Printed electronics offer a lot of opportunities for industries—and printed electronics continue to evolve. As always, let’s look back to look forward.
The original idea for printed, flexible electronics involved printing all circuit elements, including passive components such as resistors and capacitors, along with more sophisticated components such as logic and memory. This could be used in photovoltaic panels, displays, and lighting, just to name a few. Printed, flexible electronics received some government and private funding, with many academic research groups exploring printable semiconductors for logic and photovoltaics. This was followed in the 2000s and 2010s by more private investment into roll-to-roll production of both organization photovoltaics and printed logic.
According to IDTechEx, challenges remained including durability and cost for both printed solar and logic. In recent years, there has been a clearer target for printed, flexible electronics to specific applications where the technology offers significant benefits to warrant adoption.
IDTechEx points to an example of this: commercialization after pivot from printed logic for RFID (radio frequency identification) to producing transparent conductive foils for backlit touch interfaces that are now installed in mass-produced cars. Arguably the biggest success story of printed, flexible electronics is OLED displays, which are now ubiquitous in smartphones and widely used in TVs.
Here is how this can help:
- Offer greater flexibility and stretchability.
- Digital manufacturing and rapid prototyping.
- Improved sustainability.
With all this in mind, anticipate rising commercial adoption of printed, flexible electronics across multiple vertical markets in the next few years, with applications ranging from wearable heaters to building leak sensors and from automotive touch interfaces to indoor photovoltaics.