June 19, 2007 – The Belgian company Solvay Solexis, provider of high value-added specialty polymer products, and Thin Film Electronics ASA of Oslo, Norway, have agreed to jointly develop materials for the production of printed electronic devices. The partners’ goal is to optimize ferroelectric polymer materials to enhance the manufacture and performance of Thin Film’s memory technology; and to develop appropriate ink formulations for printed electronics.
Printed electronics is an emerging industry that takes advantage of traditional printing technologies to manufacture electronic devices in a variety of shapes and supports (including thin, flexible substrates) heretofore not possible—at high volume and low cost. The field promises to make possible such applications as interactive and animated print advertising, speech-enabled food packaging, or museum tickets with embedded interactive information for visitors. Low-cost mobile Internet devices combined with a GPS tracking function are also feasible and could be implemented for life-size games or to keep track of children in large open spaces.
Johan Carlsson, CEO of Thin Film Electronics says, “Solvay has the broadest range of high performance polymer products in the market. Their dedication and focus is on specialty polymers, fluorinated and non fluorinated.” Carlsson adds that the collaboration, “gives us a solid partner with the know-how and the resources needed for optimizing and enhancing ferroelectric polymers for memory implementations, both the printed and the hybrid Silicon-based. In addition, with this agreement we have secured a long term supply of polymer materials for large volumes, as and when our customers are ramping up volume production.”
The joint development agreement will build on Thin Film’s intellectual property for soluble memory materials, as well as extend Solvay’s intellectual property for functional polymer materials. Under the agreement, Solvay Solexis could acquire certain production and commercialization rights to Thin Film’s memory technology.