Do not miss the networking session on 16 July 2021 from 16:30 to 20:00 CET. Our exhibitors will have their stall there. It will be your chance to mingle with the other attendees and meet our exhibitors in our networking lounges just as you would in a physical event. Exhibition Floorplan View the video below which shows how to use the lounge and what to expect. You will have your own movable video/avatar which you can manoeuvre to approach and network with colleagues. Bring Friends/Partners/Colleagues: you can nominate 4 persons to visit the exhibition in the networking lounge at no additional cost. Please register them here. Networking Lounge Virtual Booth Demo Please add the Networking Friday to your calendar: Google Calendar | Microsoft Outlook Calendar | Office 365 Calendar | Yahoo Calendar iCalendar for other e-mail apps Click here to download TechBlick Corporate Slides

Printed, Flexible, Hybrid, & InMold Electronics Time & Location: 10 – 11 Mar | 15:00 - 21:30 CET | Virtual Event Platform Exhibitors Include

(the text below is auto transcriped) Low temperature soldering The first topic is low temperature soldering. And if you think about flexible PCBs, you will notice that many of the flexible PCBs are actually based on a substrate. And part of the reason for this is that PI can tolerate a relatively high temperature allowing automated reflow process of soldering. This is part of the reason, of course, one can still solder on PET, but usually this is done manually. And the reason is that when it is done manually, one can much better control the temperature profile of the soldering process, making sure that it does not exceed the constraints of PET. However, now there is some very, very interesting approaches that allow one to solder on substrates such as PET. one of the interesting approaches is by our gold sponsor, NovaCentrex. And what they do is they are bringing their pulsed lighting system into soldering so you can expose the joints to a high dose of light, and that the pulse light will form the joint without the actual substrate experiencing a high temperature. And what is even more interesting is that this process can happen, if the sintering profile is optimized, can take place on a matter of milliseconds. So it means that you can really solder roll to roll at high throughput on substrates such as PET. Another very interesting innovation here is shown in the middle of this slide, and this one is interesting because it is from the same you know, it comes from the birthplace of SAC305 solder: Iowa State University. The company commercializing this is a startup called Safi-Tech. And what they are developing is a SAC305 microcapsules solder that can be applied on PET at just 120 degrees Celsius. So it is really interesting because it means that you can combine the properties of solder, including that automatic self alignment, which eases the burden on pick in place as it doesn't have to be as accurate with a low temperature substrate. And all of this means that flexible hybrid electronics becomes closer to reality because you can roll to roll metalize, you can roll to roll pick and place and also you can solder at fairly good speeds, but more importantly, at low temperatures. But conductive adhesives are also experiencing many interesting trends. And one that I like to highlight here is by CondAlign. CongAlign has a very interesting process. What they do is they use electric fields to vertically align, or form chains, of the fillers inside of the host. So the key benefit of that is that one can achieve an anisotropic conductive thermal or electric conductance without needing as much filler content. And it is often the filler that is the expensive part in these kinds of conductive adhesives. So one can cut down the filler amount by as much as, let's say, 80 to 90 percent. So here you can see an example on the on the right hand side. On the top side, you can see the particles which are in the host dispersed at random. And in the second image on the right in the middle, you can see that the particles have been aligned vertically under an electric field. So as to reduce the amount needed for the same or better performance. And as you can see in the image below, this can come in the form of sheets. This is now done roll to roll. The thickness of the sheet can be variable per customer request. And also the pitch density is now excellent and the process is now being scaled up. So I think it is something also to look into because I think it's an interesting innovation that can help really drive down costs while exceeding or at least matching the performance of existing options. Printed Electronics in Large Area Lighting Another interesting trend is in printed electronics in large area LED lighting. And I think, of course, for quite some time, printed electronic or printed circuitry or metallization has been applied to LED lighting. And one of the key advantages, as you can see on the left, and this is by a company called Kundisch, is that one can achieve customized patterns on the surface and then apply the LEDs on that customised patterns. So what it means is that one can have the shape or the geometry or the design that one desires using the printed circuit on the on the flexible substrate or on the larger your substrate. Another interesting trend that this has been around for some time. There are companies that started commercializing this maybe four or five years ago at least, but now it is gathering steam and momentum is doing everything roll to roll. So here you can roll to roll prins, the metallizations and also the component attached materials, and also roll to roll assemble the LEDs onto your flexible conformable substrate, allowing one to have excellent throughput. This can be an excellent production process for creating flexible conformable LED foils. And so I think this is again, an interesting area that one should keep an eye out. And this particular example that I've highlighted here is by Holst Center in the Netherlands. Printed Electronics in microLED displays But while we are on the topic of LEDs, I think one of the hot trends in the display industry, is, of course, microLED. They are fantastic, but they're hard to manufacture. As you can see on the right hand side, they come in many, many different forms and they can be put to use in different kinds of displays from small size displays, micro displays, all the way to very, very large area displays. And there are many methods of transferring the inks, transferring to the LEDs and so on. One point that is often neglected is that how do you metalize the actual substrate? So once the LEDs have been created, these have to be placed or transferred onto your mother substrate, there has to be some metallization on the substrate and this can be done by PVD. Then you have to create a connection between the front side of the of the substrate, typically glass, to the back side by creating a via and filling that via. However, now companies are proposing that this metallization and also the connection from the front side to the back side be done using screen printing. And this is an example by Applied Materials. This comes out of their Italy group. And what you can see is that the printing screen printing electrodes that wrap around the edge of the glass connecting the front to the back side, and they're achieving a linewidth to spacing ratio of around 60 to 40 micrometers. And clearly the advantage here is that you don't need vias and you are doing additive printing. So I think a very interesting approach, and this is an engineering problem that is not, let's say, as sexy as the transfer problem. So it receives less attention but is equally important. And I think printed printing can play an interesting role here. Transfer challenge in microLED But of course, transfer is a big, big problem when it comes to making microLEDs. On the left hand side, you can see that micro LEDs are very small. This chart shows you a comparison in size with, let's say, hair, which is relatively big actually compared to microLEDs, and with dust and viruses. And note that the x axis is actually logarithmic. And the chart on the right shows you the number of failed dies for a given yield at different resolutions and the inset is kind of a blowed up or a zoomed version of this. And basically, to achieve very few failed dies, the yield of the process has to be very, very high. And this is, of course, extremely challenging when one aggregates the yield across the whole process, including metallization, transfer, bonding and so on and so forth. Digital printing in display repair So there is a need to repair. And one opportunity that again printed electronics offers is precision digital printing on 3D surfaces. Here, I want to highlight this very interesting company out of Poland. And what they do is they have a digital printer that can achieve using their own viscous silver nanoparticle things, very, very fine line. So here on the top left hand side, you can see examples where they have printed, let's say, a 3.2 micron line with a spacing of just 0.7 If you look at the bottom left hand side, you can see examples of this technology being applied to enable open defect repair in high resolution displays. Of course, this could be applied to microLED, but also other types of displays. This is really interesting because it shows how the resolution of printing processes are dramatically improving. Here on the right, you can see a benchmarking of this process against some other kinds of additive processes, including inkjet and aerosol and so on. And what is interesting is that here you can achieve very good feature sizes, very small feature sizes and also have a good ink viscosity. So this is a process that, of course, is not just applicable to a defect repair in high resolution displays, but could be used in security, in prototyping redistribution layers, in electronic packages and in many, many other applications. High resolution and high speed R2R printing But I think the trend towards better resolution is not just limited to digital printing, and I want to highlight here that also roll to roll printing is achieving resolutions which were not customary in the early days of printed electronics. I remember when I entered into this field about 10 years ago, one of my first exposures was to a company that was doing cutting edge R2R printing, achieving a linewidth resolution of around 18 micrometers. Now, here is an example by Kodak, again, showing that one can do roll to roll flexo printing, achieving a linewidth resolution of five micron meters while running the process as fast as 100 meters per minute. And this is very interesting. And of course, as you can see on the bottom right hand side, some of the innovation has to do with the way they form their master templates. And one of the key points here is that the way they manufactured the dots to have a flat top. Transparent antennas And one of the applications is in transparent antennas. And here actually this is not a fully direct, additive printed approach. It is a hybrid approach. And you can see this in the bottom left hand side. It is hybrid because it involves ink patterning with flexographic printing R2R printing, and then the process goes through a roll to roll electroplating to metalize it further. But if you look at the table on the bottom right hand side, you can see some very interesting parameters. So they are getting a metal mesh with a line with