Flexible Electronics is the Winner

The silicon chip took over forty years to approach a $300 billion business today. Now there is a new form of electronics that will hit that figure in half the time because, unlike the silicon chip, it subsumes electrics such as lighting, batteries, solar cells and heaters, not just electronics. It is usually achieved by printing and its most vital characteristic is physical flexibility. Take that as meaning a variety of capabilities valued in the marketplace such as foldability, conformance to architectural features, stretchability and even the ability to be tightly rolled, worn, washed and waterproof. Some forms survive being hammered and even stabbed so, in the main, we are talking of putting electrics and electronics where they could never go before. Another aspect is biodegradability where needed, even printing electronics onto paper. Multilayer structures are increasingly possible, reducing the number of interconnects and the area needed and increasing reliability.

The world's largest event exploring this new world and what comes next is the IDTechEx Printed Electronics & Photovoltaics Europe 2011 taking place in Düsseldorf 5-6 April. The presentations give a guide as to the most vital aspects being brought to market. For example, mobile phone company Nokia will talk about its work on stretchable electronics, something more usually related to healthcare products. The Samsung speaker Dr Bonwon Koo refer to customers wanting to carry something small that give wide area viewing and how its record breaking flexible polymer dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) displays are one route to that market need. They are driven by ink jet printed transistor backplanes.

Read full article @ http://www.evhub.biz/idtechex/flexible-electronics-is-the-winner

Printed Electronics Widens Its Scope

Printed electronics has its origins in conductive patterns printed as part of conventional electronics, forming flexible keyboards, antennas and so on. Then came fully printed testers on batteries, electronic skin patches and other devices made entirely by printing, including batteries and displays. A clear next step has been to modernise static print with the e-reader and the talking poster with animated, light emitting display and solar power. These are partly or almost wholly printed, with a clear roadmap to making them lower cost and more reliable and flexible by using printing more fully in their manufacture in future.

Making new products possible

However, we now see printed electronics and electrics certain to penetrate far more applications than anyone realised. For example, large batteries have often used a measure of printing of simple electrodes and connectors but much more sophisticated printing processes are being applied to next generation solid state batteries in such things as power tools and traction batteries for the booming electric car industry, even the electrolyte being deposited by print like processes. An important engine of this dramatic widening of the scope of printed electronics is new materials, particularly relatively low cost, non toxic ones with superlative electronic and electric properties from creation of light to sensing of specific gases and generation of power in various ways. A great deal of work is going on to develop these into electronic healthcare disposables for testing and drug administration, to take just two examples.

Read full article @ http://www.evhub.biz/idtechex/printed-electronics-widens-its-scope

Printed Electronics Enters Fast Growth phase

Printed electronics is associated with some orders, investments and acquisitions that are one hundred times as big as the largest two years ago. Now we can laminate solar power onto a large dirigible, for example, and Northrop Grumman in the USA has just landed an order for $517 million to make one for surveillance from the upper atmosphere that is based on flexible photovoltaics. Delivery will be in 2012. Boeing in the USA has won $89 million in funding from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency DARPA for the second phase of the Vulture long-endurance unmanned aerial system UAS program made possible by flexible photovoltaics.

After more than ten years Plastic Logic has yet to launch a product but it has just gained commitment of what it describes as nearly "one billion dollars in total". Plastic Logic started as an IP company in printed transistors then changed strategy to try to launch a thin, flexible printed e-reader. However, technical problems and the sweeping success of the Amazon KindleTM and Apple I-PadTM put that on hold. However, the enabling technology of Plastic Logic remains very exciting for a host of potential uses.

Read full article @ http://www.evhub.biz/idtechex/printed-electronics-enters-fast-growth-phase

Electric Vehicles land sea and air

Electric Vehicles - Land - Sea - Air Europe 2011This is the world's only event that covers all forms of electric vehicles - land, sea, and air. Uniquely, it concentrates on the potentially disruptive breakthroughs in the future, to include radically new materials, components and forms.

