oe-a brochure2013 web
TRANSCRIPT
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5th Edition
A working group within
Organic and Printed ElectronicsApplications, Technologies and Suppliers
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6th International Exhibition and Conference for the Printed Electronics Industry
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Messe Mnchen, Germany
Conference: May 2628, 2014Exhibition: May 2728, 2014
2nd picture from above: Audi AGOrganic solar cell: Fraunhofer ISE
May
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Organic and Printed ElectronicsApplications, Technologies and Suppliers
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2 ORGANIC AND PRINTED ELECTRONICS
03 Editorial
Printed Electronics in Your Hands!
04 Welcome to the OE-A
10 OE-A Roadmap for Organic and Printed Electronics
30 The Future of Printed Products Interactive Cover Page
32 Organic and Printed Electronics:
OE-A Demonstrators Illustrate the Potential
34 Market for Organic and Printed Electronics
36 List of OE-A Members Represented
102 Competence Matrix
114 OE-A Members
120 Imprint
ContentsContents
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ORGANIC AND PRINTED ELECTRONICS 3
Printed Electronics in Your Hands!
A special edition of this issue includes an interac-
tive cover page, which can light up! In keeping
with our tradition of providing functional give-
away demonstrators in our brochure, we are
pleased to present to you a multifunctional
printed electronics device that is directly inte-
grated in the cover page for the first time. This
impressively shows how thin, lightweight and
flexible printed electronics can add functionality
to traditional print products such as journals or
packages, thus enabling a completely new class
of products and possibilities applications in
advertising and marketing are just a few exam-
ples. The interactive cover page was produced
by OE-A members in an automated process; it
shows that this new technology has reached the
manufacturing state in which is can be inte-
grated into real products.
This industry is moving at an impressive speed,
is acting globally and is now witnessing new
products entering the market. The combination
of printed and classical electronics and the inte-
gration of printed electronics into systems are
general trends that are taking place in major
fields like automotive, consumer electronics,
printing and packaging, architectural, pharma-
ceutical and medical applications as well as in
textiles and fashion.
More and more products are entering our daily
life. OLED displays and lighting, packages that
light up, touch screens and switches for a variety
of surfaces, flexible solar cells and batteries, self-
dimming rear-view mirrors in cars, or printed
sensors in diabetes test strips and smart packag-
ing for the pharmaceutical industry are just a few
examples in which organic and printed electron-
ics reaches everybody.
At this point in the cycle, it is even more impor-
tant for our community to have an international
platform for the exchange of information, for
collaboration and cooperation. Our supply chains
are international and globally linked, and the
OE-A facilitates the establishment of these sup-
ply chains through a variety of activities which
ultimately help the industry to grow. The start of
international standardization activities under the
leadership of IEC and supported by the OE-A
is another important signal that this emerging
industry is entering a next level of maturity.
The OE-A is the key international industry associa-
tion for organic and printed electronics, and it is
growing constantly. With more than 215 members
from 31 countries in Europe, North America, Asia,
and Australia, we cover the entire value chain and
are a unique network of world-leading companies
and research institutes, with growth in member-
ship increasingly from end-user industries.
This brochure will be published at LOPE-C. At this
event, we provide the premier international
marketplace for the community covering the full
spectrum: commercialization, applications,
technology and science of organic and printed
electronics.
The OE-A roadmap summary is a compilation of
the views of its members on the future develop-
ment of this industry. The fifth edition of this
roadmap, which has been expanded and updated
in this issue, is included here. In this brochure you
will also find information about the OE-A, our
members and their respective products and com-
petencies, as well as a market forecast for these
emerging electronics.
We hope this industry directory for Organic and
Printed Electronics will serve as a launch pad to
help you find the right partners for your business.
June 2013
Dr. Stephan KirchmeyerChairman OE-A Board, Heraeus Precious Metals GmbH & Co. KG
Dr. Stephan Kirchmeyer Dr. Klaus Hecker
Welcome to the fifth edition of the OE-A brochure.
Dr. Klaus HeckerManaging Director, OE-A
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4 ORGANIC AND PRINTED ELECTRONICS
The vision of the OE-A (Organic and Printed Elec-
tronics Association) is to build a bridge between
science, technology and applications to grow
an industry of emerging electronics. The OE-A
enables and fosters collaboration by members of
the value chain starting from research to inte-
gration into final end-products by coordinating,
harmonizing and facilitating their activities.
The global interest in organic and printed elec-
tronics is booming. Almost every sector of our
economy will be affected, if not revolutionized, by
organic and printed electronics. Initial products
have entered the market. The technology has
huge potential, but materials, equipment, pro-
cesses and applications still have to be developed
and improved.
OE-A The Organization
The membership of OE-A is growing fast.
Founded in December 2004, more than 215
members in 31 countries from Europe, Asia,
North America and Australia have joined OE-A.
Welcome to the OE-A
Emerging electronics means electronics beyond the
classical silicon approach, including: flexible, printed electronics
from organic, polymeric or inorganic materials.
Figure 2: OE-A involves the whole value chain of organic and printed electronics.
Figure 1: Membership development of the OE-A. The network of the OE-A has been growing rapidly worldwide since its formation in December 2004.
Membership Development of the OE-A
200
150
100
50
0
12/2
004
12/2
005
12/2
006
12/2
007
12/2
008
12/2
009
12/2
010
12/2
011
12/2
012
04/2
013
Competencies of the OE-A Members
Material Suppliers: 20 %
Equipment Manufacturers: 21 %
Device Manufacturers:13 %
Services:
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ORGANIC AND PRINTED ELECTRONICS 5
Our members are:
component and material suppliers
equipment and tool suppliers
producers / integrators
system integrators and distributors
end-users
research institutes and universities
OE-A is a working group within VDMA, the
German Engineering Federation. The OE-A head-
quarters is located in Frankfurt, Germany, and our
North American office is in Pittsburgh, PA., USA.
What OE-A Can Do for You
Networking Our International Approach
Creating the right partnerships is essential to
companies and research institutes and OE-As
strength is its global reach.
With frequent Working Group Meetings in
Europe, North America and Asia, OE-A supports
its members with an effective networking and
communication platform, fostering collaboration
and promoting information exchange among all
players along the value chain worldwide.
Market and Technology Information /
Roadmap
Being well-informed enables you to make the
right decisions. Its all about keeping track of
todays ever-increasing information flow.
OE-A provides its members with up-to-date
market and technology information. Dedicated
The OE-A is assigned to the VDMA division Innovative Business,
which includes such related associations as Productronics (Produc-
tion Equipment for Microelectronics), Photovoltaic Equipment,
German Flat Panel Display Forum (DFF), Battery Production and
Micro Technology. These partner associations provide sector-
specific expertise to their member companies, many of which are
business partners to the organic and printed electronics industry.
Our internal network also provides us with excellent contacts to
the printing and packaging as well as plastics and paper equip-
ment industries.
The German Engineering Federation (VDMA) is one of the key
industry associations in Europe and offers the largest engineering
industry network in Europe. With more than 3,100 member
companies, predominantly small and medium-sized enterprises,
VDMA represents 38 fields throughout the entire investment
goods industry from the classical machinery sector to high-tech
fields like robotics and automation. VDMA is located in Frankfurt,
Germany, with branch offices in Berlin, Brussels, Tokyo, Beijing,
Shanghai, Moscow, Kolkata, New Dehli and Mumbai.
Strengthening Synergies the VDMA Innovative Business Division
working groups focused on applications and
technologies help to create a roadmap for organic
and printed electronics. These experts provide a
forecast for the main application areas and tech-
nologies for organic and printed electronics and
identify the major hurdles yet to be overcome.
A summary of the 5th edition of the OE-A Road-
map for organic and printed electronics is
Figure 3: Meet new business partners and increase your organizations industry exposure at OE-A Working Group Meetings in Europe, North America and Asia.
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6 ORGANIC AND PRINTED ELECTRONICS
included in this brochure. The OE-A has addressed
the increasing requirement for information on
the growing market of next generation technolo-
gies for pharmaceutical packaging, medical tech-
nology and well-being by recently adding the
new healthcare roadmap.
