IDTechEx

The global RFID market continues its rapid growth as record orders up to $0.5 billion each are serviced. This year demand for RFID is on target for $5.3 billion globally as it powers its way to $27 billion in 2018. Recent substantial additions to the global RFID orderbook include A$350 million from the State of Melbourne to boost its public transport RFID card scheme and a forecast by transport analysts that the national RFID card for transport being progressed in the UK will cost $2 billion. Indeed, much is now happening in Europe, although it is the U.S. and China that share top slot

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

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

BURR RIDGE, Ill.—GSI Technologies, an industry leader in Functional Printing™ and industrial graphic products, has recently been honored with the Best Commercialization Award from IDTechEx Printed Electronics Europe. More than 600 delegates from 28 countries were present at the IDTechEx event held recently in Dresden, Germany. The judges were looking for companies that had created a successful business selling printed electronic products. GSI Technologies’ largest printed electronic product line is a biomedical sensor with a production volume of greater than 1 billion units per year and a yield of greater than 99.5 percent, monitored with real-time SPC and 100 percent automated visual inspection. When

By Dr. Peter Harrop IDTechEx Solar cells are needed on everything from clothing to packaging, toys, spaceships, consumer goods, medical testers, skin patches and tools. Mostly, they must be thin and flexible, lightweight, environmental and low in cost - even disposable in many cases. Optical transparency would prevent them defacing items and higher efficiency and working from heat as well as light are sought. Working well in real world conditions of reflected or low level light would help. In other words, a multi-faceted $100 billion market is emerging that will consist of very different requirements but most of them can never be met by

By Dr Peter Harrop IDTechEx Printed electronics is a relatively new technology that is evolving very rapidly. The term encompasses printed and potentially printed electronics and electrics. Two years ago, it was thought that printed electronics would make things cheaper and one year ago there was much talk of tightly rollable electronics so a mobile phone could look like a pen because it will have a snap back roller giving a large display and keyboard when needed, that flexible plastic film also gathering power from light and heat - no more flat batteries. These dreams are reaching reality today but it is now realized

IDTechEX The new IDTechEx report “RFID Forecasts, Players & Opportunities 2008-2018” is the summation of extensive new research in late 2007 and early 2008 including interviews with RFID adopters and solution providers in the various applicational RFID markets, giving an unprecedented level of insight into the total RFID industry and what is really happening. Here Raghu Das, CEO of IDTechEx, summarizes some of the findings. In 2008 the value of the entire RFID market will be $5.29 billion, up from $4.93 billion in 2007. This includes tags, readers and software/services for RFID cards, labels, fobs and all other form factors. The majority of this

By Dr Peter Harrop IDTechEx The money spent on printed and potentially printed electronics doubled in 2007, as did the number of organisations participating. There are now about 1500 organisations doing significant work, most of them being academic. In 2008, there will be much more emphasis on commercialisation and many more countries will join the fray. New breakthroughs for European conference The leading European conference on printed electronics, the IDTechEx “Printed Electronics Europe” is part of the only global set of conferences on the subject in Japan, China, the USA and Europe. This year it moves from one centre of excellence Cambridge to another,

BOSTON, Mass.—The seventh annual RFID Smart Labels USA Conference and exhibition will be held in Boston, February 20-21, 2008. This industry event will offer many learning opportunities at the two-day conference, tutorial-style Masterclasses, and tours of local companies. Based in the RFID-stronghold of Boston, this event will introduce first-class speakers, explore the key RFID issues, and provide exclusive access to some of Boston’s leading RFID companies. This analyst-driven event provides: • Analysis of what is selling, what isn’t, what the technology needs are and experience from the biggest users • The big success stories: Hear from the companies that have secured the

Well, it’s a new year. Many of us are starting out with clean slates—new budgets, new plans, and high hopes for a better year. And what a year this could be. There are lots of significant issues that could really be a drag on the economy—the subprime credit fiasco, housing slowdown, inflationary pressures, and fears of an impending recession. Of course, it’s also a presidential election year, a wide-open affair that promises to be as interesting as any in recent memory, and possibly historic in many ways. Getting closer to home, packagePRINTING is starting off the year with a number of changes to bring