This week, at the 2022 International Solid-State Circuits Conference (2022 ISSCC), imec, a world-leading research and innovation hub in nanoelectronics and digital technologies, KU Leuven, and PragmatIC Semiconductor (Cambridge, UK), a world leader in flexible electronics, present the fastest 8-bit microprocessor in 0.8µm metal-oxide flexible technology capable of running real-time complex assembly code. The microprocessor was implemented with a unique digital design flow that allowed the creation of a new standard cell library for metal-oxide thin-film technologies – relevant for designing a broad range of loT applications. The robust thin-film technology offered by imec’s foundry partner PragmatIC Semiconductor was key to integrate the approximately ~16 000 metal-oxide thin-film transistors on a 24.9mm2 flexible chip.
FlexEnable (Cambridge, UK), a leader in the development and industrialisation of flexible organic electronics, has raised $11M Series B financing. Coretronic, a major Taiwanese LCD backlight module manufacturer, has made a strategic investment alongside significant European family offices. The initial $11M investment includes options for a further $14m and is expected to finance FlexEnable through to mass production ramp up of flexible displays and liquid crystal optical modules at Asian display manufacturing partners. The funds will also be used to scale up the company’s organic materials production capacity to meet the growing needs of display manufacturing partners entering volume production.
Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG is presenting innovative applications for the automotive industry at LOPEC, the leading international trade show for flexible, organic and printed electronics. Together with Heidelberg's InnovationLab, the company will be presenting printed sensors for battery monitoring and RECARO car seats at the end of March. Heidelberg had already set up its own business unit for the industrial development, manufacture, and sale of printed electronics for this growth market and also established production at the Wiesloch-Walldorf site. In the future, electronic components and sensors for digital applications, particularly from the healthcare and logistics sectors, as well as retail, or the automotive industry, will be produced here using state-of-the-art printing technology.
