Introduction Recent industrial and academic research has produced many optoelectronic materials with improved properties. Perovskite, quantum dot, and 2D materials have enhanced the range of existing organic and inorganic materials suitable for light-emitting diode (LED) or photodetector (PD) applications. Researchers with access to conventional laboratory equipment can produce working demonstrations of individual diodes to characterise properties related to electro-optical performance and therefore select suitable applications where the new materials could be employed. Moving beyond this toward productization for practical applications brings with it a number of challenges, since the use case for the consumer world requires a much more polished demonstration, closer to existing industry standards and quality. The decision by funders to invest further financing into R&D for novel materials is often influenced by a functional prototype incorporating those materials in a display or imaging device. The increase in complexity required to go from single pixels to high-yield arrays with 100,000s of pixels extends far beyond the capability of the equipment sets available to the team that made the material innovation. Figure. (Left) Perovskite Crystal Structure. (Right) Quantum Dot Emission Transforming lab results into impressive product-ready prototypes LED or PD arrays are typically made with pixel counts beyond what may be achieved using simple direct drive connections, such as ...

Why Should You Join TechBlick's The Future of Electronics RESHAPED? The Future of Electronics RESHAPED conference and exhibition (21 & 22 OCT 2026, Estrel Congress Centre, Berlin) is set to be the most important event of the year focused on additive, hybrid, 3D, sustainable, wearable, soft and textile electronics. The event is co-located with Electronic Textiles RESHAPED, Sustainable Electronics RESHAPED, and Perovskite Connect. In this article, we highlight various innovative talks around the theme of material, ink and paste innovations — the formulations that sit at the heart of every printed device. From silver-coated copper and room-temperature copper processing to biosensor inks, graphene formulations, and the substrates and adhesives that everything is printed on. In future articles, we will cover digital deposition, manufacturing and hybrid integration, and printed applications. Explore the full agenda now and register to join the event — one pass gives you access to all four co-located shows, the exhibition, and the TechBlick on-demand library. Conductive Inks & Pastes: The Silver Question and the Copper Answer With silver prices and price volatility at record highs, the search for cost-effective, high-performance conductor materials has never been more urgent. Ames Goldsmith (USA) – Daniel Lacorte presents advances in silver-coated copper materials for high-performance printed electronics. As geopolitical uncertainty drives silver prices to new heights, core-shell si...

Isotropic ALE is able to remove sidewall damage and has potential benefits in many applications, including microLEDs. MicroLEDs, LEDs with dimensions from 1 µm to a few hundreds of microns, are currently receiving a lot of attention. With much higher light output and lifetime, and lower operating powers than OLEDs, if two or three challenges can be overcome, microLEDs could empower the next generation of displays in areas including AR/VR, automotive, wearables, phones and large displays. The main challenges revolve around cost, though it has been predicted that they will be at a similar cost to the (2024) cost of OLEDs by 2026. There are also challenges around the fabrication of red LEDs and reducing the loss of light output as dimensions shrink. We are exhibiting at MicroLED Connect and AR/VR Connect in Eindhoven, The Netherlands on 16-17 September 2026 Please register to meet us in person and see our technology in action. It is known that the plasma etch process, that is used to define GaN LED mesa structures, damages the sidewalls and creates non-radiative recombination (NRR) states, which reduce the light output, usually quantified as external quantum efficiency (EQE). Oxford Instruments Plasma Technology has an active programme in producing a low damage mesa etch, but also an etch capable of removing the damage in the mesa sidewalls. Early results show promising increases in luminescence of bulk material, and further work on LED structures is planned. The images below sh...

Why Should You Join TechBlick's Perovskite Connect? Perovskite Connect (21 & 22 OCT 2026, Estrel Congress Centre, Berlin) brings together the companies, institutes, and equipment makers turning perovskite photovoltaics from a laboratory success story into a manufacturable, bankable product. The event is co-located with Electronics RESHAPED, Electronic Textiles RESHAPED, and Sustainable Electronics RESHAPED. A perovskite module is a stack of thin layers, and every one of them is a materials problem: transport layers that must be depositable at scale, contacts that survive firing, encapsulants that keep moisture out for 25 years, and electrodes that don't depend on scarce indium. In this article, we highlight talks around the theme of materials innovations — charge transport and interfaces, encapsulation and end-of-life, and transparent electrodes and alternative device concepts. In companion articles, we cover tandems and commercial deployment, and manufacturing equipment and processes. Explore the full agenda and register early for the best rates — one pass gives you access to all four co-located shows, the exhibition, and the TechBlick on-demand library. Charge Transport & Interface Materials TU Dortmund (Germany) – Matthias Grotevent presents a room-temperature synthesis of crystalline tin oxide nanocrystals that is remarkably robust: particle size and crystallinity are independent of reaction time, temperature, and precursor concentration. Unlike conventional colloidal syn...