of seven to eight micrometers with a sheet resistance of just point six, ohms per square and very good transparency of about 90.5 percent and green at 550 nanometres. And the application you are targeting is a transparent, printed, transparent antenna, which the design of which can be customized to meet different requirements, including GPS LTE and Wi-Fi and so on and so forth. Skin patches and medica electronics A hot area in printed flexible electronics is in medical electrodes and there are many applications. One of the development frontiers has been in the use of electronic skin patches for continuous health care monitoring. And of course, this area has become extremely hot as we transitioned from, or as we are transitioning from, a standard glucose sampling to continuous glucose sampling and also all types of continuous heart rate monitoring, which are multibillion dollar businesses today. And printing can really play a role here. The example I want to highlight here is the development by Holst Center and they've developed a full solution. This is a clinical grade disposable patch with a reusable electronics, with dry electrode, etc. And the dry electrode includes printed metallization. And that allows one to measure EKG and respiration and temperature. And it is useful for seven days continuous monitoring. So the full solution from the adhesive to the printed lines to the rigid electronics and so on. And I think. It shows you what is possible with printed electronics. The example on the right hand side are from another company, a Screentec Oy. And what you find here is that the on the top right side, the kind of the purple red picture, what you see is a medical electrode with integrated surface metal devices on the top. And the bottom right picture is an example of a screen printed sensor which can detect skeletal muscle activities. So you can see that all kinds of electrodes can actually be printed. Stretchable conductive inks for e-textiles And while we are on the topic of skin patches, a lot of discussion has also been on electronic textiles. And one overlap between electronic textiles and the printed electronics is often the printing of the interconnects or the printing of the stretch sensors. In the early days, maybe four or five years ago, companies started to bring out the first generation of conductive stretchable inks. And what has happened in the last, let's say, two years or so is that companies are not just offering stretchable conductive inks, but they are offering the full portfolio of stretchable inks needed to create your electronic textiles. And this includes, of course, the silver inks, but also the carbon inks, the dielectric ink, the conductive adhesive. The example I've picked here is from Nagase. So you can see they've got a silver ink that can be stretched by 100 percent. They've got a carbon ink and they've got even a very good adhesive. And in the chart in the middle shows you the properties of the adhesive, it can be stretched up to 30 percent with very little hysteresis. And also it can be cured at 180 degrees Celsius. And I think the adhesives are very, very important in the full system. And the chart on the bottom right hand side, I've picked this because it shows you that if you only had a silver printed lines, the resistivity would be lower compared to when you had a stack printed, a stack composed of silver, carbon, and dielectrics. But when you have a stack, you are making it more washable. And in this case, you can see that after experiencing 100 washing cycles, the material or the stack of materials has performed better. It has experienced a smaller amount of change in the overall resistance. Medical Electronics: R2R volume screen printing So back to this topic of electrodes, actually, and what I want to highlight here is that this is a fairly big, big business. Just by showing you one example, this is from Mekprint out of Denmark. The example you see on the right hand side is a roll to roll screen printed ECG electrodes. And this application has a volume sales of more than one hundred million units per year. And the example I'm showing on the left hand side is an incontinence sensor. It is again roll to roll screen printed. And the reason this is interesting is that here conductive cable lines are actually roll to roll printed on a stretchable non-woven material. And again, this is a commercial application and that the printed sensor is part of a full solution, including the rigid electronics, the communications and so on and so forth. R2R printed displays So when we are talking about rotary printing, I just want to highlight this example of electrochromic displays. Electrochromic displays have been around for quite some time, actually, and in the early days, the production was manual and it was very slow. But now the company, Ynvisible, has made the process roll to roll. So here you can see an example of the roll to roll machine and the whole process is roll to roll. So the printing, the conversion, the testing, everything can happen on the roll to roll machines. And of course, this is helping bring down the costs, meeting volume demands. And one recent application, which was announced just a few months ago, is the application shown here in the middle where the electrochromic displays are attached to the package to enable one to continuously monitor the conditions of the minced meat as it goes through the value chain. Actually Ynvisible is now able to take customers from the R&D, the design phase, all the way to pilot and volume production as a single one-stop-shop supplier. Innovations in printed secondary batteries So while I was talking about electrochromic displays, I came to this in progress in printed batteries. And the reason I chose this is because of the example on the bottom right hand side. So if you look at this example, you've got an NFC charger on the left side. You've got an electrochromic display on the top side and in the middle you've got a printed, fully printed battery, secondary battery. In a few seconds, you can charge it up and then use it to drive your electrochromic display. Very interesting innovation, in my view, because it is a unique, durable polymeric solid-state battery. The company supplying is Evonik you can screen print the slurries as part of your own production process to meet your own design and geometry requirements. There are no toxicants involved and it is a secondary battery. So I think it is solving some of the key pain points in our industry. And of course, we all know that the industry has been using coin sales even though printed batteries have been available ( of course, some very good exceptions. Printed batteries are commercialized, have been commercialized). I think this is really an interesting development in the in the industry. Full line R2R process interation I want to show you an example of a full inline integrated roll to roll system integrating both digital and analog processes. This one is by Coatema, and it's really interesting because it has everything in one machine from unwinders to dryers to laser patterning, to rotary screen printers, to inkjet, to inline inspection, to cooling. So you can see that one can have almost a roll to roll foundry in a box system. on the right hand side you can see kind of examples of the different elements of the machines used at different stages. Coatema is a fantastic company with many, many years of experience in the field. And they allow you to do prototyping and testing of inks and concepts on their machines. And they have to have a deep and long standing experience in the field. Printed Organic and Perovskite Photovoltaics At the start, I mentioned that printed electronics and photovoltaics are, of course, very closely linked. We know that printed bus bars are used in solar cells and this is already a huge application. And, you know, people tried to also print organic photovoltaics for many years. And the peak, the honeymoon, was when Konarka was around. Some of you guys may remember Konarka, the American company, they raised well over a hundred million dollars. And in the end, they failed. They hyped up the industry dramatically. They overpromised. And after the failure of Konarka, the industry went into this long period of just wilderness. It was lost. And, you know, it kind of lost the attention to perovskites because perovskites were demonstrating a very, very fast growing efficiency. But I think OPV are again on the cards. They are on the agenda and they are suddenly showing rapid improvements in efficiency. So the chart here was supplied to us by Brilliant Materials out of Canada, and it shows you the materials that are being developed to further improve the efficiency of the OPV. Also, there is a shift in the from fullerene to non- fullerene based accepters, which is accelerating this trend. There is a lot more production knowhow now in the in the field. So companies are transitioning to wider format printing, faster printing, and they're much better able to control the morphology of the printed acceptor donor mixture on the substrate. What is also very interesting, in my view, is the example on the right hand side. This is from EMS, whom I think came out of Kodak . What they are doing is they are trying to scale up the roll to roll production of perovskites. They are printing on a flexible 100 micrometer glass. So the picture in the middle is showing you ow they are printing the metal mesh on a hundred micrometer flexible glass. In this example, they were able to run at up to 60 meters per second. But of course, the whole process is a little bit slower. As you can see on the right hand side, they are going from a pilot role to a pilot down to a very large scale machine. And the idea here is that they want to do it on a 1.5 meter web with a targeted web speed of 30 meters per second. And if everything goes well, this could be a big application for flexible glass. A big success story for R2R printing, creating a 4GW roll roll printed or coated perovskites factory. Of course, there is a lot of development to be done. But nonetheless, this shows you the kind of the intent and how far these companies have come. 3D Printed Electronics: Bringing intelligence to 3D surfaces So now let's talk a little bit about a printed 3D printed electronics. This is also a very interesting area. And I think, roughly speaking, one can divide it into two directions. One is metallising an already 3D shaped substrates. So the top row shows you examples of this. Here you can see a metallization ofof an antenna on a 3D shape substrates. You can see examples in the automotive, in a heater, and also in a medical device. And there are many other applications. Of course, the antenna printing was the biggest one. But now I think more are coming. And the row at the bottom shows you examples of actually 3D printed electronics, where printed electronics is being combined with classic 3D printing to create circuits and sometimes surface mounted devices inside and outside of a 3D printed object with a very complex shape Here you can see examples where the parts have been integrated into a into a kind of a device or they've been integrated into an egg shape. It allows one to really bring intelligence to 3D printing. So instead of just creating dump mechanical objects, one could integrate also the electronics inside the 3D printed object. And if one has a seamless design to production process, it could open up many fantastic