Our expertise arises not only from our member-
ship, but also from close cooperation with lead-
ing market intelligence companies and related
international associations.
Promoting Research Activities
Research and development plays a strategic role
in leveraging this emerging technology. The OE-A
fosters and promotes the expansion of R&D
activities on several different levels. We are in
close contact with national and European fund-
ing authorities, and we work with them to define
future R&D funding programs. Another one of
the OE-As important tasks is to support and to
help coordinate industrial R&D for the entire
organic and printed electronics sector.
In addition, the OE-A organizes projects that
develop giveaway and multifunctional demon-
strators. This time, a special edition of this
brochure with an interactive cover page was
developed and produced by OE-A members.
More than 20 companies and institutes continue
to provide a unique set of devices and materials
for the OE-A Toolbox which represents the state-
of-the-art of organic and printed electronic
components.
The OE-A sponsors an annual demonstrator com-
petition which awards the best demonstrators in
categories ranging from research to prototypes
and design concepts.
The OE-A is the perfect platform to find the right
partner for your business or for bi- or multilateral
R&D projects.
Figure 4: Summary of the 5th edition of the OE-A Roadmap for organic and printed electronics.
Portable chargers
Flexible segmented displays integrated into smart cards, price labels, bendable colour displays
Design projects
Primary single-cell batteries, memory for interactive games, ITO-free transparent conductive films
Garments with integrated sensors, anti theft, brand protection, printed test strips, physical sensors
Existing until 2013
Consumer electronics, customized mobile power
Bendable OLEDs, plastic LCD, in-moulded displays, large-area signage, rollable color displays
Transparent and decorative lighting modules
Rechargeable single-cell batteries, transparent conductors for touch sensors, printed reflective display elements
Integrated systems on garment), large-area physical sensor arrays and mass market intelligent packaging
Short term 20142016
Specialized building integration, off grid
Rollable OLEDs with OTFT, (semi-) transparent rollable displays, flexible consumer electronics
Flexible lighting
Printed multi-cell batteries, integrated flexible multi-touch sensors, printed logic chips
Textile sensors on fibre, dynamic price displays, NFC / RFID smart labels, disposable monitoring devices
Medium term 20172020
Building integration, grid connected PV
Rollable OLED TVs, telemedicine
General lighting technology
Directly printed batteries, active and passive devices to Smart Object
OLEDs on textile, fibre-electronics, health monitoring systems and smart buildings
Longer term 2021+
OE-A Roadmap for Organic and Printed Electronics Applications
Organic Photovoltaics
Flexible Displays
OLED Lighting
Electronics & Components
Integrated Smart
Systems
OE-A 2013
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ORGANIC AND PRINTED ELECTRONICS 7
Figure 6: Printed electronic devices (Source: Kurz)
Education and Training
Highly qualified employees are the key to success.
To help the community find employees with
expertise in this emerging technology, the OE-A
initiated the Education and Training project. In
it, experts work together to develop education
and training programs that meet the industrys
needs.
Quality Control and Standardization
With the installation of mass-production capacity
for organic and printed electronics, standardiza-
tion and consistent characterization of devices
and high-throughput in-line quality control are
increasingly becoming a focus for companies.
The OE-A supports moving organic and printed
electronics into the market by organizing a work-
ing group that deals with quality control and
measurement; the group also develops dedicated
guidelines for device characterization as well as
testing methods for encapsulation systems.
The OE-A has been a major supporter of the
international standardization process under the
leadership of IEC (International Electrotechnical
Commission) and promotes the activities of
the Technical Committee IEC-TC 119 Printed
Electronics.
Upscaling Production
The transfer of lab-type processes to mass pro-
duction of organic and printed electronics lab-
to-fab is supported by the OE-A Working Group
Upscaling Production. Experts with a strong
background in production and development
collaborate in this group to develop concepts for
moving from the laboratory through pilot lines to
full-scale manufacturing, thereby supporting
OE-A members in upscaling production. To pro-
vide a unique insight into the industrial processes
of organic and printed electronics, the OE-A
Working Group Upscaling Production initiated
the LOPE-C Demo Line. Material suppliers, equip-
ment manufacturers and process developers
have consolidated their efforts to manufacture a
functional take-home demonstrator as part of
the LOPE-C exhibition.
Green Electronics
Green and sustainability aspects are key factors
for the acceptance and success of an emerging
technology. Factors relating to sustainability for
organic and printed electronic materials, processes,
products and applications include the efficient
use of materials, environmentally friendly
production, power efficiency of the products as
well as recyclability and disposal of products. The
OE-A Working Group Green provides guidelines
and methodologies for sustainability analysis.
Figure 5: Smart blister packaging (Source: Holst Centre)
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8 ORGANIC AND PRINTED ELECTRONICS
Increasing Your Visibility
The OE-A promotes its members innovations
through a multitude of media outlets. This bro-
chure Organic and Printed Electronics, now
published in its fifth edition is just the tip of the
iceberg. Other examples are the OE-A Video,
Printed Electronics Ready to Go, that intro-
duces our industry to a broad audience, the
OE-A Newsletter, and the globally distributed
OPE Journal.
The OE-A arranges contacts with the interna-
tional press and with trade show and conference
organizers around the world for members. More-
over, we represent our members at international
trade fairs and conferences.
LOPE-C Large-area,
Organic & Printed Electronics Convention
One of the key tasks of the OE-A is to provide the
premier international marketplace for organic
and printed electronics. Along with our partner
Messe Munich, we have developed the leading
international trade show and conference for the
organic and printed electronics community.
LOPE-C is the premier event for end-users, manu-
facturers, investors, engineers and scientists in
organic and printed electronics and covers the
latest commercial and technological achieve-
ments.
Electronics Everywhere Big Opportunities
The combination of specialty materials with low-
cost, large-area fabrication processes (such as
printing) enables thin, lightweight, flexible and
low-cost electronics. This means that integrated
circuits, sensors, displays, memory, photovoltaic
cells or batteries can be made out of plastic.
Applications like flexible solar cells, flexible dis-
plays, lighting, RFID tags (radio frequency identi-
fication), single-use diagnostic devices or simple
consumer products and games are only a few
examples that represent a future multi-billion
Euro market. Smart objects (e. g., smart packag-
ing that integrates multiple organic and printed
devices) or smart textiles are additional examples
of applications in organic and printed electronics.
OLED displays, e-readers, printed electrodes for
several medical applications as well as printed
light sources, electrochromic rear-view mirrors,
and printed antennae for automotive applica-
tions have been on the market on a large scale for
several years.
Organic photovoltaics and OLED lighting-based
products, smart packaging, flexible batteries,
printed memory, transparent conductive films as
an ITO substitute for touch displays, smart phar-
maceutical blister packages for field trials and
smart cards with built-in displays for password
applications have become available. Within 3 to 4
years, additional products are expected to be
available to a mass market, and all of the above
mentioned applications, as well as several more,
will be available in large volumes.
Tremendous opportunities are opening up for
companies that invest in this field, regardless of
whether they are material suppliers, equipment
manufacturers, producers or system integrators.
Large-scale production capacity is presently
installed in Europe, the U.S., and Asia. On the
other hand, large-scale efforts and close collabo-
ration of all partners along the value chain
remain necessary to make organic and printed
electronics a true success story.
Cooperation and information exchange will lead
to mutual advantages. The OE-A provides the
international platform for the organic and
printed electronics community and helps the
industry to grow.
Curious? Dont hesitate to ask us for details!
Figure 7: LOPE-C is the premier marketplace for the organic and printed electronics industry.