Author: Erika Rebrosova, Ph.D is Global Technology Manager for Electronic Materials at Sun Chemical Screen printing is the dominant process for printed electronics manufacturing. Screen printing is capable of multilayer patterning of materials with different functionalities. These include conductive, resistive and insulating layers. This method of printing is used to manufacture various electronic components and circuits. For example, printed touch switches for control panels, displays, lighting, flexible heaters, printed antennae and medical electrodes. Additionally, various sensors used in environmental monitoring, wellness and healthcare monitoring and even medical diagnostics. We are exhibiting at The Future of Electronics RESHAPED in Berlin on 21-22 October 2026 Please register to meet us in person and see our technology in action. Electronic Manufacturing Printing Traditional high-speed printing methods – such as flexography and gravure – are rarely used in electronics manufacturing. These methods are typically used for low power interconnects and sensors in niche and specialty applications. They include electronic medical adherence packaging, smart adult incontinence products and, in some cases, wearable medical electrodes. For some electronics applications – such as in organic light-emitting diode (OLED), organic photovoltaic (OPV) – inkjet printing can be appropriate. It offers an opportunity to displace vapor deposition processes, rather than compete with screen...

Why Should You Join TechBlick's MicroLED Connect, AR/VR Connect and Optical I/O Connect? The three co-located events take place on 16 & 17 September 2026 at the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven, bringing together the display, optics, semiconductor and interconnect communities in one venue: MicroLED Connect, AR/VR Connect and Optical I/O Connect. For a decade, microLEDs were a display story. That changed when AI infrastructure ran into a wall: copper is efficient but short-reach, optics reach further but cost power and reliability, and neither scales the way AI clusters now demand. The "wide-and-slow" microLED architecture — many parallel, modest-speed optical channels instead of a few ultra-fast lanes — has emerged as a credible third option, and Eindhoven is where the people building it will gather. In this article we highlight talks around the theme of microLED optical I/O for AI infrastructure: the architecture, the link budgets, and the devices that make it work. In companion articles we cover mass transfer and assembly, emitters and backplanes, yield and metrology, AR waveguides, light engines, and the system-level challenges of AI glasses. Explore the full agenda now and register to join — one pass gives you access to all three co-located events, the exhibition, and the TechBlick on-demand library. The Wide-and-Slow Architecture: Breaking the Interconnect Trade-Off Microsoft (United Kingdom) – Paolo Costa frames the problem precisely: AI workloads, especially inference, ar...

Why Should You Join TechBlick's The Future of Electronic Textiles RESHAPED? The Future of Electronic Textiles RESHAPED conference and exhibition (21 & 22 OCT 2026, Estrel Congress Centre, Berlin) is where technologies and applications meet, accelerating the industrialisation of smart and electronic textiles. The event is co-located with Electronics RESHAPED, Sustainable Electronics RESHAPED, and Perovskite Connect. Smart textiles prove their worth on the body — monitoring health, protecting workers, and performing in environments where conventional electronics fail. In this article, we highlight talks around the theme of wearables that work: health and physiological monitoring, and safety-critical wearables for demanding environments. In a companion article, we cover the manufacturing platforms, materials, and standards behind these products. Explore the full agenda now and register to join the event — one pass gives you access to all four co-located shows, the exhibition, and the TechBlick on-demand library. Health & Physiological Monitoring: From Lab Accuracy to Daily Wear Danish Technological Institute (Denmark) – Zachary J. Davis provides a comprehensive overview of DTI's smart wearable technologies, spanning the full value chain from e-textile manufacturing and standardized IPC test methods (wash durability, abrasion, tensile and stretch behavior, climate exposure) to functional demonstrators: a printed EMG electrode sleeve targeting musculoskeletal disorder prevention w...

Why Should You Join TechBlick's Sustainable Electronics RESHAPED? Sustainable Electronics RESHAPED (21 & 22 OCT 2026, Estrel Congress Centre, Berlin) is where the global sustainable electronics industry takes form — reshaping the future of electronics layer by layer, through sustainable materials, efficient manufacturing, and circular designs. The event is co-located with Electronics RESHAPED, Electronic Textiles RESHAPED, and Perovskite Connect. The printed circuit board sits at the heart of electronics — and at the heart of its waste problem. In this article, we highlight talks around the theme of rethinking the PCB: bio-based substrates, additive and recyclable circuit fabrication, and greener production at industrial scale. In a companion article, we cover life cycle assessment, eco-design, and circular business models. Explore the full agenda now and register to join the event — one pass gives you access to all four co-located shows, the exhibition, and the TechBlick on-demand library. Bio-Based PCB Substrates: Wood, Cellulose, and Natural Fibres Holzforschung Austria (Austria) – Boris Forsthuber presents ecoPCBs on wood, developed within the EU-funded HyPELignum project. Conductive paths are printed onto wood substrates via inkjet or screen printing; the plywood ecoPCB concept prints circuitry into each veneer layer before gluing, connecting layers with vias to mimic a conventional multilayer PCB. Waterborne primers homogenize ink penetration on birch wood, and the scre...