opportunities. And one good example here is a company, Neotech AMT, from Nuremberg in Germany, and they have some of the best machines in the field. Printing of PCBs on all manners of substrates Of course, PCBs are etched, they are not printed, but one trend that started maybe, again, four or five years ago and is now beginning to mature is actually printing the PCBs. And one example is the company from Canada, Volterra. They have a desktop printer that allows you to print the conductive lines. So you supply the machine with a Gerba file and it prints the metallization lines. It can create the vias, it can deposit the solders or conductive adhesives, and it can also go through the reflow process. This is an interesting desktop, all in one turnkey solution with many applications in prototyping for all new research centers, for groups trying to design various kinds of circuits and trying it out. And also, of course, for universities. InMold Electronics: Taking off IME is another trend that should be watched as it is beginning to mature. This has been a story of start and stop and start and stop, I think the big story many years ago was that Ford accepted the overhead console made using in-mold electronics, but then had to recall the product because there were defects. But the development continued behind the scenes. And then a few years ago, applications, small sized, in wearables and consumer devices appeared. Then we had applications ics for creating heaters embedded through the cover glass of LED lights for cars so to accelerate the defrosting. And now I think we've reached a point where we can expect very soon applications in the interior of cars being made using in-mold electronics. So this process has come a long way from developing the entire materials to developing the very complex processes, which has had a very steep learning curve for the industry, printing all the layers needed, reforming and curing it. It's a fairly complex process. But now there is a built up experience in the industry. The industry is able to handle a complex design, integrated lighting, integrate various functionalities in the small electronics. So I think this is a trend that is really taking off. But I want to show that 3D shaping and stretching and kind of applying functional layers is not just in electronics. A very good example is by Kimoto. They have created these three formable diffusion films. You can see this on the right hand side. The idea is that you have this film, as you can see at the bottom right, which can be stretched up to 200 percent into an arbitrary shape that you want. This is a light diffuser film and the purpose is shown on the top right. So instead of having discreet LED lights, it looks more like continues lighting. Therefore, by applying these 3D formable diffusion films, one can achieve excellent distribution of light. And also the film is able to dissipate heat well, and so to hide a lot of the heat hot spots. Printed Transparent Heater in Auto Printed transparent heaters, you know, excuse the pun, are really a hot area, because there are not so many good solutions out there for printing transparent heaters and a lot of the solutions that are emerging involve printing. One approach is to embed a very, very fine trenches inside of the substrate, print the seed layer and then electroplate so that you end up with very fine but deep embedded copper lines, highly conductive, into a substrate and achieve excellent over large areas with very fine metal mesh features. So having both very low connectivity and very high transparency Another approach is by a company Chasm out of Massachusetts, and they have their own material, which I believe is a combination of silver nanowires and carbon nanotubes, which can be screen printed. And when you screen print it onto a film, as you can see in the example at the bottom, you can create a heater that goes to, I believe, 120 degrees Celsius or beyond. You can see an example on the right hand side where this film has been applied to a front headline of a car. And you can see how the temperature profile has actually increased. Copper inks: have the challenges been overcome? Of course, the story of printed electronics and conductive inks are intertwined. And for many years, people have tried to create copper rings to replace the expensive silver without so much success. There have been two major problems. One of them has been the curing without oxidization. So a special equipment or special conditions were required, often adding expenses and additional equipment, and also making copper NOT a drop in replacement. And another problem has been the copper ink wasn't conductive enough. So you would end up printing such a thick layer that you would make your cost benefits disappear. Now, there are some copper is appearing on the market, which seem very promising. And what one example I want to highlight is by a company out of Israel, Copprint. You can see their own benchmarking here. This is a benchmarking done by the company itself. But you can see here an example of conductivity versus sintering time of their copper in comparison to a range of nanoparticle and other types of inks. It is a process that you print, dry, and then you do a very rapid sintering to achieve very high conductivity. The sintering is usually higher than 200C. But they also have a process which allows one to sinter at 160C o so, so compatible with, let's say, y heat stabilized PET. Ag nanoparticle inks: higher performance at lower curing temperatures Progress the story of development is not limited to copper, also silver nanoparticles. Ag nanoparticles are not a new technology. They have been around for well over a decade, if not much longer. They are now a technology in the phase of incremental improvements, but those incremental improvements are nonetheless very important. And I want to highlight one example by AGFA which actually also acquired recently the assets of Clariant’s Ag nanoparticle business. So now they have both organic and water based silver nanoparticle inks in their portfolio. These examples shows you that for a given curing temperature, the achieved conductivity has dramatically improved. So in particular, look at the case when the curing is just 110 degrees Celsius, you can see that the latest generation of inks are achieving much better conductivity. This is an important development because it pushes silver nanoparticles towards low temperature processing. It widens the scope of available substrates. And for a long time, people were complaining that when you have a sort of annealing temperature constraint and your substrate cannot handle the temperature, the challenge is that you don't get enough conductivity. So these developments are really trying to address that. Even HMI not standing still Printed electronics for a long, long time, for decades, was about membrane switches and human machine interfaces and capacitive switches. I just want to quickly highlight that even in these areas, the industry is not staying stationary, is not at a standstill and is making really good progress. So here are three examples. On the left, you can see just a customized membrane switch keyboard with integrated USB. In the middle is a capacitive keyboard with an integrated controller, and on the right is an integrated tight sensor with a display driver. Basically, the message here is that companies making atomize memory switches and capacitive switches are trying to integrate more higher value and complex steps into the printing process, or they're integrating a USB system into the membrane switch and so on The idea is to migrate towards higher value add as the membrane switch itself becomes, as it has been, a highly commoditized business.

Graphene & 2D Materials: End Users, Applications, Major Producers & Start Ups Time & Location: 14 – 15 April, 14:00 - 22:00 CET | Virtual Event Platform

Table of Contents: 1. Recyclability and Sustainability 2. Heating and Thermal Management 3. Nanocarbons in composites 4. Fuel Tagging for Authentication 5. Filtration 6. Graphene in electronic textiles 7. Graphene in supercapacitors 8. Graphene in Si anode batteries 9. R2R CVD graphene scale up 10. R2R CVD grpahene in Li ion batteries 11. Anti-Corrosion Coatings 12. Biosensing and electronic applications of CVD graphene Hello everyone! I am Dr Khasha Ghaffarzadeh, CEO of TechBlick (www.TechBlick.com). I have tracked and analysed the graphene, carbon nanotube, and 2D material industry for over ten years now. I have published the leading market reports, presented at all the key conferences, and carried out numerous consulting and investment due diligence studies. I have seen all the ups and downs in this period and closely engaged with all the key players worldwide. In this article, I will offer a tour of some interesting developments in the field which demonstrate how the industry is maturing and finding diverse applications. I will cover graphene applications in heat spreaders, anti-corrosion coatings, large-area heating, pipes from recycled HDPE, R2R supercapacitor electrodes, Si anode batteries, automotive, fuel markers, biosensors, Li ion battery electrodes, ultra-filtration, composites, e-textiles, and beyond. At TechBlick, each year we offer more than 350 hand-picked talks on emerging technologies. With a single annual pass, you can participate in all our LIVE events online, truly mingle and network with the community online, and participate in our masterclasses. See how our networking and virtual mingling works here. We have assembled the best speaker line-up yet for our next LIVE conference on 14-15 April 2021, covering Graphene, Nanocarbons, and 2D Materials. Our programme brings together prominent end users, major producers, and promising start-ups. features speakers such as LG Electronics, ABB, Fiat, Tata Steel, Gerdau, Tungshu, Thales, Inov-8, Varta, ASML, BASF, Cabot, IP Group, Raymor/PPG, NanoXplore, Qenos, Avanzare, Sixth Element, Cardea Bio, VTT, Grapheal, and many others. You can see the full agenda here You can buy your annual pass for just 400 Euros per year using the 20% discount code Graph20 until 3 April 2021. If you would like to discuss this event or TechBlick event series in general please book a meeting with me (Khasha) here. Speakers Include: Recyclability and Sustainability Back to contents The data below is from NanoXplore, one of our exhibitors and sponsors. They are based in Montreal, Canada, and are global leaders in terms of scale up, having commissioned a 4,000 tpa production capacity with the aim to further expand to 10,000 tpa. The right chart below compares the stiffness of virgin HDPE, a common material for industrial fluid and gas pipes, with a HDPE consisting of 55% recycled material together with 1wt% of NanoXplore's graphene additives. It shows that the stiffness is unchanged. The left chart shows that the recycled material with 1wt% of graphene additives can retain its mechanical properties after 3000 hours of UV and weathering exposure. Other KPIs are also either improved or remain unchanged. The data can facilitate the uptake of recycled HDPE in pipes. Given the sheer size of the market, even at 1wt% loading, this can translate into a huge volume application. To hear the latest from NanXplore and to mingle and network with their team join our TechBlick event on Graphene, Nanocarbons, and 2D Materials on 14-15 April 2021. The green credentials of graphene go ever further. In general, increasing