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ww
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Messe Mnchen, GermanyConference: May 2628, 2014Exhibition: May 2728, 2014
LOPE-C is the leading international trade fair and conference for printed electronics in the high-tech business location of Munich. The exclusive business platform addresses manufacturers and users of a technology of the future across a wide range of
Organic solar cell: Fraunhofer ISE
industry sectors. It is innovative, exible, cost-effective and thus suitable for mass-market production. As the representative trade fair of this sector, LOPE-Chighlights current trends, presents innovative products,points to market opportunities for industry and promotes
Manufacturing processess 0RINTINGs 0HOTOLITHOGRAPHYs ,ASERs 3OLUTIONCOATINGs %NCAPSULATION
Assembly and packaging technology, system integrations %LECTRICALCONTACTINGs ,AMINATIONs ,ASERs 3YSTEMINTEGRATIONs (YBRIDSYSTEMS
Inspection and test systemss %LECTRICALPHYSICAL optical, chemical characterizations 3IMULATIONs ,IFETIMETESTINGs 1UALITY0ROCESSCONTROL
Devices s 4RANSISTORSAND diodess 0ASSIVESs $ISPLAYSs 0HOTOVOLTAICCELLSs 3ENSORSs !NTENNASs "ATTERIES
Applications s 3OLARCELLSs $ISPLAYSs 3MARTTEXTILESs 3PEAKERSs ,IGHTINGs )NTEGRATEDSMART systemss 2&)$
Services s #ONSULTINGs 2$s 0ROFESSIONALAND trade associationss 6ENTUREANDEQUITY capitalization
Materials s 3UBSTRATESs #ONDUCTORSs 3EMICONDUCTORSs $IELECTRICSs %NCAPSULATION materials and resins
LOPE-C Exhibition: The entire value chain for printed electronics.
LOPE-C Conference: One Congress Many Components.
Plenary session: delivered by international experts
Business conference and Investor forum: with focus on commercialization
Technical conference: with focus on new technologies and applications
Scienti c conference and Poster session: delivered by established and young scientists
Short courses: featuring established industry and academic experts
Visitor target groups:
Automotive
"UILDINGANDARCHITECTURE
Chemical
Consumer electronics
Energy
Lighting
Logistics
Mechanical engingeering
Medical and pharmaceutical
Packaging
Printing and graphic arts
Textiles and fashion
the development of new materials, manufacturing processes and applications. This makes the event the most important gathering in the eld of printed electronics.
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10 ORGANIC AND PRINTED ELECTRONICS
Organic and printed electronics is based on the
combination of new materials and cost-effective,
large-area production processes that open up
new fields of application. Thin, lightweight,
flexible and environmentally friendly electronics
thats what organic electronics aims to deliver.
It also enables a wide range of electrical
components that can be produced and directly
integrated in low-cost reel-to-reel processes.
Intelligent packaging, OLED lighting, printed
multi functional systems, rollable displays, flex-
ible solar cells, disposable diagnostic devices or
games, flexible touchscreens, and printed
batteries are just a few examples of promising
fields of application for organic electronics based
on new large-scale processable electrically con-
ductive and semi-conducting materials. Organic
electronics can be used by itself, but also as part
of a heterogeneous system combining printed
and organic components and silicon, each where
they make the most sense. These heterogeneous
systems will be especially important in the first
generations of products.
In the following pages, you will find an updated
overview of the organic and printed electronics
applications, technologies and devices, as well as
a discussion of the different technology levels
that can be used in producing organic electronic
products. We have taken account of the exciting
technical progress made since the last edition
and the appearance of first products, and have
made some changes to the grouping of applica-
tions within clusters. In particular, we have
included EL lighting now into Electronics and
Components, fitting with its areas of commercial
applications, and moved RFID into Integrated
Smart Systems, as organic RFID is expected to
find its primary application in smart systems
rather than as a competitor to Si-based EPC
applications in the near future.
At the time of the last roadmap, products were
starting to enter the market, and this trend has
continued, so that commercial products are
available in all of the key technology areas. First
organic electronic products reached the market a
number of years ago, e.g., passive ID cards that
are mass-printed on paper and are used for tick-
eting or toys. Flexible lithium polymer batteries
produced in a reel-to-reel process have been
available for several years and can be used for
smart cards and other mobile consumer prod-
ucts. Printed electrodes for glucose test strips or
for electrocardiograms are common. Organic
photovoltaics (OPV) modules integrated into bags
to charge mobile electrical devices are commer-
OE-A Roadmap for Organic and Printed Electronics
The roadmap for organic and printed electronics is a key activity of
the OE-A. Organic electronics is a platform technology that enables
multiple applications that are based on organic electronics but
vary widely in their specifications. This technology is still in its early
stage; while increasing numbers of products are available and
some are in full production, many applications are still in lab-scale
development, prototype activities or early production. Nonetheless,
it is important to develop a common opinion about what kind of
products, processes and materials will be available and when.
For this fifth version of the OE-A Roadmap, key teams of experts in
five application clusters and three technology areas developed
roadmaps for their fields, which were presented to and discussed
with the OE-A members during association meetings. The resulting
roadmap is a synthesis of these results representing common
perspectives of the groups.
We present here a summary of the fifth version of the roadmap,
which is a supplement to and improvement on the fourth version
presented in 2011.
The goal of this roadmap is to help the industry, government agen-
cies and scientists plan and align their R&D activities and product
plans, for example, by identifying promising applications and key
challenges requiring breakthroughs. Roadmapping, especially in
such a young industry, is an ongoing process and the OE-A will
continue this key activity.
A White Paper explaining the 2011 roadmap in more detail is
already available for download from the OE-A website
(www.oe-a.org), and a White Paper for the current version will
be released later in 2013. For further details please contact the
OE-A secretariat.
The OE-A Roadmap
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ORGANIC AND PRINTED ELECTRONICS 11
cially available. Printed antennae are commonly
used in (still Si-based) RFID tags. Large-area
organic pressure sensors for applications such as
retail logistics have recently been introduced.
First organic LED (OLED) lighting based products
became available just before the last edition of
the roadmap and have grown, with the number
of both commercial OLED lighting products and
large-scale installations at lighting trade fairs
much larger than at the time of the last edition
of the roadmap. User tests of smart cards with
built-in displays for one-time password applica-
tions were already started before the last road-
map and have started to be commercialized. New
products such as flexible, roll-to-roll-produced
e-paper price labels have been commercially
installed into stores, printed RF-driven smart
objects have become commercially available, and
printed non-volatile memory is being sold to
product developers. Recently, printed systems
incorporating organic electronics have also
become commercial; for example, a rechargeable
battery-powered flashlight containing OPV to
recharge the battery, first shown as an OE-A
demonstrator in 2011, can now be purchased.
Organic electronics has appeared in everyday
products where many people are not even aware
that they contain organic electronics, e.g., self-
dimming rearview mirrors in cars or OLED dis-
plays in smart phones. While we do not explicitly
investigate these already existing products in this
forward-looking roadmap, they are evidence that
organic electronics is already becoming an
industry.
Unbreakable displays with OTFT (organic thin
film transistor) backplanes have been piloted,
but full product introduction has been delayed;
however, development of unbreakable and even
rollable displays has continued. While no organic
electronic products have truly achieved full mass
market introduction, with the possible exception
of OLED displays, it appears that this is likely for
some products within the next few years.
Organic electronics is based on the combination of a new class of
materials and large-area, high-volume deposition and patterning
techniques. Often terms like emerging, printed, plastic, polymer,
flexible, printable inorganic, large-area or thin film electronics or
abbre viations like OLAE or FOLAE (Flexible and/or Organic Large
Area Electronics) are used, which essentially all mean the same
thing: electronics beyond the classical approach. For simplicity, we
have used the term organic electronics in this roadmap, but keep
in mind that we are using the term in this broader sense.
Organic Electronics
Figure 1: Overview of the OE-A Roadmap for organic and printed electronics applications.
OE-A Roadmap for Organic and Printed Electronics Applications
today
OE-A 2013
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12 ORGANIC AND PRINTED ELECTRONICS
In the applications section which follows, we
have updated our forecast for the market entry
on larger scales for various applications and
reviewed the appearance of first products. We
have also re-examined the key application and
technology parameters and principle challenges
(so-called red brick walls) seen for further devel-
opment of organic electronics. In the technology
section we also take account of recent progress in
new materials and improved processes.
