Bye, USDC; hi Flextech

In early July, the U.S. Display Consortium announced that it was morphing into a new organization with a different focus. To be known as the FlexTech Alliance (www.flextech.org), the new organization will concern itself with so-called printed-electronics technology based on conductive-ink circuitry. Predictions are the technology, now in its early stages, may affect not only displays, but solar panels, medical electronics, lighting, and a wealth of other electronic products.

According to Michael Ciesinski, the San Jose, CA-based Alliance’s Chief Executive Officer, the shift has its roots in the R&D funding strategy USDC initiated several years ago for substrates, tooling, and reel-to-reel processing for flexible displays. However, consortium members realized that displays were not the only market for their technologies, and hence the need to change direction.

Mark Hartney, the group’s Chief Technology Officer, points out that the technical impetus for directly printing electronic circuits on flexible substrates differs significantly from the traditional semiconductor rationale of Moore’s law, which he says drives smaller features and higher density, complexity, and cost. Printed electronics focuses on simpler functionality obtainable at significantly less cost. He notes that a flex-printed fab costs in the neighborhood of $10 to $200 million, versus a semi fab’s $2- to $3-billion price tag.

Ciesinski points out that an important role for the Alliance will be that of an advocate for the technology to financial and government bodies. The aim will be to help North American companies compete in what could be a $50-billion market by 2017; European funding is currently slated to be triple North America’s outlay.