Sensors, Haptics & Displays

On April 17-18, the Printed Electronics Europe conference and exhibition in Berlin, Germany, will feature "Manufacturing Street" - a live, multi-technology, printed electronics demonstration.

For more information on the topic of thermoelectrics and how they can be used in energy harvesting applications, attend Energy Harvesting and Storage in Berlin, Germany, on the 17th and 18th of April 2013.

More and more consumer electronics devices feature a touch screen, which is already considered a must have for new devices. The next big topic will be haptic feedback solutions outperforming the poor vibration-based feedback that is the standard today. Adding haptic and sound feedback to touch screens using electro active polymers (EAPs) will be a featured topic at TCF LIVE Europe 2013 .

The once rising price of indium generated an emerging TCF (Transparent Conductive Film) industry offering alternatives to ITO (indium tin oxide). The same is now happening with silver.

Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs) are coming in three waves.

It has been a slow path to commercialize smart packaging. Despite strong needs such as the aging population, tougher legislation, huge waste, more demanding consumers and concerns about safety and crime; commercial success has been mixed.

Energy harvesting - harvesting abundant energy from the environment to power small devices or assist larger devices - has secured a sure foot-hold in building and industrial markets, powering wireless sensors to improve efficiency, reduce costs and increase automation.

The days when piezoelectric energy harvesting was considered unreliable and had low power output are long gone. Hand in hand with the development of ultra low power electronics, energy harvesters have been drastically improving also.

This article shares some of the research in the newly updated IDTechEx report, "Stretchable Electronics Comes to Market."

The second and final day of Printed Electronics USA in Santa Clara really illustrated how far the technologies had progressed and the huge variety of players in the field. The event, organized by IDTechEx, was the best and biggest edition of the series so far. Amongst the attendees were company founders, directors, engineers, academics, but also students and patent attorneys. In particular, there were a large number of end users attending the show.