Applications
Organic and printed electronics is a platform
technology that is based on organic conducting
and semi-conducting as well as printable
inorganic materials. It opens up new possibilities
for applications and products. As in previous
roadmap editions, some key applications have
been chosen to demonstrate the needs from the
application side, identify major challenges, cross-
check with the possibilities of the technology and
forecast a time frame for the market entry in
large volumes.
Below, we continue to look at applications
discussed in the previous edition of the roadmap,
clustered into the five groups OLED Lighting,
Organic Photovoltaics, Flexible Displays,
Electronics and Components (printed memory,
batteries, active devices and logic, and passive
devices) and Integrated Smart Systems (smart
objects, RFID, sensors and smart textiles). Figure 1
gives an overall view of the expected develop-
ment of the five clusters.
The large number of applications reflects the
complexity of the topic and the wide possible
uses for organic electronics, and it is likely that
the list will even grow in the future. This is one
reason for grouping applications into related
clusters in order to make it possible to maintain
an overview. The application fields and specifica-
tions cover a wide range, and although several
parameters like accuracy of the patterning
process or electrical conductivity of the materials
are of central importance, the topic cannot
currently be reduced to one or two simple scaling
laws such as the increase in transistors per chip
for silicon formulated by Moore in 1965. Regard-
less, we will watch the trends and find out
whether it will be possible to find an analogue to
Moores law for organic electronic. Some poten-
tial scaling trends are starting to be visible, such
as higher resolution patterning processes and
increased charge carrier mobilities, which can
improve device packing density and performance
in a similar way that has been observed in
Si electronics.
The question whether there is one killer applica-
tion for organic electronics still cannot be
answered with certainty. There are many differ-
Figure 2: OLED lighting product. (Source: OSRAM)
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ORGANIC AND PRINTED ELECTRONICS 13
ent fields in which the advantages of organic
electronics might result in the right application
to become a killer application, but at this point,
it is too early to predict where this is most likely
to happen, though OLED displays are making
strong progress. Past experience with new tech-
nologies has shown that the predicted killer
applications are frequently not the ones that
really open up the largest markets. Therefore, one
has to continue the work on the roadmap, as is
planned, follow the current trends and take
account of new developments as they occur.
In fact, with the increasing diversity of organic
electronics it is unclear whether there will be a
single killer app or if gradual market penetra-
tion in a variety of areas is more likely. At the
moment, we are starting to see market penetra-
tion in a variety of areas and it looks as if, for the
near future, organic growth in many areas is a
more likely scenario than an explosive killer app
in only one or two areas.
Applications Roadmap
OLED Lighting is an example of Solid State Light-
ing (SSL), which also includes LED-based lighting
and is seen as the most promising approach for
future lighting due to lack of hazardous materi-
als, flexible form factor, high energy efficiency
and long lifetime. The LED lighting industry is
growing rapidly, but OLED lighting continues to
make progress both technically and toward com-
mercialization. OLED lighting has grown out of
the technical progress made in developing the
OLED display industry but has increasingly
focused on the specific properties of OLEDs that
are relevant to lighting. OLED lighting products
promise novel features in the longer term: large-
area, very thin and optionally flexible or non-
planar form factor, and variable color are all
feasible with OLED lighting, and new lighting
applications can be expected to take advantage
of these properties, for example, embedded light-
ing or homogeneous area lighting.
While OLED lighting has not yet reached the
mass market, limited-release prototypes and
commercial products have become available to
demonstrate the potential and allow interested
users to try out OLED technology (Figure 2). A
number of European and Japanese companies
have shown advanced prototype products, and in
the USA the Department of Energy has supported
OLED lighting development strongly. Though
both vacuum deposited and solution processed
OLEDs are possible, vacuum deposited devices are
more efficient and dominate the market, though
much development is ongoing in improving solu-
tion processed OLEDs. The market is expected to
grow, especially if some key challenges such as
lowering the production cost and developing
reliable and cost-effective encapsulation are met.
Organic Photovoltaics (OPV) comprises both
hybrid systems (e.g., combining titania and dyes)
as well as systems using only organic semicon-
ductors. Flexible dye-sensitized titania and poly-
mer-based OPV modules have been available for
some years now, and products integrating
flexible OPV modules have been commercially
available since 2010. These applications target
low-power consumer applications, e.g., modules
for battery chargers for mobile electronics such
as cell phones, PV-powered computer keyboards,
or the mobile laser pointer shown in Figure 3.
Despite the difficult market for PV in general in
the last couple of years and the significant set-
back of the loss of a key OPV pioneer, both techni-
cal and commercial development is continuing.
Laboratory scale cells have now reached efficien-
cies that can compete with thin film silicon, while
the number of pilot and small production lines
has increased. OPV shows a combination of
unique points: lightweight, flexible design with
options for color and semi-transparency, good
performance in low and diffuse light, reduced
environmental footprint and customizable
formats which allow them to address market
niches not in direct competition with crystalline
silicon technologies. Short term applications will Figure 3: Battery powered laser pointer with OPV charger. (Source: Mekoprint)
-
14 ORGANIC AND PRINTED ELECTRONICS
be mostly in consumer electronic and portable
power sources. In the medium term, novel forms
of building-integrated OPV will appear. The long-
term perspective of energy generation remains
a driving vision, while novel business models
are also appearing to address unconventional
markets and channels to market.
Flexible Displays are an extension of flat panel
displays, which have had tremendous success in
replacing conventional displays such as cathode
ray tubes (CRTs) for use in computers and televi-
sions, and in enabling new products such as lap-
top and tablet computers, e-readers and smart
mobile phones. Flexible displays can dispense
with some key issues of current flat displays, such
as the presence of (breakable and relatively
heavy) glass and inability to be bent, rolled or
used with other than flat form factors. The
requirements for flexible displays depend
strongly on the intended type of use, e.g., of the
flexible displays roadmap we focus on the follow-
ing key types of use, e.g., information and signage
(conformal and lightweight is more important
than being bendable or rollable), reading (rug-
gedness, light weight and optionally bendability
or rollability are desired) or entertainment/multi-
media (where video rate, color and resolution are
critical in addition to the above factors).
The flexible display market has not developed
commercially as quickly as had been hoped,
partially due to industry restructuring and com-
petition from tablet computers, but there have
been advances as well. For example, flexible, roll-
to-roll-produced e-paper-based shelf tags have
been commercialized at a Finnish electronics
superstore chain, garnering very positive recep-
tion. Plastic Logic announced a new business
strategy, enabling the company to move beyond
the e-reader market into a variety of new markets
and applications, driven by flexible display solu-
tions. On the technology side, many of the key
players in the display market have showcased
prototypes of OLED-driven flexible displays,
including active matrix backplanes driven by
novel materials like oxide semiconductors. E Ink
has also announced flexible active-matrix EPD-
driven displays, and color EPD display prototypes
with organic TFT backplanes have been shown
(Figure 4). While simple signage is already avail-
able, we expect flexible commercial e-readers in
the near future, followed by trends to larger size,
higher resolution and full color as well as flexible
OLEDs in the future.
The Electronics and Components cluster in the
OE-A Roadmap encompasses printed memory,
flexible batteries, and active and passive devices.
These are the building blocks or toolkit out of
which future organic electronic products can be
made.
Printed memory is needed for applications where
the user is required to store and process informa-
tion. If the user wants to change the information
stored in the memory after production, a rewrit-
Figure 5: Printed addressable memory array with transistor logic. (Source: PARC and Thin Film Electronics ASA)
Figure 4: Flexible color e-reader display with organic TFT backplane. (Source: Plastic Logic)
-
ORGANIC AND PRINTED ELECTRONICS 15
able memory, either write once read many (WORM)
or rewritable random-access memory (RAM) is
necessary. Furthermore, for many applications
without constant power, the memory needs to
be non-volatile (NV). ID devices and promotional
cards using read-only memory (ROM), WORM or
NV-RAM were already hitting the market at the
time of the last roadmap and have continued to
make headway. Reference designs of toys using
NV-RAM memory have been launched, and appli-
cations using printed memory for brand protec-
tion (i.e., anti-fraud, anti-counterfeit uses) have
also emerged recently. Printed memory will be an
important component in future integrated smart
systems (see below), and technology develop-
ment is proceeding this way. For example, a
recently presented NV-RAM that includes CMOS
(Figure 5), and showed successful integration of
a sensor, a display, memory and transistor logic in
December 2012. The future is expected to bring
applications in increasingly complex systems,
moving from simple gaming and anti-fraud
applications into ticketing, display memory and
electronic products.
