From innovation to commercialisation in Printable Electronics

From innovation to commercialisation in Printable Electronics

About CPI

The Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) is a technology innovation centre that uses market knowledge and technology understanding to develop and prototype products and processes, quickly and efficiently, with minimal risk to its public and private sector partners.

CPI’s unique assets allow our partners to test, develop and prove their products and processes cost effectively.

CPI bridges the innovation space between the discovery of an idea and the delivery of a product or service to the commercial market. In technology readiness levels CPI works from level 4 to level 7. Typically universities work in level 1 to 3 and commercial businesses at level 8 and 9. The company works in the following technology areas:

Printable Electronics

Anaerobic Digestion

Industrial Biotechnology

The Anaerobic Digestion Development Centre is designed to assess a wide range of waste-to-energy processes in single or mixed streams. It has a range of pre-treatment, digestion and post-treatment technologies that are rapidly reconfigurable to allow the development of novel and improved anaerobic digestion processes.

The National Industrial Biotechnology Facility is designed to help companies of all sizes develop biotechnology based products and processes quickly and cost-effectively. The facility explores alternatives to traditional chemical processing techniques to create cleaner and more sustainable manufacturing processes. Our facility is equipped to take your process from lab-scale to 10,000 litre.

The National Printable Electronics Centre is a design, development and prototyping facility for the emerging printable electronics industry. Our mission is to work with clients to bring new printable electronics products and processes to market quickly and efficiently, by offering facilities and expertise that help reduce the level of R&D risk and capital investment, while speeding up time to market.

Smart Chemistry

Thermal Technologies Centre

Sustainable Engineering

A joint venture with TATA Steel, the Thermal Technologies Centre carries out development and innovation to provide novel sources of fuel and energy, the recovery of raw materials and reductions in wastes produced.

CPI’s Sustainable Engineering group has unique experience that can be applied to your organisation to help reduce technology risk by examining engineering, science, economics and the whole supply chain. In this way, processes can be improved to become cleaner, greener and more sustainable.

Our Smart Chemistry facility applies novel technologies to deliver innovative solutions to traditional chemical industry challenges. The extensive combination of equipment at the facility is supported by our team’s knowledge of whole process design and a fundamental understanding of continuous processing.

The National Printable Electronics CentreCPI’s National Printable Electronics Centre is a design, development and prototyping facility for the printable electronics industry. Our mission is to work with clients to bring new electronics products and processes to market quickly and efficiently by offering facilities and expertise that help clients reduce R&D risk and capital investment while speeding up time to market.

Product, Process, and Application DevelopmentFor organisations looking to prove and prototype their products and processes at development up to pre-production scale, CPI provides access to expert technical staff and state of the art printable electronics equipment and materials, with the option of commercial support from industry experts to assist with applications development and commercialisation.

Facilities and MaterialsTaking advantage of the centre’s advanced deposition, patterning and printing equipment leads to faster, more efficient product development and process improvement, enabling clients to deliver their printable electronics projects efficiently, and enter new markets quickly and with minimal risk. The centre can accelerate new product development by providing access to conducting, semiconductor, resistive materials and inks of proven technical performance.

PartnershipsCPI provides contract R&D support and strategic partnerships to assist clients in achieving their technological targets. Our teams of experienced commercial and scientific staff can help bring your new product developments to market quickly and economically.

To view an interactive tour of our facilities visit:

www.uk-cpi.com/printable-electronics/facilities

The National Printable Electronics Centre includes:

• 1300m2+ of cleanroom (class 1000 and class 100), and associated laboratory space

• 300mm wide R2R wet coating prototyping and processing facility in class 1000 cleanroom

• Full lithography and subtractive patterning suite (e.g. plasma etch) to enable conventional prototyping and feasibility studies

• Additive patterning equipment e.g. Litrex and Dimatix IJ printers and Optomec Aerosol jet printer

• Batch and continuous sputter coating in class 1000 environment, for both metal and metal oxide deposition up to 400mm web and at a maximum speed of 20m/min

• Fully equipped materials preparation and formulation lab with associated characterisation instrumentation: rheometry, thermal properties (DSC, TGA), FTIR, surface energy

• State of the art measurement and characterisation equipment: CCI surface profilometer, Kelvin probe, semi auto probe station, OLED SSL test suite, SEM and AFM, all collated via customized informatics software.

• Integrated Smart Systems line with the capability to perform flexo, gravure, offset litho, rotary screen printing processes alongside cut/crease operations and pick and place technology.

