Printed Electronics – The Missing Fragments

CAMBRIDGE, U.K.—Nowadays, the term printed electronics is taken to include printed electrics and even thin film devices that are likely to be printed in due course. Anything less risks missing the big picture, the subject is moving on so rapidly.

Of the different components that are becoming printable, Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs) are very important. This is because they are set to replace many of today’s electronic displays with something more economical and with better performance. They will do the same with much of today’s lighting as well. In both cases, the change will be accelerated by the advent of cost-effective flexible displays because they will have lower purchase and installation costs and they will open up a vast number of new applications where light emitting surfaces have been impractical in the past. However, cost-effective, flexible OLEDs with suitably long life may not be in mass production for a decade despite hundreds of organisations developing them.