Most organic electronics applications target
mobile devices, and here power supply is a key
issue. Therefore flexible batteries (Figure 6) are of
central importance to leverage this technology.
A large variety of thin and even printed batteries
are commercially available. They are available for
discontinuous use today and will be constantly
improved in capacity, enabling continuous use.
Currently, non-rechargeable zinc-carbon batteries
are predominant for printed batteries, but there
is significant development in rechargeable bat-
teries, e.g., based on lithium, as well as research
activity on printed miniature supercapacitors,
which are a kind of cross between batteries and
conventional capacitors. There will be a progres-
sion from batteries that use printed parts,
through batteries that are fully printed in sepa-
rate processes, to batteries that are printed as
part of an integrated process for printing elec-
tronic systems, as well as a progression from sin-
gle charge through rechargeable batteries and
from single cells to multicell integration. In the
longer term, batteries will also be integrated
directly in textiles and packages.
Figure 6: Roll of printed Ni metal hydride batteries. (Source: VARTA Microbattery)
Figure 7: Printed logic circuit. (Source: Holst Centre)
-
16 ORGANIC AND PRINTED ELECTRONICS
Active devices are electronic components which
contain a semiconductor or other parts that cre-
ate active feedback on applying electric power.
In this edition of the roadmap we primarily are
looking at transistors, diodes, logic circuits, and
display elements. Organic Thin Film Transistors
(OTFT) are a basic component for electric switch
elements or integrated circuits, and can be used
as single component to amplify a current or
combined with other transistor as integrated
circuits or logic. The current flow between source
and drain electrode is switched, depending on
the voltage applied at the gate electrode. They
are typically not products by themselves but part
of other products like smart objects or integrated
systems. Diodes are rectifying devices which
allow current to flow at a positive voltage but
block it at negative voltages, and in addition to
their special uses in OLEDs and OPV are also
relevant in devices such as RF tags or energy har-
vesting systems. In the area of printed/organic
circuits (logic), multibit microprocessors have
been demonstrated by a number of research labs
and companies, as well as logic circuits for RFID
tags and organic memory control. Key factors and
challenges for future development and appear-
ance in more complex products include scaling
laws on thickness, lateral dimensions and charge
carrier mobility.
Display elements are further active components
for system integration, which can convert an
electrical signal into optical information. In
particular, both electrochromic and electro-
luminescent elements are being included.
Printed passive components based on printable
conductors and dielectrics have been used in
electronics manufacturing for some time now.
Due to the rapid development of printable elec-
tronics materials and corresponding processes,
such applications are becoming more and more
visible on the market. Resistors, capacitors and
inductors can also be printed. A special applica-
tion in this field is a printed code detectable by
touch sensors. Printed silver paste is the mostly
used conductive material to print conductive
tracks, but other metal or carbon pastes, nano-
carbon materials, or conductive polymers are see-
ing increased interest. A special case of capacitors
seeing increased interest for printed electronics
are supercapacitors, which can be used for
interim storage of energy, have much higher
capacitance than plate capacitors but higher
cycle life than batteries, and in the best case
essentially consist only of plastic, metal, carbon,
water and salt. A range of approaches to printed
antenna manufacturing (Figure 9) has also been
applied, including direct printing, plating, and
etch resist printing.
Electroluminescent films (EL) are available as
commercial lighting products used in low inten-
sity lighting such as backlighting, decoration and
advertising panels. EL lighting offers a number of
key user advantages: bendable, fast prototyping,
printable and easy product integration. EL light-
ing is focused on illuminating specific objects in
order to highlight them or create special effects.
It is not concerned with illumination of space. EL
is especially useful where complex form factors
(bending, thin shapes) are involved, limited edi-Figure 9: Printed antenna for RFID tags. (Source: Fraunhofer ENAS)
Figure 8: Smart shelf incorporating electrochromic display elements. (Source: Ynvisible)
-
ORGANIC AND PRINTED ELECTRONICS 17
Figure 10: Package featuring printed EL films. (Source: Karl Knauer)
tions, e.g., in packaging (Figure 10) specific after-
market and original equipment manufacture
(OEM) car models, and for fast product execution,
e.g., in advertising or exhibitions.
An area that has seen intense activity recently is
that of transparent conductive films. Today, ITO
(indium tin oxide) is still the most widely used
transparent conductive material, which is used in
nearly all optical devices like displays, OLEDs, OPV,
EMI shielding and especially in the rapidly
increasing market of touch sensor applications.
There is a huge market demand for ITO substi-
tutes, as it is quite brittle and relatively expen-
sive, so there is need for alternatives. Numerous
flexible and lower cost alternatives are coming
into the market. The alternative approaches to
transparent conductive films can be based either
on novel transparent conductive materials (see
technology section) or on the patterning of thin
metal films (metal mesh) on flexible polymer
substrates into high resolution transparent
conductive meshes (Figure 11); some of these
approaches have also seen market introduction
recently.
Integrated Smart Systems (ISS) bring together
multiple core functionalities to perform complex,
automated tasks without the need for external
electronic hardware. As organic electronics tech-
nology progresses, the applications will become
ever more challenging and complex. Typical func-
tionalities that one will expect to see on such
systems will be power (batteries, miniaturized
fuel cells, PV), input devices (physical, chemical
and biological sensors) and output devices Figure 11: Capacitive multitouch sensor based on printed metal mesh transparent conductive films. (Source: PolyIC)
-
18 ORGANIC AND PRINTED ELECTRONICS
(displays, visual, audible or haptic interfaces and
wireless communications), with these linked
together by sophisticated logic circuits and
memory. The addition of various forms of sample
processing and fluid handling will also involve
the integration of microfluidics into some
systems. Thus, the variety of applications for such
systems will be immense, made far greater by
their potential deployment into so many new
areas of application, from smart textiles to auto-
motive, aeronautical and environmental to health
and well-being. The component technologies
underpinned by the organic electronics field will
be essential to the success of such systems.
Sensors are the means by which the environment
is detected. Many of the characteristic features of
organic and printed electronics, such as high-
throughput parallel production including screen
printing, have already been used in the develop-
ment of printed sensors, and these exist already
as stand-alone products. Future development is
related to integration of sensors with other func-
tionalities into an integrated smart system. Both
optical and electrical/electrochemical sensor
components will be used, and we expect a
progression from currently available test strips
and physical sensor arrays (Figure 12) through
disposable test strips and integration of other
functionalities such as control electronics,
memory or display readouts in the medium term,
to smart buildings and skins in the longer term.
The key challenges to be faced are related to inte-
gration of different components and especially
interfacing to printed electronic circuitry.
Smart objects combine multiple electronics com-
ponents and functions to create innovative inte-
grated systems. A key advantage of organic and
printed electronics is the possibility to use low-
cost production methods to make these smart
objects light, flexible, cheap and even disposable.
Functional printing allows the integration of
Figure 13: RF activated smart objects. (Source: PolyIC)
Figure 12: Printed touch sensor array. (Source: plastic electronic)
-
ORGANIC AND PRINTED ELECTRONICS 19
different devices such as sensors, transistors,
memory, batteries or displays onto one substrate.
