Manufacturability and commercialization take center stage at Plastic Electronics 2013

BERLIN, GERMANY: When the proponents of organic electronics meet for the Ninth Plastic Electronics Exhibition & Conference in Dresden, industrial manufacturing and real-world applications take center stage for the first time during keynote speeches and presentations.

This change reflects the advancements made in the Plastic Electronics technology in the last five years, and these advancements are reflected in the keynote presentations of the Plenary Session.

The mission of PE2013 (www.plastic-electronics.org) is to bring experts, research institutions, manufacturers, investors, suppliers and other industry stakeholders together to accelerate plastic electronics from the laboratory to large-scale, high-volume production. The Plastics Electronics Conference, organized by a prestigious committee of industry and academic leaders, has co-located with SEMICON Europa since 2010.

Yole Développement projects the market for printed and flexible electronics will remain a modest ~$176 million this year, but will see 27 percent CAGR to ~$950 million by 2020, driven largely by printed layers integrated into large OLED displays. Richard Friend, professor at Cambridge University, will provide an overview on how recent scientific advances in organic semiconductor technology are impacting future technologies.

Plastic Logic CEO, Indro Mukerjee, will talk at PE 2013 about the creation of exciting new concepts which sometimes lead to new technologies. He will discuss a "very rare journey"...the transformation of a "raw idea" through actual first "proof of concept" and then real commercialization, as it relates to the development of organic electronics. His presentation on Wednesday, October 9, 10:00, will also delve into the opportunities and challenges along the way.

A similar topic will be covered by Dr. Dietrich Bertram, manager of Philips Lighting's OLED Global Business Unit, on Wednesday, October 9, 11:30. After many years of research and hype, OLEDS have reached the point where real applications have become feasible. While costs remain the main issue, technology challenges such as brightness, efficiency and lifetime have reached the desired level. The presentation also will give an overview of Philips' OLED activities and the current industry situation.

Further plenary sessions cover the "Path to the Next-Generation Display Technology" (Ching Tang, Rochester University), "Heterogeneous Integration Tools for Smart Integrated Systems for Healthcare" (Salvatore Coffa, STMicroelectronics) and many more.