This event provides a platform for:

• electric vehicle manufacturers to diversify and make vehicles for many uses
• components and subsystems suppliers to make their products available for as many vehicles as possible - land, sea and air
• electricity suppliers, regulators, analysts and investment experts to assess the whole market while others miss most of these aspects
• research efforts, challenges and future breakthroughs to be covered

Topics include:

• The global picture of the whole electric vehicles market
• EV batteries and associated technologies
• Energy harvesting and energy storage for electric vehicles
• What's happening in East Asia
• Electric vehicles, markets and opportunities

Read full article @ http://www.evhub.biz/idtechex/electric-vehicles-land-sea-and-air

IDTechEx Printed Electronics USA 2010 award winners

December 8, 2010
IDTechEx Printed Electronics USA 2010 award winners
Santa Clara, CA

The fourth annual printed electronics winners were announced on Dec 1st at the IDTechEx Awards Dinner in Santa Clara, USA. 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 an eminent panel comprising of Dr Steven Novack, Idaho National Laboratory (INL), USA; Professor Iain McCulloch, Imperial College London, UK and Professor Vivek Subramanian, University of California, Berkeley, USA.

The award ceremony is part of the IDTechEx event Printed Electronics USA 2010 - which was attended by over 1200 people from 28 countries - the world's largest event on the topic.

In summary, the winners for each category are as follows:

Best Technical Development Materials Award - IBM

Best Technical Development Manufacturing Award - AIXTRON

Academic R&D Award - University of California, San Diego

Read full news @ http://www.evhub.biz/idtechex/idtechex-printed-electronics-usa-2010-award-winners

Future of Electric Vehicles agenda - book before 19 Nov & receive free report and 20% event discount

Future of Electric Vehicles agenda - book before 19 Nov & receive free report and 20% event discount @ http://www.evhub.biz/idtechex/future-of-electric-vehicles-agenda

Enter your company for the prestigious Future of Electric Vehicles Awards
All submissions must be received by Monday 22nd NovemberEnter your company for the prestigious IDTechEx Future of Electric Vehicles Awards which recognize company innovation, success and development. Any company operating within the Electric Vehicles industry - land, water or air - is welcome to apply.The award ceremony will be held on Tuesday December 7, at the unique event - Future of Electric Vehicles being held in San Jose on December 7-8, bringing together companies from around the world.If you would like your organization to be recognized for outstanding achievements in one or more of the following categories simply follow the entry instructions.
The Award Categories include:

»	Imaginative Vehicle Award - land, water or air
	This award will be given to a company which has developed and launched an imaginative vehicle either for land, water or air (in the lber 2008 - December 2010) and is in the process of bringing it to market. The category will be assessed on the technical development of the product, its market potential, and benefits it brings over alternatives.
»	New Vehicle Application Award - land, water or air
	This is the award given to an actual commercial success with an end-product (in the last 24 months, December 2008 - December 2010). Judges will look for success in terms of products sold and revenues generated.
»	New Component or Material Technology Award
	This award will be given to the most significant technical development over the last 24 months (December 2008 - December 2010) in the field of component or material development. Full story @

http://www.evhub.biz/idtechex/future-of-electric-vehicle-awards

Heavy Duty Electric Land vehicles

Heavy duty electric land vehicles
By Dr Peter Harrop, IDTechEx

There are about 250 manufacturers of heavy industrial vehicles worldwide but most do not make EVs. Between them they will make about 700,000 of these vehicles in 2010. Most participants have under $20 million sales yearly. Mid-sized companies have largely vanished in line with marketing theory for maturing markets. This industry was characterised by a dash for market leadership as the market matured, with frequent purchases of competitors. Many participants seek global reach with manufacturing in major markets. Some promote a global brand to support this. Others diffuse their image over many brand names and even have competing subsidiaries. Some specialise in the largest or the smallest machines, in ICE or EV power. By 2015, the demand for heavy industrial electric vehicles will be comparable to that for light industrial/commercial electric vehicles as shown below.

Global market value for heavy industrial electric vehicles vs light industrial/commercial electric vehicles in 2015

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Source IDTechEx report, "Electric Vehicles 2010-2020"

Hybrids are the new growth market

Potential sales growth of heavy industrial vehicles mainly lies outside the saturated market of forklifts where most are already pure electric vehicle. Several manufactures now offer lithium battery options, to get away from the tyranny of one battery set in use, one cooling down and one charging per vehicle. The rest are still powered by lead acid batteries.



Read full article @ http://www.evhub.biz/idtechex/heavy-duty-electric-land-vehicles

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Printed Electronics Asia 2010 and WSN, Energy Harvesting & RFID Asia Event Preview

5 October 2010
Printed Electronics Asia 2010 and Wireless Sensor Networks, Energy Harvesting & RFID Asia Event Preview
Cambridge, UK

IDTechEx Printed Electronics Asia 2010 and Wireless Sensor Networks, Energy Harvesting & RFID Asia are now less than a week away. The two co-located conferences will cover a multitude of topics and will give you access to detailed presentations on these mutually supporting subjects, covering both the technologies and their applications.

