IDTechEx

By Dr. Peter Harrop IDTechEx The retail and consumer goods industry is now overcoming concerns about the cost and performance of RFID and making big commitments. This is reflected in the speaker lineup for Europe’s leading RFID conference, IDTechEx RFID Europe in Cambridge UK, Sept. 18-19. Ahold, Sony, Marks & Spencer, Schiutima/C1000, Logica CMG, Toppan Printing and others will describe retail and consumer goods successes in Europe and Japan. Major plans from the factory to the retail shelf will be covered including Marks & Spencer’s commitment to 350 million tags yearly on items, ahead of any other retailer in the world. Reduced costs and

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.—Amir Mashkoori, Kovio chairman and CEO, will be the keynote speaker at the annual IDTechEx Printed Electronics USA 2007 conference and exhibition, being held November 13-14 2007 in San Francisco. This will be Kovio’s first public presentation since the company’s inception. During his address, Mashkoori will describe a new category of semiconductor products that Kovio is developing using printed silicon electronics and thin film technology. Mashkoori will present Kovio’s key achievements and applications roadmap. Kovio’s technology is creating a new semiconductor industry paradigm where printed electronic components have performance that is compatible with existing and emerging infrastructure, yet are much less expensive

By Raghu Das IDTechEx The term Active RFID incorporates many technologies including Real Time Locating Systems, Ubiquitous Sensor Networks and Active RFID with Zigbee, RuBee, Ultra Wide Band and WiFi. A new research report by IDTechEx “Active RFID and Sensor Networks 2007-2017” studies this market and finds that it is growing faster than other RFID technology sectors. Here Raghu Das, CEO of IDTechEx, summarizes some of the findings (www.idtechex.com/activeRFID). Active RFID, where a battery drives the tag, is responsible for an increasing percentage of the money spent in the RFID market. It will rise from 12.7 percent of the total RFID market

By Dr Peter Harrop IDTechEx The future $300 billion market for printed electronics is emerging via thin film electronics. The contribution of organic materials to this is greatly publicized but the best devices being developed usually rely on inorganic or combined inorganic/organic technology. The more select groups developing these inorganic materials and devices have a great future. IDTechEx has published the first study on Inorganic Printed and Thin Film Electronics (www.idtechex.com/inorganic), and here Dr. Peter Harrop summarizes some of the findings. Silicon chips have had a good run in the electronics industry but the lowest cost chips have not changed much in price for

By Dr Peter Harrop IDTechEx Most of the thousand or more participants in printed electronics are attempting incremental improvements to existing products and missing the big picture. For example, faced with heavy losses on Liquid Crystal Displays LCD displays because of over capacity, many are investing hundreds of millions of dollars in Organic Light Emitting Displays (OLEDs) with slightly better performance but still a rigid glass structure and minimal printing. This is rarely profitable either, as these displays are applied to the very price competitive applications such as television and mobile telephones. Startling new capabilities If we look at the big picture, we see

CAMBRIDGE, England—More than 330 delegates from 30 countries attended the IDTechEx Printed Electronics Europe event in Cambridge, UK this week. The event hosted the inaugural IDTechEx Printed Electronics Awards in recognition of outstanding achievement. Printed Electronics Champion of 2007 - Stuart Evans of Plastic Logic Plastic Logic was spun out of Cambridge University’s Cavendish Laboratory in 2000. Its first target market is ‘take anywhere, read anywhere’ electronic readers incorporating flexible active matrix displays with millions of printed transistors. These readers will be thin, light and robust, enabling a reading experience closer to paper than any other technology. As founding CEO, Stuart Evans took Plastic

IDTechEx is the world leader in providing independent global research and analysis on the development and application of printed electronics. In 2007, IDTechEx is launching a new award to showcase the best in the printed electronics field. Judged by an independent panel, IDTechEx Printed Electronics Awards are given in the following categories: • Best Commercialization • Technical Development Materials • Technical Development Device • Printed Electronics Champion of 2007 Any company operating within the printed electronics market is welcome to apply. For more information or to enter contact, C.Clare@idtechex.com. Full details are available at www.IDTechEx.com/pe

By Raghu Das, CEO IDTechEx In 2007, IDTechEx expects that 1.71 billion tags will be sold. The total RFID market value (including all hardware, systems, integration) across all countries will be $4.96 billion. By far the biggest segment of this is RFID cards. For those not involved in that sector, the 2007 market value for non-card RFID (RFID labels, fobs, tickets) will be $1.97 billion. Excluding cards, 58.4 percent of the market in 2007 will be in the U.S. and 33 percent in Europe. The market will rise to $27.88 billion in 2017. This includes many new markets that are being created, such as

By Dr Peter Harrop IDTechEx Although the capabilities of complex silicon chips increase at a rapid pace, there is little or no reduction in cost of the simplest silicon chips. These have stuck at about 5 cents for decades. The cost of a chip factory and the cost of research to improve chip production is rising exponentially so there is no reason to believe that the simplest chips will get significantly cheaper in future. An added concern is that these chips are the ones that make little profit so they are the first to be rationed and suffer price hikes when there is a

CAMBRIDGE, U.K.—Nowadays, the term printed electronics is taken to include printed electrics and even thin film devices that are likely to be printed in due course. Anything less risks missing the big picture, the subject is moving on so rapidly. Of the different components that are becoming printable, Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs) are very important. This is because they are set to replace many of today’s electronic displays with something more economical and with better performance. They will do the same with much of today’s lighting as well. In both cases, the change will be accelerated by the advent of cost-effective flexible displays