Printed Electronics Europe looks at new sensor possibilities

The 12th annual Printed Electronics Europe Conference & Tradeshow will examine the commercialization of the technology, with some of the world's largest end-user companies making presentations on their needs and experience with printed electronics. A major focus of the conference this year will be on flexible sensors and wearables.

The event will take place on the 28th and 29th of April at the Estrel Berlin in Germany (fig.1 ). With an expected attendance of 2,000 or so, it will showcase over 150 exhibiting companies from over 20 countries, many demonstrating printed electronics in action. Further, the show will be held in conjunction with five other IDTechEx events: 3D Printing Europe, Energy Harvesting & Storage Europe, Internet of Things Europe, Electric Vehicles, and Wearable Technology Europe.

Fig. 1: The Estrel Berlin hotel and conference center in Germany will be the site of this year's Printed Electronics Europe.

One example of the conference's sensor focus is the talk entitled “Printed Optical Sensors and Image Sensors on Plastic for Medical, Internet-of-things, Industry 4.0 and Wearable Devices” given by Laurent Jamet, co-founder and director of business development for ISORG (www.isorg.fr). He notes that, in the application areas mentioned, organic and printed electronics is opening new doors for product integration/design of large-area optical and image sensors that are thin, conformable, and robust to shock.

Thomas Papakostas, CEO of R&D CORE (www.rndcore.com ) in his presentation “A Truly Flexible Touch Sensor and its Applications” will discuss the group’s DRAS touch sensor technology and its benefits over alternative solutions, using both concept and real product applications as examples. He notes that, by addressing the limitations of conventional resistive and capacitive sensors, the technology enables creation of highly interactive next-generation smart products.

Stephen Gibbons, director of technology at Brewer Science (www.brewerscience.com) will discuss “Advanced Carbon-Based Materials and Fabrication Techniques for Printable Transducers for Sensing Applications”. He says that, for a wide span of applications, key materials are still needed to advance transducer and sensor technologies. Two such materials are in advanced development at Brewer Science: surfactant-free carbon nanotube and graphene dispersions. Surfactant-free dispersions are critical to preventing variability in device performance, and they also reduce waste streams. Further, the CMOS purity of these materials aids in device-to-device consistency and allows the transducers to be highly stable, with minimal hysteresis during device lifetime.

Gregor Scheipl, a scientist at Joanneum Research (www.joanneum.at) will look at “Innovative Use Cases Based on Fully Printed Piezo-/Pyroelectric Sensors”. Over the past few years, his company developed a piezo- /pyroelectric polymer sensor technology (PyzoFlex) in which sensors are screen- and/or roll-to-roll (R2R) printed on flexible substrates (PET, paper, textiles). The sensors present new opportunities because they are energy self-sufficient, scalable, light weight, and show very high sensitivity to changes in temperature, pressure, and deformation.

Michael de Graaf, senior engineer at The Dow Chemical Company (www.dow.com), talks about “Transparent Conductive Films of Metal Grids made via Coaxial Electrospinning”. These new films are being developed for applications where ITO can no longer meet the technical requirements: specifically in large-size touch displays and flexible applications. In his talk he will describe the electrospinning technique for producing the new films’ metal grids.

In addition to many more interesting papers on printed electronics, the conference offers optional expert-led master classes: interactive consultancy sessions that provide a clear picture of the complex technology and market segments covered. For more about Printed Electronics Europe and to find out about attending, visit www.idtechex.com/printed-electronics-europe/europe.asp.