Printed Electronics

Printed and flexible electronics have become of vital interest to a variety of industries including consumer goods, advertising, chemicals, printing, electronics, military, healthcare and publishing. The fourth annual IDTechEx Printed Electronics Asia event brings together these industries and technology developers. At the keynote session, companies like adidas will be presenting on their developments in smart fabrics technologies, while DuPont and Toppan will be presenting their latest materials and manufacturing developments. Toppan in specific will be addressing issues relating to the development of thin film transistor circuits for the e-reader market while DuPont will be discussing policy issues for environmental, sustainable future electronic technologies.
Flexible displays are a key area covered at the event, with presentations addressing different types of technologies such as electrophoretic from E Ink and Bridgestone, electrowetting from Liquavista and cholesteric liquid crystals from Kent Displays, giving attendees the opportunity to assess all different types of reflective technologies competing in the development of low power displays.


Read full article @ http://www.evhub.biz/idtechex/printed-electronics-asia-2010-and-wsn-energy-harvesting--rfid-asia-event-preview

A Paradigm Shift for the $25 Billion Outdoor Advertising Industry

The $25 billion outdoor advertising industry is turning from the old sluggish platform of static poster advertisements to a new media platform thanks to digital displays. LCD and plasma displays have already made a significant impact on the indoor advertising industry, such as in train stations, shopping centers and airports. The ability to change advertisements throughout the day and to show much more memorable animations and video, are key reasons why digital advertising is much more lucrative for advertising companies. The new model is now to sell time rather than display space. Indeed, Clear Channel, one of the largest operators of outdoor advertising media, reported a sales increase of up to 900% in some circumstances where digital advertising had replaced the old boring static versions.

Advertisers have a huge amount to gain from converting their static advertisement sites to digital versions. In many countries, there is a limit on the number of new billboards that can be placed, which has resulted in a somewhat saturated market. Digital signs have already demonstrated to advertisers that they can help to tackle this by taking market share from other media platforms and they also improve performance - that is, they provide a more memorable experience for the target audience.

Limitations of conventional digital displays

However, while digital advertising is exploding in indoor environments (where they even sometimes double as signage), that same technology isn't suitable for most of the millions of larger outdoor billboard posters. LCD and plasma screens are small and become too expensive to daisy chain to create an area the size of a typical outdoor billboard. Here, LEDs have been used, but they have some significant limitations which prevent them from being adopted at most sites. Firstly, they are much larger, thicker and heavier devices and usually the billboards need to be reinforced to support the extra weight. More importantly, unlike static printed billboards, LEDs emit light and there are tough government restrictions dictating that they should not dazzle drivers or be a nuisance for residential homes at night. These restrictions are often locally governed so there is no one rule across the whole country. That means each site needs its own approval. In addition, power consumption is also an issue.


Read full article @ http://www.evhub.biz/idtechex/a-paradigm-shift-for-the-25-billion-outdoor-advertising-industry

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Printed Electronics without boarders

EVHUB Exclusive ! 

For Immediate Release
2 September 2010
Printed Electronics Without Borders
Cambridge, UK

Printed Electronics Without Borders
by Dr. Harry Zervos, Technical Analyst, IDTechEx

Printed Electronics are being developed by over 3,000 companies, universities and research institutes worldwide. Although a significant percentage of these developers are located in countries such as the USA, Germany, Japan and South Korea, there's a lot of research effort in other countries also, even if the concentration of active companies active is lower. The two examples described below are the CSIRO in Australia and the A*Star-IMRE in Singapore.

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)

National Research Flagships are large-scale multidisciplinary research projects initiated by CSIRO in 2003. The flagships program is one of the largest scientific research endeavours ever undertaken in Australia, with the total investment to 2010-11 expected to be close to A$1.5 billion.The Future Manufacturing National Research Flagship's goal is to create new or significantly transform existing high value-adding, export-oriented sectors to improve the future competitiveness of Australian manufacturing delivering A$3 billion of impact by 2020.

The Flagship for Future Manufacturing, with a budget of A$36.2 million over four years, will:
help existing high value segments of the manufacturing industry become more competitive in global supply chains

-       develop globally competitive medical products
-       identify next generation fabricated devices
-       capture value from nanotechnology for new materials
-       develop new products and processes exhibiting low environmental footprint, and addressing CO2 and other emission targets.

