IDTechEx sees fantastic progress at Printed Electronics Europe

 

Printed Electronics Europe, a leading event dedicated to printed, flexible and hybrid electronics and hosted by IDTechEx in Berlin on 11 and 12 April 2018, saw attendance from a record 63 countries with 16% growth of the exhibit floor space.

The event strongly focuses on the application of the technology. Opening the event were several high profile organisations, including Geely, owner of Volvo and 10% of Daimler. The speaker Andreas Friedrich announced that he sees structural electronics enabled by printed electronics as a key differentiator in vehicles. The CEO of PolyPhotonix, Richard Kirk, spoke of their revolutionary OLED eye mask that is acting as a treatment for those with eye disease, an opportunity of several billion dollars which replaces medicines injected into the eye.

Organisations including Arsenal Football Club, Plastic Omnium, Nokia, Beko, Electrolux, JC Decaux, Johnson & Johnson, Ge Healthcare, GSK and many others spoke about their progress in using printed electronics and what they seek. For some, such as Electrolux, the technology is now internally demonstrated and they are helping their suppliers to become able to mass produce printed electronics based devices for their use.

It wasn’t just end-users presenting. Working to the criteria set by the host IDTechEx that commercialisation is the key focus of the Printed Electronics Europe event, many companies covered their sales progress and new products, from BlueSpark’s successful TempTraq sold in 22 000 retail slots in the US (a flexible temperature band aid based on a printed battery) to an asthma breathalyser using a printed array of gas sensors from one of the award winners, Applied Nanodetectors, to smart textiles demonstrated at the e-textile Korean pavilion to an outstanding session on smart packaging and the progress of print smart label systems from organisations such as PragmatIC and IMEC.

There was a 100% increase in the number of exhibitors who booked onsite for 2019 – due to be held on 10-11 April 2019 – highlighting the tremendous value organisations experienced from exhibiting at this event. 

Printed Electronics Europe is held in Berlin annually and the US equivalent – Printed Electronics USA will be in Santa Clara, California, on 14-15 November. The event features big brand companies discussing their needs and experiences and matching them to the leading suppliers – the largest global event series on printed electronics.

Caption: Impressions from the IDTechEx Show in Berlin (photo: OPE journal)

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