This integration may be realized either by one
process or by a combination of several separately
produced components. Sensor tags, dynamic
price display and rewritable RF tags are all exam-
ples of applications for smart objects. Since the
last edition of the roadmap, new products have
emerged, such as RF-driven smart object cards
(Figure 13) and printed electronic systems with
rewritable memory. A number of technology
developers have demonstrated increasingly com-
plex printed RFID tags as well. The roadmap for
smart objects and printed RFID, as a whole, is
more complex than for other areas of printed
electronics. However, these products make full
use of the cost and scalability advantages inher-
ent in this new set of production methods, and
thus, are potentially the most revolutionary. The
products in this chapter will likely not show con-
tinuous, step-wise improvement but rather, the
emergence of products of greater and greater
complexity (i.e., the emergence of entirely new
product families) as manufacturing processes
improve.
Smart textiles are fabrics that are able to alter
their characteristics to respond to external
stimuli (mechanical, electrical, thermal, and
chemical). In addition, functionalities such as
communication, displays, sensors, or thermal
management can be integrated into fabric to
enable wearable electronics. By taking advantage
of organic and printed electronics, the field of
smart textiles can make important technological
advances in the future. In the coming years
though, the use of standard electronic technol-
ogy such as Si chips or LEDs may still be required
in combination with printed components, and
heterogeneous integration will be common until
sufficiently high performance and integration
can be achieved for organic and printed electron-
ics and logic. Currently, much of this field is still in
the development or prototype stage, with signifi-
cant work going into areas such as stretchability
and hybrid integration. First products are expected
around 2014 (washable textile EL, Figure 14),
with evolution to more complex systems and
applications such as OLEDs coming later.
These application scenarios are summarized in
the OE-A Roadmap for organic electronics appli-
cations in Figures 1 and 15. In Figure 15 we show,
for each of the five application clusters, products
that have entered the market and are expected to
enter the market in the short (20142016),
medium (20172020) and longer (2021+) term.
Such a summary is by necessity not detailed.
These figures provide a high-level overview for
the whole field of organic and printed electronics
that has been distilled from the individual road-
maps.
Figure 14: Demonstrator of waterproof textile EL lighting on a high-visibility vest. (Source: Cetemmsa)
This list of products reflects the ideas from
todays point of view. Past experience of new
technology shows us that we are most likely to
be surprised by unexpected applications, and this
will almost certainly happen in the exciting but
nascent field of organic electronics. Therefore,
the technology and the market in this field will
continuously be watched and the roadmap will
be updated on a regular basis.
While we focus on clusters of applications based
on functions, organic electronics may contribute
-
20 ORGANIC AND PRINTED ELECTRONICS
to innovation in different industrial branches
such as automotive or health care (Figure 16)
with products covering a range of functions. For
this reason, OE-A has also begun to look at these
branches, and a roadmap for organic electronics
in health care is in preparation.
Significant progress has been made in the last
several years and first generations of products
have reached the market in significantly larger
numbers than at the time of the last roadmap.
On the other hand, growth had not yet been as
rapid as was predicted by many market research-
ers a number of years ago, which has led in some
circles to a degree of disillusionment. This report
indicates, however, that organic electronics is
indeed still moving ahead and is becoming an
industry, and the market analysis presented on
pages 34 and 35 in this brochure shows as well
that markets are being reached and will continue
to grow. Nonetheless, in order to fulfill the more
demanding specifications of more complex
future generations of products, further improve-
ment of materials, process, design and equip-
ment is necessary. In the next section, we look at
some of the main application parameters whose
development will be key to enabling future
product generations. After that, we will look at
the main technologies in organic electronics and
discuss the key technology parameters under-
lying the application parameters.
Key Application Parameters
The viability of each application or product will
depend on fulfillment of a number of parameters
that describe the complexity or performance of
the product (application parameters). For the
applications above, groups of specialists identi-
Figure 15: OE-A Roadmap for organic and printed electronics, with forecast for the market entry in large volumes (general availability) for the different applications. The table is a further development of and update to the fourth version of the OE-A Roadmap presented in 2011.
Portable chargers
Flexible segmented displays integrated into smart cards, price labels, bendable colour displays
Design projects
Primary single-cell batteries, memory for interactive games, ITO-free transparent conductive films
Garments with integrated sensors, anti theft, brand protection, printed test strips, physical sensors
Existing until 2013
Consumer electronics, customized mobile power
Bendable OLEDs, plastic LCD, in-moulded displays, large-area signage, rollable color displays
Transparent and decorative lighting modules
Rechargeable single-cell batteries, transparent conductors for touch sensors, printed reflective display elements
Integrated systems on garment), large-area physical sensor arrays and mass market intelligent packaging
Short term 20142016
Specialized building integration, off grid
Rollable OLEDs with OTFT, (semi-) transparent rollable displays, flexible consumer electronics
Flexible lighting
Printed multi-cell batteries, integrated flexible multi-touch sensors, printed logic chips
Textile sensors on fibre, dynamic price displays, NFC / RFID smart labels, disposable monitoring devices
Medium term 20172020
Building integration, grid connected PV
Rollable OLED TVs, telemedicine
General lighting technology
Directly printed batteries, active and passive devices to Smart Object
OLEDs on textile, fibre-electronics, health monitoring systems and smart buildings
Longer term 2021+
OE-A Roadmap for Organic and Printed Electronics Applications
Organic Photovoltaics
Flexible Displays
OLED Lighting
Electronics & Components
Integrated Smart
Systems
OE-A 2013
-
ORGANIC AND PRINTED ELECTRONICS 21
Figure 16: Printed temperature sensor tag for pharmaceutical applications. (Source: Thin Film Electronics ASA)
fied the most important application and technol-
ogy parameters and requirements for different
generations of products. Here we list only a small
excerpt of the key application parameters that
have been identified as relevant to several of the
applications. Not surprisingly, the key application
parameters across the five application clusters
have not changed since the last edition or even
the one before that. The following list is in no
particular order since the relevance of the differ-
ent parameters varies for the diverse applications.
Complexity of the device
The complexity of the circuit (e.g., number of
transistors) as well as the number of different
devices (e.g., circuit, power supply, switch, sen-
sor, display) that are integrated have a crucial
influence on reliability and production yield.
Operating frequency of the circuit
With increasing complexity of the application
(e.g., increasing memory capacity) higher
switching speeds are necessary.
Lifetime / stability / homogeneity / reliability
Lifetime (shelf and operation), the environmen-
tal stability, stability against other materials
and solvents, and homogeneity of the materi-
als are an issue due to the intrinsic properties
of the materials.
Operating voltage
For mobile devices powered by batteries, PV or
radio frequency, it is essential to have low oper-
ating voltages (
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22 ORGANIC AND PRINTED ELECTRONICS
Functional Materials
Organic and printed electronics rely on electri-
cally active materials that have conducting,
semi-conducting, luminescent, electrochromic or
electrophoretic properties. The materials have to
be carefully selected, since process conditions
and the interplay of the active material with
other layers such as dielectrics and passivation
materials in the device stack can greatly influence
the performance of the final device. Of the avail-
able materials there is a choice between organic
or inorganic, solution based or evaporated; the
selection of a specific material depends both on
the demands of the device application and the
choice of manufacturing technique employed. It
is very likely that in a final application several
approaches will be used in parallel.
Organic semiconductors have found uses in
active devices such as OLEDs, OPV, diodes and
transistors. Currently available materials can be
split into three classes: small molecules, amor-
phous polymers and semi-crystalline polymers.
The charge transport properties of these organic
semiconductors, which are dictated by their mor-
phologies and tendency for crystallization,
strongly depend on the deposition conditions
used. Both p-type and n-type organic semicon-
ductors have been developed, and research into
n-type materials has been increased over the past
years, due to their importance in the production
of CMOS circuits in combination with p-type
materials and matching dielectrics.
The charge carrier mobility of organic semicon-
ductors has improved dramatically in recent years
although it is still much lower than crystalline
silicon, but starting to be competitive with amor-
phous silicon. It is expected that the performance
of organic semiconductors will approach or
match polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) in coming
years (Figure 17), first in research where mobili-
ties of up to 15 cm2/Vs have been reported, and
some time later in commercial products such as
the next generation of large format OLED displays.