awareness of circular economy will deeply impact the requirements for future additives and functional fillers in polymer composites. BASF, one of our keynote presenters, will argue that graphene fits the future requirements as it “does not introduce foreign elements into the polymer material stream and comes with much less negative impact on processability and/or mechanics of the polymer compared to other functional fillers” This trend towards green graphene is manifest in graphene start-ups too. One good example is Bright Day Graphene AB. They are seeking to develop and later scale-up a graphene production process that is based on biomass. Join the TechBlick community for 400 Euros per year (deadline: 3 April 2021) to hear from and mingle with BASF, NanoXplore, and Bright Day Graphene. Heating and Thermal Management Back to contents Graphene has excellent thermal properties. In fact, Huawei has adopted rGO based heat spreader films in its flagship phones (see left image below). Sixth Element, from China and Huawei's material supplier, tells us that “currently this application consumes several hundred tons of graphene per year, still growing”. This is possibly the largest bulk graphene application worldwide and is basically produced and consumed in China. The chart on right below, also from Sixth Element, shows how rGO heat spreader sheet differentiates against pyrolytic graphite sheets (PGS). In particular, thermal conductivity of the commonplace PGS drops as the thickness grows, whereas the rGO sheet reaches a stable 1200 W/mK even at large thickness levels. Graphene in heat dissipation can have many other use cases. In particular, it can be used as a filler in thermal interface materials or be vertically aligned to offer excellent anisotropic z-axis thermal conductivity. Graphene is also used commercially in heating applications. The examples below are all from Shaanxi Huaqing Yifeng New Material, a Chinese company who will present at our upcoming LIVE conference on 14-15 April 2021. The left image is a R2R heating film which is waterproof and flame retardant. It is vacuum packaged with a service life of 50 years. The middle and right images are large-area printed heating films placed, respectively, behind a carpet and a painting. These are examples of large-area graphene applications combining R2R printing and graphene. Join TechBlick to hear the latest and to network and mingle with the community in our virtual networking lounge. Uniquely, our upcoming event on Graphene, Nanocarbons, and 2D Materials features prominent speakers from China including Tungshu, Sixth Element, Hangzhou Gaoxi, Shaanxi Huaqing, Leader Nano, Xi'an Tang Dynasty Huaqing, and beyond. Nanocarbons in Composites Back to contents One recent success story is the adoption of graphene in sport shoes by Inov-8 in collaboration with the Graphene Centre at the University of Manchester. Initially graphene was used in the outsole rubber, demonstrating some 50% increase in strength and elasticity vs. traditional outsoles. As of a few weeks ago, graphene is now also added to the underfoot foam. The world of additives is never stationary. The drive towards achieving more-for-more, meaning higher performance with a lower amount of additives is always in full swing. Now, Cabot Corp has launched very promising nanocarbon additives. Cabot's latest results are shown below. The right image shows how these nanocarbons (CNS) outperform carbon black and multi-walled CNTs, achieving lower resistivity in polycarbonates at a lower loading. The left image shows how these carbon nanostructures improve shielding effectiveness of polycarbonates at a lower or same loading. Join TechBlick LIVE (online) events to hear the latest from Inov-8, Cabot Corp, and University of Manchester. You can also mingle with the innovation community all-year-around. See how the event platform works here. Fuel Tagging for Authentication Back to contents A perhaps surprising application for graphene is in liquid level tagging. Quantag (from Istanbul) has developed graphene quantum dots which can be used as fuel markers to authentic the source and brand of the fuel (see below). In 2021, Quantag, one of TechBlick presenters, successfully produced 500Kg of graphene quantum dots to protect more than 4 million tonnes of fuel. Quantag offers a full solution including a novel sensor. The full system authenticates fuel on-site with high accuracy and sensitivity, enabling oil companies to have an all-in-one solution for their fuel marking operations. Filtration Back to contents Carbon Nanomembranes (CNMs) are a technological equivalent to the highly efficient biological filtration membranes found in nature. As shown below (left), water transport through CNMs is orders of magnitude faster than in conventional polymeric membranes combined with extraordinary rejection rates. CNM Technologies, one of our presenters, has developed a CNM-composite membrane maintaining most of the performance of the nanometer-thin CNM. These CNM-composite membranes enable new applications in low/no-pressure driven water treatment processes in growing markets such as ultrapure water for labs, pharma, and semiconductor industry and beyond. The size of membranes has expanded in the past few years but there is a need for further development in this front. Note that other 2D materials can also act as membranes. Molymem, a spin-off from the University of Manchester has also spent five years developing MoS2 nanomembrane sheets. The left images show these nanomembranes (the inset shows the small size at the 2017). In as early as 2017, they demonstrated a 5µm membrane composed of functionalized exfoliated MoS2, which was able to reject 99% of ions in seawater whilst, they claimed, maintaining water fluxes significantly higher (~5 times) than those reported for graphene oxide membranes. Here too, the technical challenge is to scale up the size of the membranes, improve endurance under pressure, and drive down cost. Graphene can also add value in air filteration. LIGC (Isreal) produces a graphene conductive mesh atop polymer substrates. This is made by exposing PI to CO2 laser. The graphene mesh then enables heating, electrocuting and neutralizing organic particulates and pathogens at higher efficiency rates compared to carbon black, it is claimed. Join the highly interactive LIVE TechBlick conference on Graphene and 2D Material Applications and Commercialization (14-15 April 2021) to hear the latest from all these firms and to mingle with the speakers and other graphene and 2D material community. Graphene in Electronic Textiles Back to contents Grafen AB is developing digital textile interface. As shown below (right), they add graphene without binders, glue, or polymers to the fabric. These graphene flakes ‘wrap around the fibers forming the skin'. By adding these special graphene flakes, they create unique conductive structures inside the fabric. The conductive fabric is then be used to apply simulation to the body or conduct heat, or continuously measure ECG, EDA or other signals. Grafen AB and other firms active in e-textiles such as Hangzhou Gaoxi Technology will present at the upcoming TechBlick conference. Graphene in Supercapacitors Back to contents At the TechBlick conference, we highlight one interesting development by Thales with excellent results. Here, the electrodes are produced by spray-gun deposition of mixture of RGO/CNTs on aluminium substrates (see below). Presently, Thales is transferring the process to Nawa Technologies for roll-to-roll production and final packaging of the devices. At the upcoming TechBlick conference, Thales will show how this was possible and the last developments. Graphene in Si anode batteries Back to contents Silicon offers exceptional high volumetric and gravimetric lithium storage capabilities as well as low charging/discharging potentials. However, this high storage capability is accompanied with high volume changes during lithium insertion/extraction, which causes a rapid decay in dimensional stability of the host material Varta Micro Innovation, one of the TechBlick speakers, will show how graphene offers a highly conductive and mechanically stable matrix that can suppress or buffer this large volume expansion. Using its novel composition, it can increase capacity of Li-ion batteries by 30%. Raymor and PPG industries will also show how their industrial-scale plasma-derived graphene and their unique formulations can play a vital role in Si anode batteries. Indeed, they are supplying the base material in NanoGraf's (formerly SiNode) Si-anode battery. Join TechBlick LIVE (online) events to hear the latest from Varta, Raymor, and PPG Industries. You can also mingle with the innovation community all-year-around. See how the event platform works here R2R CVD graphene scale up Back to contents LG Electronics has scaled up the production of R2R CVD. They started research in 2012 and commercially launched in 2019. They can CVD grow graphene on 400mm Cu films at rate of 60m per hour (left). They can also process 4-6inch Si wafer substrates. Overall, their capacity is some 28,800 sqm/year. To optimize the process and offer excellent quality control, they have built a database of 138 parameters. General Graphene Corp has raised $20M to scale up and commercialize atmospheric CVD graphene. It can achieve up to 100k sqm/year in its R2R CVD graphene production (right image) and is targeting, amongst others, application in the battery space. Here, its data shows that CVD graphene atop graphite coated electrodes can dramatically improve longevity of batteries. It now must prove that this added value is worth the additional cost and complexity. To hear the latest and meet and mingle with LG Electronics and General Graphene Corp please join the TechBlick community. R2R CVD graphene in Li ion batteries Back to contents Electrification of transport is massively increasing demand for batteries. Li ion is of course the main battery technology. One pain point with Li ion batteries is the loss of dishcarge capacity at high discharge rates or after multiple charge/discharge cycles. R2R CVD graphene may offer a suitable solution. The results below is from General Graphene Corp. Here, CVD graphene sits between an Al foil and a coated graphite electrode. The role of the CVD graphene is as a protector, keeping the electrode composition compact even as the battery goes through many charge-discharge rates at high C-rates. The results are promising. It shows that the battery with a 4-layer CVD graphene can far better retains its dicharge rate compared to a curent collector including only a conductive primer. This is an interesting application. The challenge, of course, is to scale this up and to offer it at the right price point for the battery industry, which is always driving down $/kWh. Anti-Corrosion Coatings Back to contents Anti-corrosion coating is emerging as one of the main applications of graphene coatings. At TechBlick, Gerdau, the largest south American steel producer, will showcase their latest results, developed in collaboration with GEIC@Manchester, on graphene-based anti-corrosion coatings. Unsurprisingly, Tata Steel is also working on graphene coatings for protecting nickel-electroplated steel from oxidization in battery casing application. Interestingly, Tata Steel is deploying R2R CVD graphene for this application. This is different as most other graphene-based anti-corrosion layers are based on solution coating. Some results