Finance for Printed Electronics is Not Drying Up

The news media are full of the details of the global financial meltdown. Is this affecting finance for the small companies and start-ups involved in printed and potentially printed electronics and electrics? We think not.

Every year, companies leave the oversupplied OLED value chain. Rob Haslett, CEO of Patterning Technologies, the ink jet specialist in the UK, tells us that the company has folded because an £850,000 investment has fallen through. We therefore approached Dr Alison Voice of Leeds Lithium Power which has a laminar battery produced reel-to-reel and has spent down a first round of finance. This product is based on an appealing lithium gel process involving a polyvinylidene film as a binder; excellent batteries are produced experimentally with the potential to rival the laminar lithium batteries of such famous, well funded start-ups as Infinite Power Solutions, Solicore and the recently created Planar Devices Inc. Such batteries are needed for miniature energy harvesting, backup power supplies, Active RFID and many other applications. Cymbet and Planar recently announced versions with the control electronics integral in the battery.