• Atomic Layer Deposition facility for conformal high-integrity coatings

• Larger scale process development toolsets based on robot handling with cassette to cassette based transfers:

• Large-area high-resolution coating for OSSL and PV applications

• Industry compatible coat-bake-develop and dry and wet-etch cluster tools

• In line sputter coating

• UV stepper exposure tool

• CD and overlay measurement

Services

CPI offers a range of cost effective client services for customers seeking to develop new printable electronics products and processes.

Prototyping and Scale UpPrototyping a new product in a high technology field involves significant investments in both capital and development time to establish capability and experience.

To reduce the need for large scale equipment investment, the centre can help you to prove and prototype your product or process at minimal cost by providing access to advanced processing facilities, and state of the art materials and inks, managed by printable electronics experts

FabricationThe centre’s core competency is the fabrication of prototype devices or subsystems using novel printable materials deposited onto rigid or flexible substrates.

The centre houses a wide range of fabrication tools that allow the development of a variety of thin film devices. The equipment set is a mixture of conventional and novel process tools. This allows fabrication routes for products to be developed at high yield which simulate established and new manufacturing procedures. In addition new materials and new coating or printing processes can be easily validated at pilot line scale.

Support from CPI’s scientists are a vital component in developing new device processes as they possess extensive thin film electronics experience in a diversity of areas. These expertise includes organic materials development, Organic TFT (OTFT) backplane fabrication for flat panel displays, Organic Photovoltaic (OPV) materials and processes, processes for OLED or Solid State Lighting (SSL), Integrated Smart Systems (ISS), and barrier and encapsulation technologies.

Commercialisation SupportCPI can offer targeted business support services for client companies including SME’S wishing to develop new products and access new markets. These support services – delivered by highly-experienced specialists – will help provide clients with solutions to specific issues within the printable electronics industry. Options for customised training programmes are also available.

CPI can also offer dedicated and customised consultancy to organisations looking to develop PE technology and applications at scale.

Incubator SpaceCPI offers incubator space both within or outside the laboratory and pilot facility. Our facility includes offices for 3-12 staff which can be rented on a month by month contract or via temporary hot desking available on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.

Being part of our internationally recognised centre will quickly embed your organisation into our established supply chain network.

Technologies

CPI has brought together state of the art equipment alongside industry experts in key technology areas related to printable electronics. We provide flexible and integrated technology platforms to address the needs of this emerging industry:

Organic Semiconductors and Organic Thin Film TransistorsCPI is a recognised international force in the development of Organic Semiconductor (OSC) technologies including Organic Thin Film Transistors (OTFT) backplanes and associated materials formulation. In addition to its importance for rigid substrates, this technology also has great potential for integration into low temperature manufacturing processes suitable for low cost flexible substrates. CPI OTFT technology can be tailored to meet the drive requirements of a variety of display front plane modes including OLED, LCD and e-paper.

Printing and CoatingPrintable electronics is a means to achieving lower cost, more sustainable technology to manufacture tomorrow’s electronic products today. Projected world sales of $100s of billions by 2025* demonstrates the potential size of the market opportunities for printable electronics. Key components for delivering technology required to capitalise on the many PE opportunities are flexible substrates with adequate barrier properties and either vacuum or solution processable materials.

CPI’s National Printable Electronics Centre includes a Class 1000 Clean Room housing a Roll-to-Roll Vacuum Sputter Coater and facilities for developing and testing the properties of barrier films made by depositing coatings onto plastic substrates. For deposition of solution processable materials we have a range of coating and printing equipment including slot die, flexo and inkjet.

Recent innovations and developments at the facility have included tailored substrates for use in the manufacture of flexible photovoltaic cells (solar panels), thin film transistor driven displays, and energy efficient solid state OLED lighting.

*Source: IDTechEx

Technologies (cont.)

Barrier DevelopmentCPI operate a pilot scale roll-to-roll vacuum sputter coater capable of handling films with width up to 400mm and thickness in the range 12-250um. The coater has a capacity of up to 2000m of filmic material per run, depending upon the film thickness. We are experienced in laying down layers of metals or oxides using either direct or indirect sputtering techniques. The sputter coater, with three coating stations, also has the capability of depositing mixed oxide or oxy-nitride materials.