are shown below. Here, the virgin nickel-plated steel (image a) is oxidized with (image c) and without (image b) CVD graphene coating. The unprotected material is fully oxidized with clear changes in the microstructure. To hear the latest and meet and mingle with Tata Steel and Gerdau please join the TechBlick community. Biosensing and electronic applications of CVD graphene Back to contents CVD graphene was, for long, confined to laboratory. It is however now emerging into the market. A prominent example is from Cardea Bio (formerly known as Nanomedical Diagnostics) who is commercialising CVD graphene FET based biosensors. Cardea Bio has taken the step to develop a packaged chip-integrated solution with good interfaces (see left image below), connecting biology to graphene FETs to electronic chips to ML-based software and finally to mobile phones and apps. This is leapfrog forward that acts as a configurable base technology. Similarly, VTT will present on its efforts to develop monolithic CMOS integration of the sensitive graphene sensors to provide quantitative on-chip bioanalysis with multiplexed bioassays (see right image below). VTT is part of a European ecosystem launching a 2D experimental pilot line (2D-EPL) that aims to integrate graphene and 2D material into semiconductor platforms. VTT's contract manufacturing services include graphene processing and CMOS integration on 100-200 mm wafer platforms, IC design for graphene sensors and printed graphene electronics and fabrics. SIMIT institute in China has also demonstrated fantastic process control. It can produce 2”-8” monolayer single crystalline graphene grown on Cu film, CuNi alloy film, Ge. It can also provide polycrystalline graphene wafer directly grown on silicon oxide/Si without metal layer, which is an important milestones. Furthermore, it can fabricate h-BN thin film with thickness from one layer to multilayer up to 30 nm. Grapheal (France) develops wearable and disposable biosensors enabling continuous monitoring and in-field diagnosis (see middle image below). The smart bandage is based on the integration of a monolayer graphene polycrystalline layer back-bonded onto a biocompatible polymer layer. The badge is diagnostic because it enables remote measurement of physical parameters to monitor wound evolutionn, and it is therapeutic because graphene functions as a growth matrix and because its conductivity enables the application of electrical pulses to accelerate healing. Graphenea has launched a graphene foundry system, addressing a major industry painpoint. In general, it has been difficult to develop graphene devices and applications as the lack of a foundry ecosystem had meant that the developers had to master everything from design to CVD growth to device design and manufacture. Graphenea can now grow, transfer, dice metallize, and encapsulate graphene devices with 5 μm feature sizes all under one roof. As a final comment, graphene may also offer a roadmap towards 1nm technology node. The chart below is developed by ASML based on imec's research. It shows how sheets of 2D material may be essential in enabling scaling the transistor technology node to 1nm and beyond, thus sustaining the most important technology trend that has underpinned our modern life. To hear the latest and meet and mingle with Cardea Bio, Graphenea, VTT, Grapheal, SIMIT, and ASML please join the TechBlick community. Back to contents

11 - 12 May 2021 | 14:00 - 21:00 CET | Virtual Event Platform Printed, Hybrid, Structural & 3D Electronics Quantum Dots: Material Innovations & Commercial Applications All Year-Round Online Conference Series On Emerging Technologies With A Single Pass TechBlick's third event (LIVE online) on 11 & 12 May will cover Printed, Hybrid, Structural & 3D Electronics as well as Quantum Dots. TechBlick is a year round event series with over 350+ analyst selected live online presentations and 10+ masterclasses focusing on emerging technologies such as advanced materials and printed/hybrid/structural electronics. With a single Annual Pass you have year long access to our platform where you can join all our LIVE (online) conferences as well as watch past presentations. You can also network with fellow attendees in our networking lounge, learn and meet our exhibitors, join masterclases, etc. TechBlick is the networking hub for the emerging technology community. Speakers Include: Register Now Hear what past attendees have said about TechBlick's events: "The TechBlick event on Printed Electronics has been a true success. One of the best virtual events - that I have ever attended. Great talks and networking opportunities." Swarovski "TechBlick was a fantastic experience! Not only were the speakers excellent but also the virtual platform greatly facilitated our networking efforts." Brilliant Matters "I loved the Techblick online experience. It was really immersive and compared to other digital events it had a real trade show feel." e2ip "Techblick is the success story in virtual conferencing and we are looking forward to the next event." Coatema GmbH "Techblick made virtual interaction real." Evonik "Awesome Event. Excellent event and presentations." Applied Materials Meet Exhibitors During the LIVE event TechBlick upcoming LIVE (online) conferences & exhibitions: 11-12 May - Printed, Hybrid, Structural, & 3D Electronics 12 May - Quantum Dots: Material Innovations & Commercial Applications 14-15 Jul - Innovations & Market Trends In Displays & Lighting 15-16 Sep - Printed & Flexible Sensors & Actuators 15-16 Sep - Electronic Textiles, Skin Patches & Wearable Electronics 1 - 2 Dec - Material Innovations In Batteries & Supercapacitors 1 - 2 Dec - Innovations in Photovoltaics & Energy Harvesting 2-3 Mar 2022 - Breakthroughs In Frontier Materials TechBlick's past events available on-demand Printed, Flexible, Hybrid, & InMold Electronics Graphene & 2D Materials: End Users, Applications, Major Producers & Start Ups A detailed overview of the platform including LIVE exhibitions How Does a Virtual Booth Work? How Does Real-Time Networking Work? How does speed networking work online?

Speaker: Jerome Labie Duflot | Company: The Coca-Cola Company | Date: 11-12 May 2021 | Full Presentation Join TechBlick on an annual pass to join all live online conference or online version of onsite conference access library of on-demand talks (600 talks + PDFs) portfolio of expert led masterclass year-round platform https://www.techblick.com/ And do NOT miss our flagship event in Berlin on 17-18 OCT 2023 focused on Reshaping the Future of Electronics. This event attracts 550-600 participants from all the world and offers a superb ambience and dynamic exhibition floor. To learn more visit https://www.techblick.com/electronicsreshaped To see feedback about previous event see https://www.techblick.com/events-agenda

In this article, we outline what you can expect in our upcoming LIVE (online) events. We introduce the event platform and describe the attendee-to-exhibitor as well as the attendee-to-attendee networking opportunities. We also include the upcoming talks and speakers. TechBlick is a year-round event series with over 350+ analyst selected live online presentations and 10+ masterclasses. With a single Annual Pass, members have access to its portal where they can join the LIVE monthly conferences, meet with sponsors live, network with fellow attendees and participate in speed networking, and watch past on-demand content from our library. Interactive Community-Centric Events Platform Click on the above link to watch a video explaining the features of the event platform. This is community centric platform. You can find and message all the other attendees. If you were attending a physical event, this would be the equivalent of being able to network with all the attendees! You can also share content on the Social Well, giving information about your latest innovations and/or commercial achievement, or asking the community for help or comments. You can also engage with other posts. Each attendee therefore has a voice in the community. You can browse on the Schedule to participate in any LIVE presentation. In the Q&A session, you can post your questions or engage with the other members of the community participating in the same talk. You can jump into any track and also effortlessly move between tracks. So no more running between rooms to catch parallel talks. If you miss a talk, don’t worry as you can watch it later on-demand in the same platform. Meet the exibitors LIVE via video calls You can meet the exhibitors LIVE and via video. Simply browse to their exhibitor page and click on the video link. If the exhibitor accepts your call, you will enter a 30-min video conversation. It is as simple as that so don’t be shy. Think of it as stopping by or stumbling across a booth to learn more, to satisfy your curiosity, or just to say hello to an old friend or partner. The conversations are totally private. Video-Based Round-Robin Speed Networking During our networking hours, all participants can enter our video-based speed-networking room. Here you will be matched at random with other participants. You will have 4 minutes of video conversation to introduce yourselves. If the conversation is going well, you can twice extend this period by two additional minutes. What is more is that after the networking session you will receive an email summarising whom you met so you can keep your contacts and keen in touch! Meet Our Speakers and Exhibitors During our LIVE events And Many More... Best-in-Class LIVE (online) presentation You can participate in the LIVE presentations. You can see a selection of our speakers below. Almost all presentations will be LIVE. Only a handful might be pre-recorded due to time zone differences. In each talk you can type in your questions in the Q&A chat session and our moderators will read out your questions to the speaker. You can also reach out to the speaker and to other members participating in the live talks. We look forward to showing you the platform, explaining more about the all-year-around concept and the community, and answers any questions that you might have. You are welcome to schedule a call with us. Schedule a Call (RoW) | Schedule a Call (North America) Our upcoming LIVE (online) conferences and exhibitions include:

During our networking hours, all participants can enter our video-based speed-networking room. Here you will be matched at random with other participants. You will have 4 minutes of video conversation to introduce yourselves. If the conversation is going well, you can twice extend this period by two additional minutes. What is more is that after the networking session you will receive an email summarising whom you met so you can keep your contacts and keen in touch! In another networking room, you will join with your own circle which contains your video. As you move your circle close to others, your voice grows louder so you can join conversations. This is akin to just joining a conversation or approaching someone in a physical world. Book a Demo You can book a demo with Dr Khasha Ghaffarzadeh (CEO) here or with Mr Tom Keenan (Customer Engagement Manager) here

Once you buy an annual pass you will have unlimited annual access to all our past events (on-demand) as well as future events (LIVE + on-demand). You will also be able to benefit from our past and upcoming masterclasses. Finally, you can engage and directly network with the community using platform.

