February 9, 2012 — FlexTech Alliance awarded its 2012 FLEXI Awards for flexible, printed electronics and displays industry to PARC and Thin Film Electronics, Western Michigan University, and the Georgia Institute of Technology (GA Tech). The awards cover innovation, R&D, and leadership in education, with an eye on commercial viability.
Awards were presented at the 11th Annual Flexible Electronics and Displays Conference held this week in Phoenix, AZ. Also read: 2012 Flexible Electronics & Displays: The future is flexible
Thin Film Electronics and PARC, a Xerox Company, were the combined recipients of the FLEXI Innovation Award. In 2011, the companies debuted a working prototype printed, rewritable memory addressed with complimentary organic circuits, the equivalent of CMOS circuitry. It combines Thin Film Electronic’s polymer-based memory technology with PARC’s transistor technology. The Thinfilm Addressable Memory is designed for commercial production. The work is a step toward integrating thin-film memory with other devices such as sensors, displays, power sources and antennas. The award was accepted by Thin Film Electronic’s VP, North America, Jennifer Ernst and PARC’s Ross Bringans, VP, Electronic Materials and Devices Laboratory. The award recognizes the most innovative flexible and/or printed electronics product announced in the last twelve months, based on product design & ingenuity, potential market adoption, and revenue generation.
The Center for the Advancement of Printed Electronics (CAPE) at Western Michigan University took the FLEXI R&D Award. CAPE is an application-driven research group comprised of PhDs in chemical, electrical, mechanical, paper and material engineering. For printing and deposition, CAPE offers a variety of roll-to-roll (R2R) and sheet techniques including: gravure, inkjet, screen, flexography, spin coating and various CVD techniques. Their research groups are also actively building analytic tools to model the printed electronics world. The award was accepted by Dr. Erika Rebrosova, Assistant Professor, Department of Paper Engineering and Imaging at Western Michigan University. The award celebrates world-class research, technologically outstanding and original product development, and new significant commercial potential for implementation into flexible or printed electronics.
The Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics (COPE) at the Georgia Institute of Technology received the Technology Leadership in Education Award for quality of education, practical applicability, number of students completing the course, and degree of focus on flexible, printed electronics. COPE offers several interdisciplinary courses in organic chemistry, materials and optoelectronics. More than 90 students have graduated from these programs and now work at some of the leading research institutions and photonics and electronics companies in the world. The award was accepted by Dr. Bernard Kippelen, Director of the Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics.
"These organizations are helping address technology gaps and drive the development of innovative products to the marketplace," said Michael Ciesinski, CEO of FlexTech Alliance.
The FlexTech Alliance is an organization, headquartered in North America, devoted to fostering the growth, profitability and success of the electronic display and flexible, printed electronics supply chain. Learn more at www.flextech.org.