Dr Lee and Dr Kim (3rd and 4th from left) together with members from US Display Consortium

In Nov 2007, the flagship team together with members from ETPL, IMRE and SIMTech embarked on printed electronics fact-finding trip, visiting 13 companies in the US and Europe. On route, the team also attended the Printed Electronics USA Conference & Exhibition. In San Francisco. A number of companies specializing in Organic LED (OLED) are interested in the development of the blue phosphorescent material for OLED lighting application. Gathering much industry interest is IMRE’s Blue emitting materials and ITO technologies. In the photovoltaics industry, a significant number of players in the photovoltaics industry are searching for solutions in extending the panel lifespan. These companies are looking forward to testing out the “High performance, flexible barrier substrate” from IMRE.”

At the Printed Electronics USA 2007, the market impact of inorganic electronics was clearly felt, with the technology being commercialized in many different ways, from displays to photovoltaics, and often used in conjunction with organic electronic devices. IDTechEx forecasted the Printed Electronics market to grow to $300 billion by 2027.

"It's like making waffles using a waffle iron!" pipped Dr Low Hong Yee, the research scientist overseeing nanoimprint programme at IMRE. Nanoimprint lithography (NIL) is a simple low cost high resolution technique used in making nanostructure patterns, which form the basis of electronic circuitry, advanced photonics and fluidic devices. Developments in applications to maximize the light extraction on light emitting diodes (LEDs), improvement of anti-reflective lens, as well as the push towards one terabit on patterned media, have created much buzz in Japan. The key advantage of NIL lies in its potential as a less expensive fabrication tool for nanostructure patterning compared to current optical techniques" explained Dr Low. Following the fact finding trip to Japan by the NIL team from ETPL, IMRE and SIMTech, the NIL flagship project was approved by ETPL EXCO today.