In fact, the growth in charge carrier mobilities
might soon begin to appear as a kind of scaling
law in organic electronics, comparable to the
transistor density scaling according to Moores
law in microelectronics. As development moves
toward products, processability and reproducibil-
ity as well as mobility have become increasingly
important in order to enable real-world device
production. Leading material companies in the
field have spent ever increasing efforts focusing
on evaluation and improvement of these charac-
teristics, reaching a level where the first genera-
tions of products using these materials are
expected to launch in the near future.
Figure 17: OE-A Roadmap for the charge carrier mobility of semiconductors for organic and printed electronics applications. The values for amorphous silicon (a-Si) and polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) are given for comparison.
Mobility of Semiconductors for Organic and Printed Electronics Applications
Ch
arge
car
rier
mob
ility
100
10
1
0.1
0.01 Existing Short term Medium term Longer term (until 2013) (2014-2016) (2017-2020) (2021+)
[cm2/Vs]
The values refer to materials that are available in commer-cial quantities and to devices
that are manufactured in high- throughput processes.
Poly-Si
a-Si
Small
mole
cules
,
Precu
rsors,
Polym
ers
NEW
CONC
EPTS
Inorga
nics, N
ano-m
aterial
s
OE-A 2013
-
ORGANIC AND PRINTED ELECTRONICS 23
There has also been strong progress in materials
for OPV, where power conversion efficiencies
have now gone above 9 %, and 12 % in vacuum-
deposited devices, to be competitive with a-Si.
However, significant work remains in the transla-
tion of small-area, lab-scale cell performance into
the large-area, stable and inexpensive produc-
tion-level modules required on the market. From
a semiconductor perspective, this challenge
requires the development of materials that can
be easily and cost-effectively scaled, and which
can maintain high-power conversion efficiencies
(PCEs) over extended lifetimes when exposed to
real-world environmental conditions.
In addition to organic materials, inorganic semi-
conductors such as ZnO and IZO and new materi-
als such as carbon nanotubes or nanowires are of
growing interest. Recent developments have
shown several semiconductors in these classes
which can be processed from solution as a disper-
sion or precursor or deposited in vacuum or vapor
phase at low temperature. More recently,
graphene, a 2D monatomic sheet of carbon
atoms, has gathered a lot of attention, and
exhibits a number of properties that enable its
potential use as a functional material including
extremely high mobility. It has been explored for
applications in transistors, sensors, transparent
conductors and supercapacitors, among others.
The key challenge for graphene at the moment is
processing while maintaining the extraordinary
physical properties.
Printable conductors may be metallic, metal
oxides, organic or based on carbon nanostruc-
tures. The choice of conducting materials is
strongly dependent on their application. For high
metal-like conductivity it is still necessary to
use filled materials such as silver inks. If conduc-
tivity is needed in combination with high trans-
parency, e.g., for OPV or OLEDs, special inorganic
materials like ITO or the polymeric PEDOT:PSS
represent state of the art solutions. Transparent
organic conductors still show inferior conductivi-
ties in comparison to metal oxides like ITO but
are continuing to improve in performance and
become more competitive. The polymers allow
for wet processing, and the flexibility of the poly-
mer coatings makes them attractive candidates
for the replacement of brittle inorganic materials.
Recently, significant progress has been made on
transparent inorganic conductors, with solution-
processable materials such as carbon nanotubes,
graphene, and nanomaterial based inks (e.g.,
silver nanowires) showing excellent conductivity
and transparency in addition to improved
mechanical properties over ITO.
Printable metallic conductors, which have been
commercial for many years in the form of screen-
printable silver pastes for numerous applications,
have continued to develop, with progress in
nanostructured and precursor inks, replacement
of silver by copper, advances in photonic sinter-
ing, and improvements in formulation that have
enabled stretchable conductive inks (Figure 18).
Carbon inks have seen increased applications,
including temperature sensitive resistors.
Figure 18: Formable and stretchable ink for 3D circuitry. (Source: DuPont)
-
24 ORGANIC AND PRINTED ELECTRONICS
Dielectrics are passive materials, which are used
in many active and passive devices. Numerous
dielectrics are solution-processable and can be
printed. There are a number of different material
classes that can be used as dielectrics, from ther-
moplastic to thermosetting plastic polymers, and
they can be thermally or UV-curable. The dielec-
tric (e.g., thickness and dielectric constant) can
play an extremely important role in performance
of devices, and this has been extensively studied
in OTFTs, where the dielectric-semiconductor
interface is critical for optimal carrier mobility
and on/off ratio. Significant work on optimal
dielectrics for both p- and n-type OTFTs has been
done, and this has, next to improvements in the
semiconductors, been a significant factor in
improvement of OTFT performance.
Encapsulation materials are often required to
protect organic electronic systems against envi-
ronmental influences to insure sufficient shelf
and operational lifetime. This protection is, for
example, critical for OPV and OLEDs, where highly
reactive metal electrodes may be used, but also
important in other aspects of organic electronics.
In some cases water vapor transmission rates
below 106 g m2 d1 (at 20 C / 50 RH) and oxygen
transmission rates lower than 106 cm3 m2 d1
bar-1 are needed, but the materials need to be
transparent as well for OPV and OLEDs. Encapsu-
lation materials are either passive or active.
Active materials, or getters, are designed to
absorb water or oxygen (typically zeolites, reac-
tive metal oxides) before they can reach and
damage the active device stacks. In combination
with passive materials, they enable shelf and
operational lifetime of currently commercially
available OLED devices. Passive materials include
organic UV or thermally curable adhesives for
edge or monolithic sealing of devices typically
sandwiched between glass or engineered flexible
substrates. Flexible substrates often comprise
planar diffusion barriers, materials include silicon
oxides, silicon nitrides, silicon oxynitrites or
alumina layers. For encapsulations where a
higher transmission rate is possible, e.g., for
OTFTss, it is possible to use polymers filled with
nanoparticles or nanoflakes.
Substrates
Most organic and printed electronics devices
target the use of flexible and potentially low-cost
substrates to enable large area and/or more
rugged products with a higher freedom of design.
Since the device manufacturing process usually
starts with the substrate onto which several lay-
ers of active and passive material are deposited,
the surface needs to be compatible and to guaran-
tee processability in subsequent production steps
OE-A
Gravure Printing
Impression cylinder
Gravure cylinder
Image elements are equally spaced but variable in depth and area
Blade
Ink
OE-A
Ink-jet Printing
Piezo Transducer
Ink Orifice
Substrate
Figure 19: Rotogravure printing process. Figure 20: Screen printing process.
Figure 21: Ink-jet deposition mechanism (piezo).
Screen Printing
Squeegee
Sreen mesh
Ink Frame
Substrate Base plate (stationary) OE-A
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ORGANIC AND PRINTED ELECTRONICS 25
and of course functionality in the final applica-
tion. The numerous flexible electronics applica-
tions all have their own specific requirements,
and therefore suitable substrate solutions within
one application group can still differ over a wide
range. In general, glass and metal (stainless steel,
aluminum foil or the like) are still the only
substrates readily available with high and reliable
barrier properties a key requirement for many
applications (OLED lighting, display, organic
photovoltaics). Among the polymer films, the
polyester grades (PET, PEN) are most widely used
today in organic and printed electronics, but also
other polymers, paper, cardboard and textiles
have been utilized in these applications. Plastic
materials like PET, PEN or PC (polycarbonate) can
be tailor-made to adjust physical and surface
properties over a wide range so that they can
serve as all-round solutions. Other plastics like
polyimide (PI), polyethersulfone (PES) or poly-
etheretherketone (PEEK) are specialties and
hence higher priced materials with special advan-
tages like increased heat or chemical stability.
Patterning Processes
A wide range of large-area deposition and
patterning techniques can be used for organic
electronics. Most prominent in this context are
various printing techniques that are well known
from the graphic arts industry and enable reel-
to-reel processing.
Examples of two high-volume printing processes
are rotogravure (Figure 19) and screen (Figure 20).
