News & Press releases

PRESS RELEASE: Austrian SME plastic electronic joins Holst Centre research network

Eindhoven – March 17, 2008 - Partnership opens window of opportunities to get flexible electronics faster to the market 

The systems-in-foil research program of Holst Centre welcomes plastic electronic, Austrian producer of plastic thin film hybrid electronics, in its network of industrial and academic partners. Initial focus of the partnership will be on high-precision interconnection and lamination of foils with various functionalities. The partnership tightens the relationship between R&D and commercialization of flexible electronics. It will also help existing partners in Holst Centre bringing their products sooner to the market.

Systems-in-foil is one of the markets that are predicted to boom over the coming decade. Just think about organic photovoltaics (OPV), organic lighting and signage (OLED), flexible displays, RF-identification tags (RFID) etc. Whereas mayor progress is being made in the laboratories, only few products have already hit the market and the search continues for processes that get the most out of the low-cost potential of organic electronic products.

Austrian SME plastic electronic globally is one of the pioneers in commercializing various thin-film hybrid electronic products. Its existing product portfolio contains devices on plastic films such as pressure sensors, touch elements and memories all based on capacitive technologies. The company not only designs and markets its own products, but is also looking for clients for which they can operate as a “foundry” for systems-in-foil. In a first stage, plastic electronic will join the Holst Centre activities on high-precision interconnection and lamination.

Within its shared research programs, Holst Centre - an open-innovation initiative by TNO (The Netherlands) and IMEC (Belgium) - gathers the entire value chain of companies in the systems-in-foil industry; ranging from foil and materials manufacturers, to equipment suppliers and IDMs. Together, they search for optimized processes, such as precision lamination, interconnection, heterogeneous integration and laser processes including roll-to-roll schemes. The development of novel processes and unique novel tools will allow low-cost, large-area manufacturing of flexible electronics.

For plastic electronic, joining Holst Centre in the first place means having access to knowhow in these low-cost manufacturing processes. Moreover, it gives the Austrian company an opportunity to meet with possible future clients and exchange ideas on Holst Centre’s neutral ground. For existing partners in the Holst Centre programs, the participation of plastic electronic possibly means lowered time-to-market of their next-generation products by gaining easier access to a fully installed production line.

The contract was signed between Plastic Electronic and TNO, coordinator of the systems-in-foil program of Holst Centre.
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More information
About plastic electronic
plastic electronic is engaged in one of the most promising technology fields these days: flexible, extremely thin and lightweight, but robust and cost-efficient mass-producible electronic components on plastic films. These printed and hybrid electronic components enable applications that haven’t been realizable until now and dramatically improve a lot of electronic products in several industrial fields like packaging, logistics, consumer electronics or automotive.

plastic electronic’s technology utilizes scalable production techniques like printing and coating technologies as well as specific techniques to assemble functional plastic films and to embed standard electronic components in plastic films.

plastic electronic’s business approach is strictly market oriented and concentrated on reaching early applications. Products like the printed pressure sensor on plastic film, the printed capacitive touch on plastic film and the printed memory on plastic film are purchased and used by worldwide leading companies. These products give prove of the competitive benefit of plastic electronic’s innovative technology.

plastic electronic was founded in 2005 as a spin-off from the Johannes Kepler University, Linz/Austria, and is managed by Philipp Weissel, an experienced serial entrepreneur and Andreas Tanda, an engineer with profound industrial background in informatics and electronics. Details are available at www.plastic-electronic.com.

About Holst Centre
Holst Centre is an independent open-innovation R&D centre that develops generic technologies for Wireless Autonomous Transducer Solutions and for Systems-in-Foil. A key feature of Holst Centre is its partnership model with industry and academia around shared roadmaps and programs. It is this kind of cross-fertilization that enables Holst Centre to tune its scientific strategy to industrial needs.

Holst Centre was set up in 2005 by IMEC (Flanders, Belgium) and TNO (The Netherlands) with support from the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Government of Flanders. It is named after Gilles Holst, a Dutch pioneer in Research and Development and first director of Philips Research.

Located on the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven, Holst Centre benefits from the state-of-the-art on-site facilities. Holst Centre has over 140 employees from 25 nationalities and a commitment from close to 20 industrial partners.

Primary contacts for the collaboration with plastic electronic on “Integration Technologies for Flexible Systems” are Program Manager Andreas Dietzel, who combines his position at Holst Centre with a part-time professorship at the TU Eindhoven, and Jeroen van den Brand, Senior Scientist Advanced Packaging.

More information: www.holstcentre.com

Contact
Holst Centre
Koen Snoeckx
Communication Manager
E-mail: Koen.Snoeckx@holstcentre.com
T: +31 (0)40 277 40 91
M: +31 (0)612 71 98 43

Plastic electronic
Philipp Weissel
CEO
philipp.weissel@plastic-electronic.com