OE-A Competition 2021: And the winners are . . .

 

What added value does printed electronics bring to this product? Which product shows the highest degree of innovation? And how attractive is it for the target group? These were tough questions to answer for the jury of the OE-A Competition 2021. The jury, consisting of representatives from international companies and institutes, rated 22 submissions in three categories. Companies and institutes from 13 countries around the globe submitted their latest products and demonstrators in the area of organic and printed electronics to the OE-A Competition 2021. Annually organised by OE-A (Organic and Printed Electronics Association), a working group within VDMA, this competition challenges the printed electronics industry.

“We were excited about how many products and prototypes from such diverse fields as medicine, automotive or wearables took part in the competition," says Dr Klaus Hecker, managing director of OE-A. The submitted projects were judged by the jury in three categories: "Prototypes & New Products"; "Freestyle Demonstrator"; and "Publicly Funded Project Demonstrator". As every year, all submitted products and demonstrators were presented to the international community at LOPEC, the international platform for printed electronics, which took place as an online format from 23 to 25 March 2021.

The jury selected the following entries as the best of the OE-A Competition 2021:

Best Prototype / New Product: OccluSense – Dental Pressure Measuring System by InnovationLab (Germany). The project offers a digital solution for occlusion control with medical certification. It measures, visualises, and stores the pressure distribution during the bite process. The printed pressure sensor matrix with more than 1000 pixels registers the pressure applied on each pixel with up to 150Hz and sends the information wirelessly to a cloud, a tablet or other devices.

Best Freestyle Demonstrator: Dose-counting Smart Label for Inhalers by Fleep Tech (Italy). The demonstrator features a counting smart label for metered dose inhalers. The smart label, realised on a flexible substrate, integrates a fully printed OTFT based control and driving electronics as well as a fully printed battery, a touch sensor and a commercially available electrophoretic segmented display.

Best Publicly Funded Project Demonstrator: SUPERSMART Anti Counterfeiting Label by Fraunhofer ISC & Partner (Germany). The demonstrator consists of two paper-based demonstrators realised in the frame of the SUPERSMART project with the partners Coatema, CEA Liten, Joanneum Research, University of Bordeaux and VTT. A shock detection active tag based on a piezo material to track product damage during transport and an anti-counterfeiting label relying on an electrochromic display to authenticate medical or luxury products.

"The winners’ ideas and products show impressively how broad the application opportunities for our industries are. The OE-A Competition motivates companies to think outside the box. This provides new impulses for the technological development of printed electronics as well as product design and shows users which products and concepts are in the pipeline,” states Klaus Hecker.

In addition to the three jury categories, OE-A offered a public category, where all LOPEC visitors were invited to cast their voice for their favourite demonstrator. The interest in the public category was immense, more than 600 people took part in the voting.

Public Choice Award: S-Console Smart Gear Selector by Centi (Portugal). The Smart Gear Selector demonstrator is an intelligent control panel for an automatic transmission. Printed electronics enables the reduction of the number of mechanical and electrical parts to seamless design.

“We are delighted by the great response to the Public Choice Award. Despite the pandemic, OE-A wants to provide all participants visibility, especially the winners. At our OE-A Competition website you find all submissions with additional material, such as photos and videos. It’s definitely worth seeing,” adds Klaus Hecker.

The award ceremony for the "OE-A Competition 2021" will take place online this year on 15 April 2021. The winner of the "Public Choice Award" as well as the price winners of the three categories will then present their demonstrators.

Caption: Best Prototype & New Product at the OE-A Competition: The OccluSense Dental Pressure Measuring System (photo: InnovationLab)