We are publishing a series of four articles over the next three weeks, highlighting the depth and breadth of innovation as well as existing and emerging applications in the field. This article includes more 65 individual images and charts showcasing various innovations, techniques, and products. You can see the table of content for this article below. Table of Contents: MicroLED displays: the role of printed electronics Digital printing on 3D surfaces with µ-sized features Large-area LED lighting and printed electronics Low temperature soldering for Flexible Hybrid Electronics 3D Printed Electronics: Bringing intelligence to 3D surfaces 3D smart surfaces Skin patches and medical electronics Medical Electrodes: R2R volume screen printing Stretchable conductive inks for e-textiles All the innovations highlighted in these articles are from companies presenting or exhibiting at our upcoming event on 11-12 May 2021 on Printed, Hybrid, Structural, and 3D Electronics. For a given trend, we often highlight just one or two firms, but our past (now available on-demand) and future (LIVE, online) events feature all the key players worldwide. At TechBlick, each year we offer more than 350 hand-picked talks on emerging technologies including (1) printed, hybrid, and structural electronics and (2) advanced materials. With a single annual pass, you can participate in all our LIVE events online, truly mingle and network with the community online, and participate in our masterclasses. See how our networking and virtual mingling works here. We have assembled the best speaker line-up yet for our next LIVE conference on 11-12 May 2021, covering Printed, Hybrid, Structural, and 3D Electronics. Our programme features 65 speakers and and panelists including Coca Cola, P&G, Boeing, Airbus, HP, Signify, Texas Instruments, Panasonic, Parsons, ARM, Identiv, Wuerth, Phillips 66, US Army, Agfa and many more... This programme is co-located with our LIVE (online) conference focusing on "Quantum Dots: Material Innovations & Commercial Applications". Here, the speakers include Shoie Electronic Materials, Emberion, IMEC, SWIR Systems, Avantama, UbiQD, etc. You can see the full agenda here You can buy your annual pass for just 450 Euros per year using the 10% discount code 10%DiscountAA until 1 May 2021. Speakers Include: You can meet all our exhibitors at our show LIVE (see exhibitors below). They will be at their interactive virtual booths waiting for you to pop in. You can also hear all our speakers present and then follow up with them- as you would in a physical world- in highly-interactive networking lounge. MicroLED Displays: The Role of Printed Electronics Back to Contents A hot trend in the display industry is micro-LEDs. These displays are fantastic, but they are difficult to manufacture. Mirco-LEDs come in a variety of forms (see below) and can be used in different types of displays, ranging from small sized and micro displays all the way to very large-sized displays. The transfer process, as we shall see, is a major technical challenge and thus deservedly receive all the attention. One point that is often neglected though is how to metalize the actual substrates to connect the transferred micro LEDs? PVD is often used. This approach is tried-and-test but is subtractive. Furthermore, a via needs to be drilled through the mother glass substrate and filled to create a front-to-back connection. Companies are now proposing the use of screen printing. A great example from Applied Materials is shown below. Here, the connection lines can be screen printed using silver pastes. More importantly, the substrate can be robotically rotated so that the front-to-back conductive lines can also be printed on the edge of the substrate, thereby eliminating the need to drill and fill vias. Applied Materials is currently achieving a L/S (linewidth to spacing ratio) of 60/40 µm. The transfer process in microLED display is a major challenge. This is partly because microLEDs are very small. The image below highlights this point, comparing the size of microLEDs against all manners of items. To appreciate the scale of the transfer challenge, consider the chart below on the right. For an RGB microLED displays with three differently-colored LEDs, the main chart shows the number of failed dies for a given display resolution (number of transferred items) and transfer yield (example: a 4K display has 8,294,400 pixels and each pixel has 3 microLEDs thus the total LED number is some 24.8 Million). As shown in the inset, we need yields exceeding 99.99% otherwise the display is compromised. This is of course extremely hard to achieve, especially on aggregate yield across the whole process including metallization, transfer, bonding and so on and so forth. Digital Printing on 3D Surfaces With µ-Sized Features Back to Contents Achieving such stringent targets likely require some precision post-transfer repair mechanism. Digital ultra-precision printing on 3D (or non-smooth) surfaces can offer a promising repair tool. An example is shown below, by XTPL (Poland). They can digitally print few micrometer feature sizes using their own viscous silver nanoparticle ink. As can be seen in the image, in one example, they print 3.2 µm line with a spacing of just 0.7 µm. In the bottom right image, the printer is being applied to enable open defect repair in high resolution displays. This technology has an interesting performance positioning w.r.t to other additive printing processes such as inkjet, aerosol, electrohydrodynamic, and so on. In general, it exceeds the current resolution limits of inkjet and aerosol, and matches that of electrohydrodynamic but with a more viscous ink. This tool can be used in many applications including security printing, prototyping of redistribution layers, electronic packages, and many other applications. The theme of ultrahigh-resolution printing is strongly covered in our upcoming conference on 11-12 May 2021. The past and confirmed upcoming presenters on this topic include Kodak, Optomec, Enjet, XTPL, Applied Materials, NanoOps, IDS, etc. With an Annual Pass you can of course access past content from all our previous conferences Large-Area LED Lighting & Printed Alectronics Back to Contents Printed electronics can play a role in large-area LED lighting in multiple ways. First consider the example on the left below (by Kundisch GmbH). Here, printed circuitry or metallization is used to power the LEDs. The primary advantage of printed LEDs is that one can create customized patterns, thus granting a high degree of design freedom. Note that the printing can also take place on flexible PET substrates. The soldering is likely done manually unless one of the below-described emerging technologies is deployed. Furthermore, one can roll-to-roll (R2R) print the metallization and the component attach materials, and also R2R assemble the LEDs onto a flexible and conformable PET-like substrate. This can be an excellent production process for creating flexible conformable LED foils. This process has been around for several years, but is now gathering steam and momentum. A good example is the R2R metallized and assembled LED lighting foil by Holst Centre shown below. Here, all the functional layers are R2R printed and the LEDs are R2R transferred. Low Temperature Soldering for Flexible Hybrid Electronics Back to Contents Flexible Hybrid Electronics (FHE) requires low temperature soldering. There are two primary and important motivations: (1) to be able to solder SMD or dies onto PET substrates, enabling a transition from expensive PI in FPBCS to low-cost PET, and (2) to enable automated soldering on PET substrates (currently soldering on PET is often done manually to accurately control temperature profile). Multiple approaches have emerged, or are emerging, to enable this transition. NovaCentrix is proposing photo-sintering. Here, the joints are exposed to a short millisecond pulse of wide spectrum light to cause the solder to reflow. You can various examples of applications or close-ups of photo-sintered solders below. In this arrangement, the printed thin films on the surface of the substrate experience elevated temperatures, but not the substrate itself, enabling soldering on PET and similar substrates. If the sintering profile is optimized, this process can take place in a matter of milliseconds, potentially making it compatible with R2R high-throughput processes, thus removing one of the major bottlenecks of R2R printed FHE production. Several companies are also offering and/or developing low-temperature solders. Safi-Tech has developed SAC305 microcapsule solders that can be applied onto PET at just 120C. An example is shown below and the schematic on the bottom right describes the microcapsule concept. The great feature of solder – vs conductive adhesives- is the automatic self-alignment which lowers the burden of precision pick-and-place. Safi-Tech is a spin off from Iowa State University, which was the birthplace of SAC305. Alpha Assembly is another great example. They have developed a sub-150C solder compatible with heat-stabilized PET. The chemistry is not disclosed, but it is likely SnIn based. The images below show an example of a circuit assembly on a flexible white PET substrate. The reflow temperature remains below 145C in this case. The project was a collaboration between Alpha Assembly, Sheldahl, and DuPont Teijin Films, and clearly highlights the possibilities that this technologies offers. Of course, conductive adhesives remain a strong choice. The filler is often the main cost driver. We highlight one innovation here by CondAlign that can drive down filler content whilst not compromising performance such as z-axis conductivity. Here, CondAlign deploys electric fields to vertically align the particles to create anisotropic conductive films. The process is shown below in two snapshots taken during a real filler alignment process. CondAlign has now made production process R2R (see their machine below), whilst retaining sub-10 µm pitches in a wide range of film thickness (from a few to some hundreds of µm). The theme of flexible hybrid electronics is strongly covered in our upcoming conference on 11-12 May 2021. The past and confirmed upcoming presenters on the topic include ARM, Identiv, Parsons, Smooth&Sharp, GE Research, Jabil, American Semiconductor, Texas Instruments, Panasonic, DuPoint Teijin Films, NovaCentrix, Alpha Assembly, CondAlign, Safi-Tech, CPI, Sheldahl, CEA, and more 3D Printed Electronics:Bringing Intelligence to 3D Surfaces Back to Contents 3D Printed Electronics is a very active area. One can divide it into two-sub areas: (1) electronics add to or near the surface of a 3D object, and (2) true 3D printed electronics combining classical 3D printing with printed electronics. The top row below shows examples of the first approach. Here, we can see 3D shaped antennas, heaters, lighting and HMIs, and even a medical device. The second row shows examples of the second approach. Here, the conductive lines as well as the SMD are embedded within the 3D structure of a complex 3D shape which is built up layer-by-layer using classical 3D printing. This approach allows one to really bring intelligence to 3D printing. Thus, instead of just creating dump mechanical objects, one could integrate also the electronics inside the 3D printed object. If one puts in place a seamless design-to-production process, it could open many fantastic opportunities. This is a major theme of our upcoming conference on Printed, Hybrid, Structural, and 3D Electronics conference on 11-12 May 2021. The past (now available on-demand) and upcoming speakers on this topic include HP, Signify, Wuerth, Neotech, NanoDimension, LPKF, and others. 