting and Off-Grid Solar,” by Dr. Michael Niggemann of Eight19 Ltd. “MC10’s Biostamp Platform: Delivering Seamless, Body-Integrated Computing that Dissolves the Boundaries between Technology and Humans” will be covered by Brian Elolampi of MC10.

“New Manufacturing Process Step for LEC, Enabling Additive Layer Application without Need for Orthogonal Solvent Systems,” will be covered by Dr. Andreas Sandström of LunaLEC AB, while “Potential Free Plasma Technology for Treatment of Electrical High Sensitive Films,” which closes Track 1, will be presented by Frank Hochstrate of SOFTAL Corona & Plasma GmbH.

Track 2 begins with three talks on the topic of Advances in Flexible Display Technologies. “Advanced Detaching Technique for Plastic AMOLED” is the title of Hee University Prof. Jin Jang
 Kyung’s talk. Dr. Hans Kleemann
 of Novaled will discuss “Active Matrix OLED Backplanes Made of Organic Thin-Film Transistors
.” Dr. Simon Ogier, Centre for Process Innovation, will analyze “Low Temperature Organic Transistor Process for Flexible Displays with 1mm Bend Radius.”

Track 2 then moves into Touch Screens and Surfaces. Dr. Tryg Jensen of Carestream Advanced Materials will offer insights into “Silver Nanowires: Enabling the Future of Touch.” “High-Conductive PEDOT:PSS in Touch Sensors” is a presentation by Dr. Andreas Elschner, Electronic Materials Division. Johannes Schad of PolyIC GmbH & Co. KG will close the segment with “PolyTC – Metal Mesh Based Touch Sensors.”

Upscaling Production – Processing Methods and Equipment is the closing topic on Track 2. Thomas Kolbusch of Coatema will discuss “Patterning and Thin Film Layer Application Methods for Printed Electronics.” Andrea Glawe of Kroenert GmbH & Co KG will present on “Printing Versus Coating Technology – Which Way Printed Electronics will Go?” “Inkjet Production Equipment; Scale-up from Lab to Fab” is discussed by Joost Valeton of Roth&Rau B.V., and Track 2 closes with “Changing the Future in R2R Manufacturing of Flexible Electronics,” by Dr. Sorin Stan of VDL FLOW.

There are also two Scientific tracks. The first Scientific track features talks on OPVs. Martin Neukom of Fluxim AG offers his thoughts on “Analysis of Dynamic Electrical Response of Fresh and Degraded Organic Solar Cells.” Konstantin Glaser, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), will cover “Matching the Subcell Currents in Organic Tandem Solar Cells Via Spatial Photocurrent Mapping.” Hsu Hsiang-Lin, Ming Chi University of Technology, follows with “Plasmonic Organic Photovoltaics Based on Shape Controllable Silver Nanoplates.” “Assessing Batch-to-Batch Variation of Photovoltaic Polymers by Spectroscopy and Optical Simulation” os the topic for Dr. Markus Kohlstädt of Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE/Universität Freiburg.

The first Scientifc track then heads into Integrated Smart Systems and RFID, beginning with “Fully Inkjet Printed, Multilayer Lithium-ion Battery” by James Cooper of Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Mark Allen, Nokia Research Centre, follows Cooper with “Integration of Printed Electronic Components for Devices.” Dr. Danick Briand, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), offers insights into “Printed Smart RFID Labels for the Monitoring of Perishable Goods,” and Benjamin Cook, also of Georgia Institute of Technology, closes the segment with “Vertically-Integrated Inkjet Printed Electronics Process (VIPRE) for High Efficiency RF and mm-Wave Components.”

Three talks on OLEDs close the first Scientific track: “Design Tool for Light Scattering Enhancement in OLEDs” by Thomas Lanz of Fluxim AG; “High-Performance Stacked Inverted Top-Emitting Green and White Electrophosphorescent Organic Light-Emitting Diodes” by Keith Knauer of Georgia Institute of Technology; and “Characteristics of All-Solution Printed Transparent OLED Signage and Lighting Panels” by VTT’s Markus Tuomikoski.

Novel Printing and Processing opens the second Scientific track. Prof. Dr. Uwe Krönert of Heraeus Noblelight Ltd. opens the track with “Customised Solutions for Rapid Photonic Processing.” Dr. Fredrik Jonsson of KTH, Royal Institute of Technology, will cover “Wireless Bio Sensing Platform Using Printed Electrodes and Flexible Battery.”

Dr. Andreas Willert, Fraunhofer ENAS, will present on “Integrated Applications Driven by Printed Primary Battery Solutions.” “Towards an All Plasma-Printed Biosensor, “ by Peter Verhoeven, InnoPhysics B.V., closes the session.

Device Design is Scientific Track 2’s second topic, beginning with “Light Management for Organic Photovoltaics” by Dr. Ton Offermans of CSEM. “Integration of OLED Lighting in Automotive Plastic Components” is covered by Dr. Bert Geyer of ZOEK GmbH.

“Printed Fringing Field Capacitive Sensors: A Multidisciplinary Approach” will be presented by João Gomes of CeNTI – Centre for Nanotechnology and Smart Materials, and Dr. Harald Richter, Institut für Mikroelektronik Stuttgart, closes the Device Design segment with “Smart Skin for Robotics – an Example of a Complex System-In-Foil.”

Three presentations on Organic Materials conclude Scientific Track 2. “New Materials for OLED and OPV” is the topic of the talk by Dr. Arnulf Scheel of Heraeus Precious Metals GmbH & Co.KG. “Printed and Encapsulated Environmental Sensors on Biodegradable Polylactic Acid (PLA)” will be covered by Andrés Vásquez Quintero of Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL. “Studying the Influence of Temperature Treatment on Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) Polystyrenesulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) Thin Films, by Antonio Marques of CeNTI – Centre for Nanotechnology and Smart Materials, concludes the track.


The final track of LOPEC is the Start-up Forum, a half-day session which looks at innovative companies seeking investors. Gildas Sorin, Novaled GmbH’s CEO, will begin the session with his insights into “The Key Parameters to Make a Start-up Successful.”

Pascal Pierron of Dracula Technologies will discuss “Organic and Printed Electronics: Innovative Smart Products.” PST Sensors’ David Britton will discuss “PST Sensors – Making Sense with Silicon.” “Additive Manufacturing of 3D Printed Thin Film Electronics and Circuits Using Precision Shadow Masks and Alignment – Bridging the Gap between Integrated Circuits and Printed Circuit Boards” is the topic of Whitten (Whit) Little of Advantech US, Inc.

Dr. Tobias Grab of Cynora GmbH will cover “Singlet Harvesting Emitters for Highly Efficient OLEDs.” “Slot Die Coating – A Key Technology for Scalable Manufacturing of Organic and Printed Electronics” is the topic of nTact’s Miguel Friedrich. Prof. Dr. Masayuki Kanehara of Colloidal Inc. Co., Ltd. will present on “Annealing Free Metal Nanoink.”

After lunch, the Start-up Forum continues with “Printed Electrochromic Film for Architectural and Automotive Applications,” by Dr. Damoder Reddy of Argil, Inc. Dr. Reddy will be followed by Dr. Robert Carpenter of FlexiSolar Ltd., whose presentation is titled “Fabrigen – Lightweight Flexible PV.”

“How to Outperform ITO” will be covered by Valérie Zoppi of Genes’ink, and Antti Backman, Delektre Ltd., ends the session with “Foils for Vehicles.”

By David Savastano