IDTechEx Printed Electronics Europe 2012 Award Winners
The annual printed electronics award winners were announced at the IDTechEx Awards Dinner in Berlin, Germany on April 3rd. The awards recognize outstanding progress in the development and commercialization of printed electronics, an industry that produces a huge amount of technical innovation which will be used in many products.
The entries were judged by Professor Iain McCulloch, Imperial College London, UK and Professor Elvira Fortunato, University of Lisbon, Portugal. In summary, the winners for each category are as follows:
Best Technical Development Manufacturing Award — VTT Best Technical Development Materials Award — Heliatek Academic R&D Award — University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Best Product Development Award — Thinfilm Best Commercialization Award — Printechnologics Best Poster — Lappeenranta University of Technology Best in Show Award — exhibition booth — Printechnologics
Best Technical Development Manufacturing Award — VTT VTT won this award for building up a printed electronics pilot factory capability. The facility includes a R&D printing environment from small lab scale material testing to proof-of-production. In addition to extensive roll-to-roll printing facilities pilots are available e.g. for thermal nanoimprinting, printing in nitrogen atmosphere, laser processing and post-processing.
Best Technical Development Materials Award — Heliatek
Helitek won this award for achieving the world record in OPV efficiency using new oligomer absorber materials. With this new type of absorber material, Heliatek was able to set two new efficiency world records in the field of low temperature processed organic solar cells. All materials that have been used in the currently best solar cell with an efficiency of 9.8 % are suitable for production. Best modules (122cm²) with a series interconnection show efficiencies of up to 9.0% on the active area. This shows the excellent scalability of the process.
One judge reported, “Heliatek materials have reached unparalleled performance for small molecules and have significantly stimulated this area.”
Academic R&D Award — UCLA
UCLA in collaboration with Aneeve Nanotechnologies has developed the first fully printed ink‐jet CNT transistor technology platform. These unique transistors employ the superior electronic performance of semiconducting carbon nanotubes (CNTs), going beyond materials such as amorphous silicon and metal oxide semiconductors that are typically used in display backplane applications. Performances such as μ= 50cm2/(Vs), Ion/Ioff= 1000, Vth=1.0V have been demonstrated.
Best Product Development Award — Thinfilm
Thinfilm won this award for the creation of the world's first printed, rewritable memory device addressed with complementary organic circuits, combining Thinfilm's polymer-based memory technology with PARC's transistor technology. Designed for commercial production, Thinfilm addressable memory is the first step in integrating Thinfilm memory with other devices such as sensors, displays, power sources and antennas. One judge commented, “The Thinfilm product is very significant for Printed Electronics.”
Best Commercialization Award — Printechnologics
Printechnologics won this award for producing more than 20 million “Touchcodes” in 2011 which were used in a wide variety of markets. Touchcode bridges the gap between physical products and digital contents. Within seconds common paper communicates with smartphones, tablets or information displays just by a simple touch — without using a camera or any other special reading device. Thus, the technology creates a seamless unity between products and digital contents for the first time.
Best in Show Award and Best Poster
This award was chosen by attendees at the event, who voted for what they thought was the most impressive exhibitor. The winner was Printechnologics.
Of the posters in the exhibit area, the best poster was awarded to Professor Cameron from Lappeenranta University of Technology in Finland.
The next IDTechEx Printed Electronics awards will be held at the USA event, in Santa Clara, USA on Dec 5-6 2012. For more details see www.PrintedElectronicsUSA.com.
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