3D Smart Surfaces Back to Contents 3D shaped smart surfaces are on exciting theme. The applications range from metallization of 3D surfaces at antenna or electronic package level to large-sized interior or exterior automotive parts. In the image below, we highlight various examples of large-sized 3D-shaped smart surfaces aimed at vehicle interiors. The underlying technologies highlighted below are diverse, including stretchable sensors, electronic textiles, transfer molding, and in-mold electronics. Of particular interest are the in-mold electronics (IME) technique and other similar technologies. These technologies typically have a functional layer composed of multiple printed layers. The functional film then somehow 3D formed and in some cases overmolded. Here you can see two examples of InMold Electronics (or structural electronics) which I wish to highlight. The one on the left is a prototype by Greely. Here, the seat adjustor is transitioned from a classical to an IME design, reducing parts from 45 to 1, tools to 20 to 2, weight from 185g to 25g, and thickness from 38mm to 3mm. The latter is an important figure-of-merit because it opens space for other functionalities. The image on the right is an example from Suunto. Here, the smart connector is made using IME. The process steps are shown below. The design passed design verification requirements including -20-to-60C operating temperature, 50 machine cycles @40C, 5000 30-degree twists and 90-degree flexes, heat press, and so on. The smart layer here was simple including only a simple memory and a resistance plus various conducive lines. However, the complexity of IME technology will in time rise. Of particular interest will be the integration of lighting components. This is a major theme of our upcoming conference on Printed, Hybrid, Structural, and 3D Electronics conference on 11-12 May 2021. The past (now available on-demand) and upcoming speakers on this topic include Geely, FIAT, Suunto, LightWorks GmbH, Arburg, DuPont, PolyIC, TactoTek, Kimoto, etc. Skin Patches & Medical Electronics Back to Contents A hot area in printed flexible electronics is in medical electrodes and there are many applications. Electronic skin patches for continuous health care monitoring has become extremely hot as we transition from a standard blood-based glucose sampling to continuous glucose monitoring and to all types of continuous vital signs monitoring, e.g., heart rate monitoring etc. Continuous vital signs monitoring is a multi-billion-dollar market already. Printing can really play a role here. The example I want to highlight here is the development by Holst Center who have developed a full solution. This is a clinical grade disposable patch with reusable electronics, with a dry electrode, etc. The dry electrode includes printed metallization allowing one to measure EKG, respiration, and temperature. Another highlighted example (right image below) is from Screentec Oy. Here one can see a medical electrode with integrated SMTs on the top. And the bottom right picture is an example of a screen printed sensor which can detect skeletal muscle activities. You can also see an example by Jabil, one of the largest contract manufacturers worldwide. Here, the actual measurement electronics can be printed using Ag/AgCl electrodes on the back side of the PCB. Printing allows one more freedom in where the electrodes are placed. Medical Electrodes: R2R Volume Screen Printing Back to Contents Printing of medical electronics is in fact already a major business. The example below is from Mekprint (Denmark). The example you see on the right below is a R2R screen printed ECG electrode. And this application has a volume sale of more than one hundred million units per year. Another highlighted example on the left below is an incontinence sensor. It is again R2R screen printed. Interestingly, here conductive cable lines are actually R2R printed on a stretchable non-woven material. This too is a commercial application. Here too, the printed sensor is part of a full solution, including the rigid electronics, the communications and so on and so forth. In general, printed electronics is playing a major role in electronic skin patches, medical electrodes, and similar fields. It is already a success story. Stretchable Conductive Inks for E-Textiles Back to Contents The overlap between electronic textiles and the printed electronics is often the printing of the interconnects or the printing of the stretch sensors. In the early days, maybe four or five years ago, companies started to bring out the first generation of conductive stretchable inks. There has been much progress since on improving the performance of these inks. Today, companies are not just offering stretchable conductive inks, but they are offering the full portfolio of stretchable inks needed to create an electronic textiles. This includes the stretchable silver inks, the carbon inks, the dielectric ink, the conductive adhesive, and so on. The highlighted example in this newsletter is from Nagase. Here, the silver ink can be stretched by 100 percent. The chat in the middle shows the properties of the stretchable conductive adhesive, which can be stretched up to 30 percent with very little hysteresis. The adhesive can be cured at 180C. The chart on the bottom right shows that a full stack is needed to improve washability. Here, the resistivity of a line made out of printed Ag alone is lower, but the stacked version (silver + carbon + dielectric) offer more washability. Here, the stacked version experiences little performance changes after 100 washing cycles- an important milestone for e-textiles. We have a full conference dedicated to Skin Patches, E-Textiles, and Stretchable Electronics in early Sept as part of the TechBlick series. We will bring you all the key end users, manufacturers, and material innovators. If you sign up for an Annual Pass you will also have access to that upcoming events. Conference agenda (1) Printed, Hybrid, Structural & 3D Electronics (2) Quantum Dots: Material Innovations & Commercial Applications A detailed overview of the platform including LIVE exhibitions How Does a Virtual Booth Work? How Does Real-Time Networking Work? How does speed networking work online?

AMOLED: from TFE to printed RGB emitters QLED: from enhancement film to OLED-QLED to AMQLED Precision and repair MicroLEDs: printed in every step of the process from wafer onwards Waveguides for AR/VR displays Fully printed R2R low-cost display In this article, I will show you how different types of printing are impacting, and will impact, various display technologies including AMOLED, AMQLED, microLEDs, electrochromic, and beyond. Many of the innovations and trends highlighted below will be part of TechBlick’s unique upcoming LIVE(online) conference and tradeshow on Innovations in Displays and Lighting taking place on 14-16 July. Add the date to your Calendar: Google Calendar | Microsoft Outlook Calendar | Office 365 Calendar | Yahoo Calendar At this conference, we bring together hand-picked speakers, each representing an important innovation trend in display material development, microLEDs, flexible displays, AR/VR, large-area lighting, printed displays, and beyond. The speaker line-up includes Dolby, Volvo, Google, Microsoft, GE Research, IBM, Parc (Xerox), Lamar Advertising, Nanosys, VueReal, PlayNitride, Royole, Applied Materials, Universal Display Corp, Morphotonics, Avantama, Enjet, Optomec, Kent Display, DSCC, Yole, Fraunhofer IAP, Nanosys, Schott, Ten Flecs, Metamaterials, iBeam Materials Heilo, imec, C3Nano, Pixelligent, TNO/Holst, XTPL, Scrona, Inuru, OTI Lumionics, QustomDot, Quantum Solutions, etc. See full agenda here The events are very interactive. Don’t take our word for it and read the testimonials here! With a single Annual Pass, one can participate in this event and all LIVE (online) future events at TechBlick for 12 months. Furthermore, one can access TechBlick’s growing library of on-demand talks from its past events. AMOLED: from TFE to printed RGB emitters Inkjet printed has already been commercialized in OLED displays. It is used in the deposition of the organic layer in multi-layer thin-film encapsulation. Here, inkjet printed organics act as buffer layers separating PECVD-deposited inorganic layers. This is shown below. This is already an incumbent process. Example of inkjet printed and UV cured organic buffer layers in multi-later thin film encapsulation. Image is from Kateeva 2017 The printing of the emissive RGB layers are more challenging. The technology has been in development for at least 20 years. Indeed, solution processed OLED materials have come a long way in their twenty years of developments. Today, both polymeric and small molecule solution-processed materials show performance level that is almost on a per with evaporated ones. The three benchmarking charts- update as of Q1 2021- benchmark the performance levels for printed red, green, and blue vs evaporated versions. Here both small molecule and polymeric materials system from the leading suppliers are included. We can see that the performance gaps are now largely bridged, especially for red and green, paving the way for adoption without too much performance penalty. The lifetime, especially blue, perhaps need further refinement. The charts compare printed OLED performance vs evaporated materials (as of Q1 2021). Note that for blue we did not include a reference evaporated material as it is difficult to compare because of exact color coordinates. Instead, we included the bottom right chart. This chart is from 2020 (Samsung) and compares evaporated vs printed blue whilst factoring in color coordinates. Here, TE and BE denote top and bottom emission, respectively. To hear more about all key innovation trends in displays and lighting join the TechBlick’s LIVE(online) event with an Annual Pass between 14-16 July. The printing machinery and process know-how have also come a long way. The image below simply showcases some examples of inkjet printed OLED displays. There are improvements both in size and PPI. These trends will continue. Indeed, some manufacturing have been in mass production mode for 21.6”inch displays since 2018. There will be more to come. Note that additive deposition is not limited just to inkjet printing and solution processed materials. UDC (Universal Display Corp) has an interesting approach of vapor jetting evaporated OLED materials, thus achieving additive manufacture whilst keeping the performance of evaporated materials. This is a fully evaporated additive side-by-side RGB deposition with performance of evaporated material and a route to Gen10 scale up. This is from UDC. To hear more about all key innovation trends in displays and lighting join the TechBlick’s LIVE(online) event with an Annual Pass between 14-16 July. UDC will also present this technology together with their latest material developments. QLED: from enhancement film to OLED-QLED to AMQLED Quantum Dots (QDs) are a major success story. As color converters, they deliver value to LCD, OLED, and microLED displays. They widen the color gamut of LCD, enabling them to remain performance competitive against OLEDs. They can be used on blue OLEDs to achieve WCG large-area partially printed displays with excellent contrast. In microLEDs, they enable achieving RGB using small-sized blue LEDs. In addition, there is the use of QLEDs in truly emissive QD-based displays. The main application remains LCDs today. Here, the current dominant mode of integration in displays remains the enhancement mode film. I mention this here because the QD-filled resins are R2R coated. An example is shown below. R2R slot die coated QD resin enhancement films for expanding the color gamut of LCDs. To hear more about all key innovation trends in displays and lighting join the TechBlick’s LIVE(online) event with an Annual Pass between 14-16 July. In the quantum dot and narrowband phosphor field, you can hear from the following companies: Nanosys, GE Research, Avantama, Heilo Materials, Fraunhofer IAP, Emberion, QustomDots, Quantom Solutions, etc QDs can of