New Conductive Materials for Printable Electronics
Aaron Hand, Managing Editor -- Semiconductor International, 12/1/2006
The production of such devices as sensors, photovoltaic cells, RFID tags, organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and other electronics are expected to benefit considerably from printing techniques as opposed to traditional techniques such as etching. To speed up the introduction of improved conductive materials for printable electronics, two European organizations plan to join their research efforts.
Ciba Specialty Chemicals (Basel, Switzerland) and the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (Mainz, Germany) announced recently their plan for collaborating on the research of conductive materials for printable electronics. Announced in October at the Plastic Electronics Conference in Frankfurt, Germany, the three-year project focuses on developing novel conductive polymers for printable applications.
Although printable electronics offer great opportunities for new electronic devices, current conductive materials do not yet meet the performance, durability and handling requirements for many major applications, according to Martin Riediker, chief technology officer at Ciba Specialty Chemicals. “The collaboration is part of our strategy to strengthen Ciba Specialty Chemicals' research network in the fast-developing field of advanced functional materials for the electronics industry,” he said in a statement. “Groundbreaking development work in this highly interdisciplinary field is still needed.”
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| Improved conductive materials for printable applications will benefit from the production of electronic devices like OLEDs. (Source: Ciba Specialty Chemicals) |
Polymers have long been known as insulators, but the discovery of their conductive and semiconductive capabilities has enabled the development of thin, light, flexible and inexpensive organic electronic applications. Electroconductive polymers are already used in display and solar technologies, as well as in sensors. The market potential for their use in simple plastic electronic systems such as RFID tags, low-cost biomedical sensors, data storage and consumer products is also substantial.
“With this partnership, we want to take a major step to bridge the gap between potential and real application of conductive polymers in an important application area,” said Professor Gerhard Wegner, director at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research.
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