Printed Electronics for Flexible Applications

The application of roll-to-roll printing processes for the fabrication of polymer electronics on flexible films enables the mass production of low-cost electronic circuits and components. Being produced by the successive application of thin layered functional structures on flexible polyester film, the products end up being thin and flexible themselves. Example applications are discussed, all manufactured in roll-to-roll printing processes. A 13.56 MHz radio frequency rectifier was combined with an electrochromic display into a "smart object" that reveals the display information when brought into an electromagnetic field of an activator unit. Transparent conductive films on flexible substrates were realized by a high resolution roll-to-roll production process with structure sizes down to 10 mu m. They are suitable to replace indium tin oxide in applications such as touch screen displays.