Printed electronics innovation award winners

More than 750 people from 31 countries attended the annual IDTechEx Printed Electronics Europe conference and exhibition in Dresden, Germany in early April. The event, which is the largest on the topic, hosted the annual awards to recognise outstanding achievement in the industry. The Deputy Mayor of Dresden, Dirk Hilbert, opened the Awards. The award categories and winners are:

1. Printed Electronics Europe Champion: Germany Trade & Invest
2. Technical Development Manufacturing Award: Thin Film Electronics and InkTec
3. Technical Development Materials Award: Applied Nanotech
4. New Product Development Award: Kovio
5. Commercialization Award: Power Paper
6. Academic R&D Award: University of Massachusetts working with Brewer Science and Optomec

Printed Electronics Europe Champion: Germany Trade & Invest
The Printed Electronics Champion Award is given to an individual or organization that has done an extraordinary amount of work to promote and develop the industry. IDTechEx CEO Raghu Das said of the winner, "This award is to recognize the enormous work Germany Trade & Invest has done to advance this industry. Their contribution has had a profound effect on the commercialization of the technology and has resulted in Germany becoming the global leader in this field."

Oliver Seiler, Director of Mechanical & Electronic Technologies for Germany Trade & Invest was in attendance to accept the award: "It is such an honor for us to receive this award. We are proud to have been recognized for our contribution in this growing field and hope that companies will continue to benefit from the services we offer."

Technical Development Manufacturing Award: Thin Film Electronics and InkTec
InkTec Co.,Ltd., Korea, and Thin Film Electronics ASA, Norway, were awarded with IDTechEx Technical Development Manufacturing Award. The awarded results come out of a joint Thin Film Electronics and InkTec project that has demonstrated fully R2R printed memories with a layout and device structure developed by Thin Film Electronics, suitable for applications such as game cards and toys. Up to now rolls with more than 100 m of printed memories has been produced with a total of 5 printing steps.

Raghu Das, CEO of IDTechEx said that "The joint Thin Film Electronics and InkTec achievement is a huge success with the realization of a R2R production-worthy printing process capable of realizing printed memory cells with a yield in the 96-97 percent range."

Technical Development Materials Award: Applied Nanotech
Applied Nanotech, a NASDAQ listed company, won the Materials development award for the creation of an inkjettable conductive copper ink. The ink can be processed in air with a drying temperature at under 100 degrees C. Silver is widely used but is expensive and alternatives are needed for many applications. The launch of this ink offers a lower cost alternative to silver-based inks.

New Product Development Award: Kovio
Kovio wins the IDTechEx New Product Development Award sponsored by Smart Systems Campus for its printed silicon RFID platform. The company demonstrated the world's first silicon-ink based 128-bit HF (13.56 MHz) RFID tag. Based on ISO 14443 standards, this product features integrated synchronous analog, logic, anti-collision, and read-only memory blocks. With data rates of 106 kbps, this product is 100-1000X higher than previously reported printed organic tags. The breakthrough performance is enabled by Kovio's proprietary IC design and high performance silicon transistors—high mobility (~100 cm2/v.s) and low power (CMOS). Volume production is due to start later this year.

Commercialization Award: Power Paper
Power Paper won the commercialization award for ingenious use of its printed thin film batteries. Over one million batteries are made each month, which are used for a diverse range of applications. Big successes include the use of batteries integrated into skin patches to significantly speed up the delivery of the cosmetic or drug. Customers include Estee Lauder.

Academic R&D Award: University of Massachusetts working with Brewer Science and Optomec
The University of Massachusetts, Brewer Science and Optomec won the academic award for printing carbon nanotubes to create 5 GHz transistors. The aerosol jet deposition process from Optomec was used to completely print all four layers of the Thin Film Transistor including materials with a wide spectrum of viscosities.

Submissions were judged by a panel made up of four independent experts. For more details please see www.IDTechEx.com/awards.