IDTechEx Printed Electronics Europe 2008 Awards Announced
More than 600 delegates from 28 countries were in attendance at the recent IDTechEx Printed Electronics Europe event held in Dresden. The event featured the IDTechEx Printed Electronics Awards in recognition of outstanding achievement, which were given at the gala dinner on April 7.
The categories and winners were:
• Technical Development Device Award Winner: LG Displays
• Technical Development Manufacturing Award Winner: Hewlett Packard and PowerFilm Solar
• Technical Development Materials Award Winner: Ciba
• Best New Product Development Award Winner: PolyIC
• Best Commercialization Award Winner: GSI Technologies
• Printed Electronics Europe Champion: Wolfgang Mildner, CEO, PolyIC
An independent panel of judges included Professor Bill Milner, director, Centre for Advanced Photonics & Electronics, University of Cambridge; Professor Karl Leo, Institut fuer Angewandte Photophysik; Professor Edgar Dorsam, Technische Universitat Darmstadt; and Dr Peter Harrop, chairman of IDTechEx.
LG Displays won the IDTechEx Technical Development Device Award for the world’s highest resolution 14.3-inch flexible color e-paper display. It has a resolution of 2560 by 1600 sub-pixels and the ability to display nearly 16.7 million colors. This display uses electronic ink between Thin-Film Transistors (TFT) on a thin stainless-steel-foil substrate and Color Filter Array coated onto the plastic substrate, allowing it to recover its original shape after being bent as well as to produce color images.
Hewlett Packard and PowerFilm Solar won the award for best Technical Development in Manufacturing, after taking Self Aligned Imprint Lithography all the way into a fully roll-to-roll process. Bottom gate TFTs with both amorphous silicon and zinc tin oxide have been created.
Ciba won the IDTechEx Technical Development Materials Award for developing a broad range of conductive inks to allow low-cost printing of conductive structures on diverse substrates. XYMARAT Electra inks most impressive advantages are the low drying temperatures and good line definition.
PolyIC won the IDTechEx Product Development Award, for realizing the world’s first printed RFID tag presented in September 2007. It consists of roll-to-roll printed transponder chips based on the polymer semiconductor polythiophene printed on flexible polyester film. The chips are mounted on a low-cost antenna and work at the high-frequency range of 13.56 MHz.
For the IDTechEx Best Commercialization Award, the judges were looking for companies that had created a successful business selling printed electronics products. The award was won by GSI Technologies, a manufacturer of a variety of functional printed products including medical devices, smart card inlays, EL lamps and antennas. Its largest product line is biomedical sensors, with a production quantity of greater than 1 billion units/year.
Wolfgang Mildner, CEO of PolyIC, was awarded the Printed Electronics Europe Champion Award. The purpose of this award is to recognize an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the industry by promoting it to a wider audience, and by also achieving significant technical and commercial development in their own companies. Mildner has been active in promoting the industry globally, both in his role as CEO of PolyIC, and as Chairman of the Organic Electronics Association (OE-A).
IDTechEx will hold another awards banquet at Printed Electronics USA 2008 in San Jose, Calif. in December. Visit www.IDTechEx.com/peUSA for more information.