Other mass printing processes are offset,
lithography or flexography. The lateral resolution
(smallest feature that can be printed) typically
ranges from 20 m to 100 m depending on
process, throughput, substrate and ink proper-
ties. Film thicknesses can range from well under
1 m to tens of m. Each process has its own
strengths, e.g., screen is excellent for stacking
multiple thick films, while gravure combines high
throughput with robust printing forms and can
deliver homogeneous thin films. These printing
processes can have enormous throughput and
low production cost but place demanding
requirements on the functional inks in terms of
properties like viscosity, and cannot correct for
issues like substrate distortion. Mass printing will
be an important production process especially for
applications where large area, high volumes and
low costs are important. Recently, there has been
progress in improving the resolution of mass
printing processes, e.g., through new screen
materials or laser-assisted etching of gravure
forms.
Ink-jet printing (Figure 21) has received growing
interest as a way to deposit functional materials.
As a digital printing process, it enables variable
printing since no printing plate is needed, and
can thus correct in-line for distortion. Ink-jet
printing head developers have continued to
develop finer and finer printing heads, which are
Figure 22: Throughput vs. feature size for a range of typical production processes.
Hig
h (>
1)M
ediu
m(0
.01-
1)
Thro
ugh
put
(m2 /
s)
Minimum feature size (m)
1 10 100 500
Gravure
Flexo
Low
( 50 m)
100
1
10-2
10-4
OE-A 2013
Xerography
Throughput vs. Feature Size for Typical Production Processes
Offset
Screen
Laser ablationR2R
PhotoLitho-graphyR2R
Ink-jet
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26 ORGANIC AND PRINTED ELECTRONICS
starting to enable features on the order of a few
m, and throughput is improving with the devel-
opment of multi-head printers. Recently, aerosol-
jet printing has also received a lot of attention,
and super ink-jet printing, a related process, has
claimed ability to get to micron features without
pre-patterning the substrate. Progress in increas-
ing the resolution and registration of printing
processes will be a critical step to dimensional
scaling of organic electronics, which could be of
similar importance to the scaling of photolitho-
graphy processes for silicon electronics, the
driving force behind Moores Law.
Related to volume printing are unpatterned
solution coating techniques such as slot-die or
wire bar coating. Slot-die coating in particular
has gathered significant interest, because it can
be non-contact, pre-metered and work with a
sealed system, which is useful especially for
solvent-based materials. Slot-die coating can
operate in either bead/meniscus mode or in
curtain mode.
Laser ablation, laser induced forward transfer,
large area vacuum deposition, soft lithography
and large area photolithography are further
patterning and deposition techniques. Some of
these processes are subtractive, i.e., involve
removing unwanted material from a large area
unpatterned film, while others are additive, i.e.,
only deposit material where it is wanted. Sub-m
patterning techniques such as nanoimprint
lithography and microcontact printing have
gained a good deal of attention recently but are
still primarily used in research. Pad printing, hot
stamping, xerography and surface energy
patterning are also receiving substantial atten-
tion. Each method has its individual strengths,
and in general, processes with a higher resolution
have a smaller throughput, though there has
been some progress in this area (Figure 22).
There are no single standard processes in exis-
tence today. Deciding which printing or other pat-
terning process is used depends on the specific
requirements of a particular device. In general,
different processes have to be used for subse-
quent steps of a multilayer device in order to
optimize each process step. The above mentioned
processes differ strongly with regard to e.g., reso-
lution and throughput, and one system may
require some high-throughput steps followed by
high resolution processes, e.g., deposition of large
amounts of material using coating or mass print-
ing followed by fine patterning of a small portion
of the surface using laser ablation.
Process Technology Levels
The technologies that are used in organic elec-
tronics range from batch, clean-room, etching-
based processes to mass printing processes that
are capable of deposition of square meters of
substrates per second. Here is a rough classifica-
tion of the technologies in three different tech-
nology levels:
The wafer level technology includes batch pro-
cessing, typically film substrates on a carrier. An
adapted semiconductor line is used for process-
ing. High resolution can be achieved by vacuum
deposition and/or spin coating followed by
photolithography and wet or dry etching. The
production cost is relatively high and the process
is not compatible for conversion to in-line sheet-
to-sheet or reel-to-reel processes.
Under hybrid technologies, we summarize com-
binations of processes including large-area pho-
tolithography, screen printing or printed circuit
board (PCB) technologies that make use of flex-
ible substrates (e.g., polymer films or paper).
Deposition of materials is achieved by spin coat-
ing, blade coating or large-area vacuum deposi-
tion, in some cases also partly by printing. Ink-jet
printing and laser patterning are further technol-
ogies that are grouped in the hybrids and enable
production at a medium cost level. At the
moment, hybrid appears to be possibly the most
promising technology for further market penetra-
tion in the next few years, and it could also be
combined with some amount of silicon for
specific functions in heterogeneous integration.
Fully printed means continuous, automated
mass-production compatible printing and coat-
ing techniques (flexo, gravure, offset, slot-die,
etc.), flexible substrates and reel-to-reel technol-
ogy (Figure 23). Although all-printed devices do
not yet show as high resolution or performance
as those made using wafer or hybrid processes,
mass printing has great potential for very low
cost production and will be able to deliver
extremely large numbers of products. At the
same time it requires significant volumes of
materials even for trials, and will need large-
volume applications to properly utilize such high-
throughput equipment.
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ORGANIC AND PRINTED ELECTRONICS 27
Key Technology Parameters
The detailed application parameter specifications
for the different applications and product genera-
tions help define the requirements that have to
be fulfilled from technology side. The technology
parameters are more fundamental and describe
fundamental material, device or process proper-
ties. As with the application parameters, we only
list a small excerpt of the key technology param-
eters identified for the various applications,
focusing on those that are relevant to a number
of applications. As was the case with application
parameters, the same key things are important
as in the last edition.
Mobility / electrical performance (threshold
voltage, on/off current)
The performance (operating frequency, current
driving capacity) of the circuits depends on the
charge carrier mobility of the semiconductor,
the conductivity of the conductor and the
dielectric behavior of the dielectric materials.
Resolution / registration
The performance (operating frequency, current
driving capacity) and reliability of the circuits
depend on the lateral distance of the elec-
trodes (resolution) within the devices (e.g.,
transistors) and the overlay accuracy (registra-
tion) between different patterned layers.
Barrier properties / environmental stability
The lifetime depends on a combination of the
sensitivity of the materials and devices to
oxygen and moisture and the barrier properties
of protective layers, substrates and sealants
against oxygen and moisture. The necessary
barrier properties vary for the different applica-
tions over several orders of magnitude.
Flexibility / bending radius
Thin form factors and flexibility of the devices
are key advantages of organic electronics. In
order to achieve reliable flexibility and even
rollable devices, materials, design and process
have to be chosen carefully.
Fit of process parameters (speed, temperature,
solvents, ambient conditions, vacuum, inert
gas atmosphere)
In order to have a sufficient working system, it
is important to adjust the parameters of the
different materials and devices used to build
organic electronics.
Yield
Low-cost electronics in high volumes are only
possible when the processes allow production
at high yields. This includes safe processes,
adjusted materials and circuit designs as well
as an in-line quality control.
Figure 23: Reel-to-reel printing of electronic devices. (Source: 3D-Micromac)
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28 ORGANIC AND PRINTED ELECTRONICS
Principle Challenges
One goal of the roadmap is to identify red brick
walls principle challenges that can only be over-
come by major breakthroughs beyond the expec-
tations of standard technology development. For
each application, the requirements for product
generations were compared with expected tech-
nology development and the key challenges were
identified and discussed. Like the key application
and technology parameters, the red brick walls
may vary for the different applications. Those
discussed below are valid for all applications and
summarize the most important ones.
A common feature of all future generations of
the different products is that the complexity and
overall size of logic circuits is increasing. In
certain cases, the applications include millions of
transistors, other combine various different elec-
tronic devices like circuit, power supply, sensors,
displays and switches. In the future, more and
more higher and higher performance compo-
nents will have to be fit into smaller and smaller
areas, which for other applications high-perfor-
mance components will have to be placed pre-