course be used as color filters/color convertors both on LCDs and OLEDs. The integration with OLEDs is particularly interesting. One approach is to deposit a continuous blue layer stack (or multiple blue layer stacks to divide up the voltage and thus prolong lifetime). To get red and green, narrowband quantum dots (QDs) can then be inkjet printed on each pixel, acting as a color filter/color converter. This approach is promising because it allows achieving fully emissive, printed, and large area displays with excellent color gamut and contrast. This approach is actively pursued by Samsung (seeking to find a way to bring OLED and emissive display to larger areas) and multiple other firms. There is significant multi-billion dollar investment in this approach. This approach is also interesting because it provides excellent learnings on the way towards the future fully printed AMQLED. Emissive QLED materials are at a relatively early stage of development, but they promise to be the ultimate form of display: inkjet printed, large area, emissive, high EQE, high contract, thin, WCG, etc. The technology development is of course not straightforward. The non-Cd containing QDs need to improve the EQE and lifetime, better blue compositions need to be formulated, the entire stack materials including transport layers need to be developed and optimized, suitable device architecture developed, and finally an active-matrix mass production process that goes beyond spin coating. There is rapid progress here and it is not my purpose to detail all the developments. Just to show the complexity level, I showcase the example below from BOE, which is a 55-inch fully inkjet printed AMQLED (May 2021). This is an IJP 55-inch AMQLED by BOE. The EQE and other performance data were reported only for spin coated QLED device and not IJP AMQLED. To hear more about all key innovation trends in displays and lighting join the TechBlick’s LIVE(online) event with an Annual Pass between 14-16 July. In the quantum dot and narrowband phosphor field, you can hear from the following companies: Nanosys, GE Research, Avantama, Heilo Materials, Fraunhofer IAP, Emberion, QustomDots, Quantom Solutions, etc. Precision and repair Digital printing is evolving well beyond inkjet. Indeed, emerging approaches enhance the printing resolution to the sub-micron range and/or enable deposition on non-flat surfaces. These electrohydrodynamic (single or multi-head), aerosol, and/or micro-dispensing technologies can have many potential applications in the display industry. The example below shows how micro-dispensing can be deployed to repair open defects on a complex non-flat AMOLED surface. Another example below shows how this process, or version with multiple EHD print heads, can deposit the attach materials for placement of ever smaller microLEDs. Two examples of how precision digital printing can be used in OLED and microLED display. These examples are from XTPL using their microdispensing machine and their highly viscous silver nanoinks. To hear more about all key innovation trends in displays and lighting join the TechBlick’s LIVE(online) event with an Annual Pass between 14-16 July. In the precision digital printing field you can hear from Optomec, Enjet, XTPL, Scrona, and more. MicroLEDs: printed in every step of the process from wafer onwards MicroLEDs remain a topic of intense interest in the industry. I want to showcase how printing and R2R can deliver value here. One of the main challenge in microLED fabrication is a high-yield (>>99.99%) and high-throughput transfer process. Many approaches have been developed. Some interesting techniques involve some form of printing (stamp transfer, R2R, etc). Here, I only highlight two interesting approaches. The first is from VueReal who is developing a cartridge-based approach. The process is shown below. Here, the donor substrate containing the microchips is brought into contact with the receiver substrate. The two substrates are then aligned before the transfer takes place. There is a need to apply some force mechanism to overcome the force keeping the micro chips attached to the donor substrates. It is not clear whether this is mechanical, heat adhesive (based on material added to receiving substrate), or a combination thereof. Schematic outline of the process steps involved in VueReal’s cartridge-based printed microLED approach. To hear more about all key innovation trends in displays and lighting join the TechBlick’s LIVE(online) event with an Annual Pass between 14-16 July. Regarding MicroLED innovation, you can hear from Intel, PlayNitride, VueReal, iBeam, Parc, Imec, Applied Materials, and others. Another interesting, earlier stage, development is by Parc, a Xerox company. The idea is based upon xerographic printing. Here, micro chips such as micro GaN LEDs are suspended in a solution. They are then cast onto an active-matrix substrate controlling a 2D array of electrodes which generate electrostatic force to spatially move the individual chips under the gaze of a camera. The assembled microchips are then transferred using a roller onto the final target substrate. The 2021 demonstrator is still small size (2.5 x 2.5 cm) on 50um LEDs with no yield data. The assembly process is achieved using a projector addressing a photoswitch array. The assembly process, from mass disordered deposition from liquid to final alignment, is shown below. Currently it is too slow, but an order of magnitude improvement can make it competitive. The process has interesting development potential as it does not require any special microchip structure. The alignment and positioning is also software controlled, thus allowing arbitrary and complex shapes. The microprinter process being developed at Parc based on the idea of xerographic printing. To hear more about all key innovation trends in displays and lighting join the TechBlick’s LIVE(online) event with an Annual Pass between 14-16 July. Regarding MicroLED innovation, you can hear from Intel, PlayNitride, VueReal, iBeam, Parc, Imec, Applied Materials, and others The transfer step has been receiving substantial attention in recent years. There are many other critical steps in microLED production too. I mention this because printing and conductive inks can play important roles in some of these steps too. The example below, by Applied Materials, show various examples. Screen printing can be used to print conductive pastes to fill vias. It can be used to print fine-line electrodes between the front and backplanes. Furthermore, it can also print wrap-around electrodes, connecting the microLEDs with the driver IC. Finally, it can print various adhesives (solder, ECA, etc) for the placement and bonding of micro LEDs. The above images are from Applied Materials. They show how advanced fine-line screen printing can play a role in microLED fabrication. Screen printing can, without requiring a vacuum-based PVD process and etching, print fine-line electrodes and interconnects, create wrap-around electronics, fill vias, and even place attach materials. To hear more about all key innovation trends in displays and lighting join the TechBlick’s LIVE(online) event with an Annual Pass between 14-16 July. Regarding MicroLED innovation, you can hear from Intel, PlayNitride, VueReal, iBeam, Parc, Imec, Applied Materials, and others. There are many incredible innovations in the microLED field. Another one that we wish to highlight is in creating a method to assemble large-area microLED displays from tape-on-reel approach. This is shown below. Here, the microLEDs are first transferred into a larger panel and are then cut into smaller tiles. The tiles undergo an inspection step and the black filling material is added to enhance contrast. The titles are then added onto a reel, creating a tape-on-reel approach enabling the construction of large microLED displays using a SMT-like process! This is a very interesting innovation in the field by PlayNitride. These images show the steps needed to create a reel-on-tape approach to large-area microLED displays. This innovation is by PlayNitride. To hear more about all key innovation trends in displays and lighting join the TechBlick’s LIVE(online) event with an Annual Pass between 14-16 July. Waveguides for AR/VR displays There are many other uses of printing or R2R/R2P in the display industry. Another use case is in R2P (roll-to-plate) nanoimprinting for creating in- and out-coupling features for AV/VR glasses. Such in- or out-couplings can be made on 300mm wafers, but the throughput is low. With R2P nanoimprinting the throughput may be substantially extended. An interesting approach is by Morphotonics. Here, they tile together their nanoimprint stamps to create a Gen 5 R2P nanoimprinting line able to achieve sub-micron features and 480 eyepieces per imprint cycle. The R2P nanoimprint process requires solvent-free resins with high refractive index. Here, for example, zirconia and titania based formulations by Pixelligent can result in resin with a refractive index of 1.857. A tiling approach can result in Gen5 R2P nanoimprint tool with integrated UV curing to achieve nano or sub-microfeatures with replication fidelity. The images above are from Morphotonics .To hear more about all key innovation trends in displays and lighting join the TechBlick’s LIVE(online) event with an Annual Pass between 14-16 July. Regarding nanoimprinting, you can hear from the leading innovators such as Meta, Morphotonics, and Pixelligent. Nanoimprinting can have many uses cases in displays also beyond AR/VR. One example is in development of highly transparent and high conducting metal mesh transparent conductive films. One example is from Meta (Metamaterials) Inc. They have a rolling lithography system. Here, the UV light is wrapped within a soft rolled-up mask. The rolling nanolithography is used to create sub-micron exposures on a photoresist coated metal substrate. The photoresist is then etched, creating extremely high-resolution metal mesh. The schematic at bottom left shows the idea of a rolling UV nanolithography by Meta (Metamaterials) Inc. The images on top left shows ultra fine feature metal mesh. The benchmarking chart shows that this process can create ultra transparent and highly conductive films. Currently the web width is 300mm but could be scaled to 1-1.2m. Fully printed R2R low-cost displays Printing plays a role also in simple (i.e., segmented) low-cost high-volume displays with applications in smart packaging and beyond. One example is in R2R printed electrochromic displays. A leading player here is Ynvisible. The image set on the left below shows snapshots of full R2R line (printer and converting). This level of automated R2R production is a real progress in the field. The images on the right images show some application examples. There are numerous applications in smart packaging, IoT sensors, low-cost ubiquitous indicators, etc. We have leveraged our 15 years of insights into the field of displays and lighting to handpick a fantastic line-up of speakers. At TechBlick’s next LIVE (online) event you will hear about all the key innovation trends from the most innovative companies. With a single Annual Pass, one can participate in this event and all LIVE (online) future events at TechBlick for 12 months. Furthermore, one can access TechBlick’s growing library of on-demand talks from its past events. The events are very interactive. Don’t take our word for it and read the testimonials here! The speaker line-up includes Dolby, Volvo, Google, Microsoft, GE Research, IBM, Parc (Xerox), Lamar Advertising, Nanosys, VueReal, PlayNitride, Royole, Applied Materials, Universal Display Corp, Morphotonics, Avantama, Enjet, Optomec, Kent Display, DSCC, Yole, Fraunhofer IAP, Nanosys, Schott, Ten Flecs, Metamaterials, iBeam Materials Heilo, imec, C3Nano, Pixelligent, TNO/Holst, XTPL, Scrona, Inuru, OTI Lumionics, QustomDot, Quantum Solutions, etc