Enthusiasm for New Printed Electronics Conference in Tokyo
By Raghu Das, CEO
IDTechEx
IDTechEx conferences on Printed Electronics in the USA and Europe are highly regarded. By popular request, the company is now staging a Printed Electronics Asia conference and exhibition in Tokyo, Sept. 10-11. The title is carefully chosen because both organic and inorganic electronics have a great future. It is therefore best to explore all the possibilities and achievements.
Speaker Yasuyuki Watanabe, from the Center for Frontier Science at Chiba University, says, “We believe that printed electronics is the key technology for advanced flexible electronic devices employing organic materials.” He will talk on the topic of vertical transistors which can have better current handling and higher frequency performance. For example, ORFID in the U.S. is printing vertical transistors.
Speaker Zie Zhang from the printed electronics department of Motorola in the U.S. says, “I am looking forward to this exciting event too. I believe that printed electronics offers a unique solution for applications that require low cost and conformal form factor. These are realized by high throughput printing manufacturing technologies and lower cost flexible material systems. Organic and inorganic inks are coexisting and complimenting each other. Skillful integration between organic and inorganic material systems by those creative engineers and scientists will result in creation of a large application portfolio. Printed electronics is capturing and creating markets where traditional silicon microelectronics is too rigid and expensive to apply.”
Speaker Takashi Kobayashi, RFID manager in Marubeni Corporation, says, “IDTechEx Conferences are fantastic and I learned a lot. I believe Printed Electronics Asia will become a great event and I am really excited to join. We can get more about new technology at the event.”
For example, whereas use of carbon nanotubes, quantum dots or antimony indium oxide to replace ITO are speculative and unproven at present, speaker Ron Lubianez of H.C. Starck Inc in the U.S. says, “We believe that the impending indium shortage is serious and our high conductivity BAYTRON coating as an ITO replacement is a viable alternative.” Recently, it has been used successfully in OLED displays in the USA and in OLED lighting in Europe to replace ITO, and Fujitsu America has recently announced an organic ITO replacement in its new touch screens, available in volume in Q3 of 2007. The transparency/ conductivity compromise is not the same as ITO and this will be discussed at the conference.
“Printed and flexible thin film photovoltaics is moving forward very rapidly and I strongly recommend this event to learn the latest from Konarka, a world leader in organic photovoltaics that converts light to electricity anywhere,” says speaker John Gui, vice president, business development, Asia, for the US company Konarka which is commercializing both inorganic and organic photovoltaics because the needs are so varied.
The printed electronics industry is full of surprises. For example, OLEDs have attracted the largest number of developers because they have a great future in flexible lighting and flexible displays when the reliability problems are overcome - a big challenge. However, the less glamorous electrophoretic displays are creating new markets right now, including e-books, e-posters and e-billboards.
“It is clear now that electrophoretic displays are set for very rapid growth and it is true that organic TFT starts to play a very critical role to enlarge the E-Paper market,” says Ryosuke Kuwada, talking of the flexible Thin Film Transistors (TFTs) that are needed. He is vice president, sales and marketing, of E-Ink, the leading supplier of “imaging ink” for this purpose. Color versions are also coming along, so his lecture will be very interesting.
Other speakers at Printed Electronics Asia will be from the world’s largest manufacturer of mobile phones, Nokia, where David Lu, New Technology Manager, New Manufacturing Technology, Nokia USA, will talk on “Nokia’s Requirements for Printed Electronics and what has been Done So Far”, and Hitachi will present on printed nanotube emitters. Sony will talk on printed TFTs for flexible displays and Professor Ken Sakamura of the Ubiquitous ID Center will describe the huge markets that will be created by these sensors and RFID. From Germany, a representative of PolyIC will describe how they are already selling fully printed organic RFID and allied products in 2007.
Nanoparticle inks are coming in very rapidly because they are more flexible and use less material and Seiko Epson and ULVAC will share their latest advances on this, with Konica Minolta revealing improved ink jet technology. Nanomaterials, and the challenges of printing them, will be a hot topic explored at the conference. Masaaki Oda of ULVAC says, “The printing dispersed nanoparticles will be very important for printed electronics in future. Of course ULVAC is a major supplier of equipment used to manufacture printed electronics already. I look forward to participating in this important conference.” Nissan Chemical, Japan Research Institute and others will also make new announcements.
IDTechEx prides itself on giving the full global situation at its conferences. For that reason, Peter Harrop of IDTechEx will analyse “The Global Situation with Printed and Thin Film Photovoltaics Beyond Silicon”. Kiyoshi Yase, Deputy Director of the National Institute of Advanced Science and Technology in Korea will speak on “Flexible and Printable Organic Electronics.”
Kevin Cheng, deputy director, display technology center, Industrial Technology Research Institute, Taiwan, enthuses, “I have joined the IDTechEx printed electronics conferences several times. Most of them were hosted in the USA or in Europe. It is the first time for Printed Electronics, hosted by IDTechEx, in Asia. I believe it will promote the printed industry between Western and Eastern countries. Also, I am honored to have this opportunity to introduce the latest achievements of ink-jet printing technology and flexible display in Taiwan, and hope this conference will give all of you a completely new vision in printed electronics.” Lighting, sensors, batteries, materials, manufacturing and markets will also be presented at this unique international conference.
To learn more see www.idtechex.com/peASIA. Simultaneous Japanese-English translation will be provided. Don’t miss your opportunity to learn about printed electronics in East Asia.