The Future Manufacturing Flagship research themes are divided into three main categories and include biomedical manufacturing, cleantech and flexible electronics.

While Cleantech Manufacturing will support the growth of green jobs in the Australian manufacturing sector through the development of new products and processes, the flexible electronics theme will develop disruptive technologies and products such as photovoltaic cells and printable polymer electronics delivering outcomes in the energy, materials, health and environment domains.


Read full news @ http://www.evhub.biz/idtechex/printed-electronics-without-boarders

Printed Electronics in Asia - the hot sectors

EVHUB Exclusive news 


29 July 2010
Printed Electronics in Asia - the hot sectors
Cambridge, UK

Printed Electronics in Asia - the hot sectors

There are about 3,000 organizations worldwide actively involved in the development of printed electronics. By number of organizations, Europe has the edge over the U.S., then comes Asia. However, this disguises the fact that those involved in Asia tend to be large conglomerates that can invest much more than those in the West. Territories that are most active in these topics are Japan, Korea, China and Taiwan.

Displays

The display business is huge and there is significant progress and development by East Asian companies in a number of different printed display technologies. Over the past few years there has been some consolidation in OLEDs, for example, with LG buying Kodak's IP in this area and Sumitomo buying CDT. Earlier this year, Samsung underlined its commitment to OLEDs by announcing a $2.5 billion budget for OLED manufacture and others such as LG, Sony and Panasonic are also dedicated to this sector. The focus is on televisions and recent press announcements state that OLED TVs will become cost competitive with LCD TVs as early as 2014. Material and equipment supply is much more global however, with many companies in the West participating now in what will be a huge opportunity, particularly as it is expected to mimic the LCD market - which is currently more than $100 billion.

Display activity is not all about OLEDs, however, as Asian companies tie up the leaders in electrophoretics. PVI, having acquired E Ink, has chosen to rebrand itself using its acquirers company name, showing its dedication to the technology. In a recent interview with IDTechEx, E Ink confirmed that several Asian companies will launch colour e-readers this year. Display giant AUO purchased a 30% stake in SiPix, another e-paper vendor, who do their manufacturing in Taiwan and Wistron, also of Taiwan, acquired Dutch-based PolymerVision, working on foldable e-reading devices.

China has shown the way to reducing the cost of another printable display - AC Electroluminescent (ACEL) displays - with many companies based there able to produce even small quantities of large area ACEL displays for $10 a piece or less, including the driver electronics. These are widely used in promotional short term applications. Indeed, it is not difficult to find t-shirts in supermarkets bearing EL displays complete with microphones so that the display interacts with the environment.

Those involved in material and equipment supply need to pay attention to the region, as it will continue to be the territory where most displays are made. That is why IDTechEx is holding its annual Printed Electronics Asia event in Hong Kong, at the centre of all of this activity, with speakers from companies such as E Ink, Liquavista and Bridgestone.

Photovoltaics

Over recent years China has crept up to become the world's largest manufacturer of photovoltaics. Huge investment in silicon refining and manufacture has resulted in conventional silicon PV prices tumbling - to the point that some technologies such as a-Si thin film PV are struggling to compete. There is great interest in other forms of thin film PV which can see costs fall further or enable new markets through new form factors such as semi-transparency and flexibility.



Read full news @ http://www.evhub.biz/idtechex/printed-electronics-in-asia---the-hot-sectors

Future of Electric Vehicles USA 2010 - Exhibit and Sponsorship Opportunities

Why Exhibit?

Meet, network and do business with senior level decision makers from across the value chain. Exhibiting at the event will give you the highest possible profile to a world-wide audience. Already plans are in place to make this show an international series of events crossing borders and ensuring a growth in new business and attendees at each of our show. By exhibiting you will be able to piggyback our international PR and marketing campaigns across key media before the event, showcase and network at the event and benefit from our post show coverage. Enter our Future of Electric Vehicles Awards programme and you could also benefit from unrivalled peer-review and enjoy the additional global attention.Speaker program and exhibition floorplan released. Sign up now and ensure you have the best stand position.

Read full news @ http://www.evhub.biz/idtechex 

EVHUB signed as Media partner to " Future of Electric Vehicles " conference in Sanjose

It gives me immense pleasure to share with you that EVHUB.IN has signed as Media partner to " Future of Electric Vehicles" conference which is going to be conducted on 7th and 8th Dec, 2010 in Sanjose, CA, USA.
This event being conducted by IDTechEx.Com.

For more information on the event go to http://www.evhub.biz/idtechex