European Research and Development in Hybrid Flexible Electronics
Abstract
The increasing miniaturization and complexity of emerging electronics products and systems brings many technical challenges but also excellent promise for improving capabilities and reducing costs through printing-like manufacturing processes and through combining of functionalities in what are called hybrid flexible electronics systems. Important application areas include energy, consumer electronics, healthcare, communications, and national defense. This report is a review of hybrid flexible electronics research and development activities in Western Europe, conducted by a panel of leading U.S. experts in the field, as a window to view what opportunities and challenges exist for U.S. researchers, educators, and manufacturers in this highly interdisciplinary field. The report covers materials development, device challenges, systems opportunities, and processing and manufacturing topics. It also includes a section that reviews several of the large European innovation centers that are bringing a multidisciplinary and practical commercial focus to R&D in the field. The report details the strengths of the basic research being conducted in Europe and the vitality of the close partnerships between university groups, basic research laboratories, industry, and innovation centers, sustained by sizeable research grants that specifically promote such interactions and efficiently support development. Appendix C summarizes the results of the WTEC bibliometric study of world research in hybrid flexible electronics, 1994?2008, which includes a view of the status of R&D in this field in Asia as well as in Europe and the United States.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 01, 2010
- Accession Number
- ADA532818
Entities
People
- Ana Claudia Arias
- Ananth Dodabalapur
- C. D. Frisbie
- Colin Wood
- Daniel Gamota
- Tobin J. Marks