Flexible electronics promise some very cool products in the not so distant future. They include smart bandages that monitor the vital signs of a wounded soldier. Sensors that can detect where the weakest part of an airplane. Flexible glass that can display digital imagery. And smart trading cards that can transmit information to a digital display.
[aditude-amp id="flyingcarpet" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":416341,"post_type":"story","post_chan":"none","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"business,mobile,","session":"D"}']Flexible electronics combine graphics arts printing and microelectronics, enabling machines to literally print circuits on top of plastic materials in the same way that an inkjet printer sprays ink on paper.
AI Weekly
The must-read newsletter for AI and Big Data industry written by Khari Johnson, Kyle Wiggers, and Seth Colaner.
Included with VentureBeat Insider and VentureBeat VIP memberships.
“You get much more product flexibility, lower costs, and innovation,” said Malcolm Thompson (pictured), head of the Flex Tech Alliance, in an interview with VentureBeat. “It is an industry that is nascent but will grow rapidly. We’re already starting to see new kinds of applications in plastic memory for toys and sensors for aircraft.”
The printing part is key to making the flexible electronics easy to manufacture and mass produce. It’s relatively easy to lay circuitry down on a plastic surface, which can be unrolled as if you were printing a newspaper on paper.
“We’re talking about something that is really low-cost that can be repurposed,” Thompson said.
Thompson spoke to me during a tour of the famed Palo Alto Research Center, the Silicon Valley research site that has been doing broader industry research for the past decade. PARC is home to a big program in flexible displays and printed electronics. The Flex Tech Alliance has been around for 15 years and it has conducted 153 projects since 1994. In those projects, government entities such as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency provide 40 percent of the funding and the companies that propose the projects provide about 60 percent of the money.
[aditude-amp id="medium1" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":416341,"post_type":"story","post_chan":"none","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"business,mobile,","session":"D"}']
The research encompasses a lot of territory. Researchers are looking into non-crystalline materials, nanomaterials and flexible substrates. They are doing work in printing, patterning, plastic molding and other manufacturing work. They are exploring flexible electronic devices such as membranes, sensors, and thin-film transistors.
The products include smart bandages that can deliver the vital signs of a wounded soldier, neuro-prosthetic devices with sensors attached to them, sensor networks, solar cells, and smarter toys. The markets include military and emergency workers, medical, agriculture, civil infrastructure, energy and consumer products.
Nike and Reebok, which have participated in alliance events, are also interested in flexible products that can monitor athletic performance. It’s not so hard to imagine how they might apply flexible electronics.
[aditude-amp id="medium2" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":416341,"post_type":"story","post_chan":"none","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"business,mobile,","session":"D"}']
Corning, Binghamton University and Western Michigan University are working on a project where they will print electronic circuits on flexible glass. If they succeed, it could be used in sensors, energy harvesting and storage, displays, and electronic lighting.
“This is very exciting technology that would be useful both to the military and in commercial markets,” Thompson said.”With this technology, the world will be healthier, safer, simpler and smarter.”
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Learn More