Polyera Corporation

Printable and flexible electronics represent a nascent and rapidly-growing industry enabled by revolutionary materials technology.

Most commonly made from organic, carbon-based compounds, these materials - of which the most important are semiconductors - function very similarly to their traditional cousins, with the primary difference being that they are solution-processable - that is, dissolvable into a solution or ink.

This makes these materials differ from traditional semiconductors in two ways:

• Printability. Because they can be converted into an 'ink', devices using these materials can be manufactured using techniques like ink-jet printing, gravure printing, and other roll-to-roll processes. This is in contrast to traditional semiconductor manufacturing processes, which require fabrication facilities that are extremely costly (such as multi-billion dollar "fabs"), and have limited throughput. In addition, unlike traditional semiconductor processes, printing processes are scalable, i.e., it is relatively straightforward to accomplish large-area manufacturing.

• Flexibility. These materials can be deposited on flexible, light-weight substrates  such as plastic. This allows for the manufacture of electronics with novel form factors, such as a display or solar panel which you can literally roll-up. In addition, flexibility results in much greater robustness to impact (flexible things don't break when they're hit).

Thus, the solution-processability of novel semiconductors enables a dramatic shift in the paradigm of electronics manufacturing.  (For more information on the underlying technology, please see the Technology section of our site.)

While the manufacturing processes and form factors enabled by printable semiconductors are novel, the fundamental function of these materials are analogous to traditional semiconductors such as silicon. This allows for the development of basic devices such as transistors, light emitters, light harvesters, and sensors with architectures similar to that of existing electronics. (For more information on the basic 'building-block' devices that can be created, see our section on basic devices.)

The possibility of manufacturing semiconductor devices with low-cost, high-throughput processes on flexible substrates opens up a wide expanse of new applications that were either impossible or too costly with traditional electronics. Applications like item-level radio frequency identification tags, disposable diagnostic devices, rollable and low-cost solar cells, flexible displays and other electronics applications represent a future multi-billion-dollar market for printed electronics. (For more information, see our section on end-user applications.)

Moreover, these technologies are already beginning early commercialization. Displays based on organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) are already on the market, and while in most cases they are not yet printed, they demonstrate the viability of organic semiconductors in commercial applications (for an example, see Sony's first Organic-LED TV). Furthermore, the first flexible displays based on solution-processed organic transistors are slated to hit the market in 2009 (for an example, take a look at the Que^TM).

Market Opportunities

Within the next 15 years, printed and flexible electronics are forecasted to create an entire industry to capitalize on their novel properties. While commercialization has begun with OLED displays, there is a growing list not only of novel applications previously impractical due to the limitations of traditional electronics, but also of traditional applications in which this technology will offer substantial advantages over lithographically fabricated devices. Revenues are forecasted to be ~$20 B by 2012 and $30 B by 2015.

Currently however, the growth of this industry is limited by the performance of the existing materials base, as many materials still fall short of the levels needed to enable wide-spread commercial use. With a number of fabrication techniques (e.g. inkjet, gravure, etc.) already able to deposit these functional materials with high throughput, the development of robust and high-performance materials would enable rapid industry growth. With these materials constraints addressed, it is forecasted that the market will be worth 300 B$ by 2025 (for additional market information, see www.idtechex.com).

Polyera is committed to the development and supply of next generation functional inks which will enable the printed and flexible electronics industry to realize its potential. For more information, read more about our business model.