New Direction for Printed Electronics in 2008

Yes it can be printed
Only two years ago, many observers said that copper indium gallium diselenide CIGS solar cells would never be printed but the Nanosolar plant in Berlin for that purpose will be the largest of several across the world. Another “unprintable” form of photovoltaics, the dye sensitised solar cell DSSC, is now being printed in a UK factory. Like Nanosolar, it is employing a form of ink jet, a production technology pulling well ahead as the favoured method of making most forms of printed electronics. With reel to reel production or large sheet fed processes, both using flexible substrates, tolerance of shape change and low wastage of the very expensive ink are important and these are strengths of ink jet. Plastic Logic has much the same approach for its first factory, which is being built in Dresden, in this case for printed, flexible electrophoretic displays with printed backplane drivers. The huge Industrial Technology Research Institute in Taiwan is among the many moving the inkjet printing forward, an interesting aspect there being ink jet printing on fluidic displays. Newcomer Trident Industrial Inkjet is advancing digital fabrication using flexible inert piezo inkjet and Chisso Petrochemical Corporation in Japan is inkjetting flexible LCD displays. Together with these speakers, EPSON will also present on inkjet advances.