Virtually all applications in printable electronics, from OLEDs through to solid state lighting and photovoltaics require a thin film barrier or encapsulation coating to protect the underlying electronic components from prolonged exposure to moisture and air. While it is understood that an inorganic or organic coating alone is unlikely to deliver the levels of barrier necessary for commercially viable products. CPI collaborates with customers and suppliers alike to help develop hybrid inorganic- organic film stacks with the objective of meeting target performance required for many organic electronics applications (from 1x 10-4- 10-6). Consequently there is a growing client need for access to CPI’s pilot scale sputter equipment for development of optimum barriers to satisfy the needs of different market sectors within the printable electronics industry.

Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD)CPI has been developing ALD processes and applications for the last several years. The expertise developed in various application areas has led to the succesful participation in a range of commercial and collaborative projects. Based in a dedicated clean room CPI operates an Oxford Instruments FlexALR tool to deposit ALD films on parts up to 200mm in diameter. Work is currently focused on using ALD oxides to achieve high moisture and oxygen barrier layers on polymer substrates for encapsulatnts in the developing photovoltaic, OLED lighting and display applications, including flexible devices. Further interests in CPI are directing development work into roll-to-roll (R2R) ALD processing to pilot scale. The barrier work is supported by extensive in-house analytical capability and moisture permeation measurement equipment.

The ALD facility is available to customers for their R&D projects or for CPI to provide coatings on suitable customer-supplied parts. CPI offers its established ALD equipment as a customised coating service and potential for collaborative projects.

Markets

CPI addresses four main markets in which the application of printable electronics is projected to develop significant commercial revenues. Our combination of state of the art facilities coupled with experienced commercial and technical teams enable us to develop practical solutions for clients operating in these key market sectors.

DisplaysCPI enables the development of novel active matrix backplanes, which can be applied to a range of display modes including LCD, OLED and E-Paper devices. Deposition and patterning of the latest solution processable organic semiconductor and selected inorganic thin film materials enable a wide selection of different materials (semiconductors, dielectrics, conductors) to be processed in a continuous manner to minimise product and process costs.

In addition CPI employs highly skilled staff with a strong background in R&D and manufacturing in a variety of electronics technology areas including organic materials development, processing, and flexible display fabrication. Together, this combination guarantees the successful delivery of a full spectrum of printable electronics technology for displays.

PhotovoltaicsCPI is able to offer development capability in a range of thin film photovoltaic technologies, including processing of organic and inorganic materials for a range of renewable energy applications. Current developments include deposition of tailored conductor layers on substrates and the development of effective barrier layers which protect photovoltaic cells from the elements to ensure many years of lifetime.

CPI has completed contract R&D programmes in the area of barrier development and other active layers in flexible solar cells. These programmes focused on scaling up to large area to prove the manufacturability of these new low cost technologies.

As the technology progresses through fundamental research CPI is well placed to translate these advanced technologies into scalable manufacturing processes.

Markets (cont.)

LightingRecent CPI investments in advanced coating equipment targeted at the emerging OLED lighting technology has established a world-leading development capability in the solid state lighting industry. This LACE (Large Area Coating Equipment) facility caters for deposition of both small molecule and polymer OLED materials in a high quality clean room environment. The LACE line enables pilot scale device and process development up to a 200mm square tile format.

Integrated Smart SystemsIntegrated Smart Systems are functional items produced by the integration of electronic components with circuits prepared by traditional printing processes. Items have the potential to be produced at relatively low cost by existing technology platforms using components manufactured by the electronics industry and circuits produced by printing conductive tracks. Applications include smart packaging, point of sale material, toys, games, novelty items and packaging. The print element can be undertaken by established printing techniques and therefore can easily be adopted by the print industry. The electronics components are readily available and industry standard pick-and-place technology can be used to position these components on the printed substrate. The line has the capability to perform flexo, gravure, offset litho, rotary screen printing processes alongside cut/crease operations and pick and place technology. The line is open for commercial or grant funded projects with the aim of producing demonstrator units and prototypes as well as performing pilot production and scalable process development.

The Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) UKThomas Wright Way, NETPark, Sedgefield, County Durham,United Kingdom, TS21 3FG

The Centre for Process Innovation Limited (CPI) and is supported by:

T: 042 396 3033M: 090 5788 9616E: info@uk-cpi.com

T: +44 (0)1740 625 700F: +44 (0)1740 625 701E: info@uk-cpi.comW: www.uk-cpi.com

EUROPEAN UNIONInvesting in Your FutureEuropean RegionalDevelopment Fund 2007-13

The Centre for Process Innovation (CPI)JapanTokyoTeruo Tohma當摩　照夫