Monthly Archives: April 2016

By James Hayward, Technology Analyst, IDTechEx

Last week, IDTechEx gave the opening presentation at the 2016 Korea Summit for Smart Wearable Devices, excellently hosted by KDIA and KSA in Seoul, Korea. Wearable sensors once again dominated discussion throughout the day, with latest examples of options in MEMS, textiles and more presented at length in the conference. Additional discussions throughout the day extended to topics like glucose sensing (including enzyme-free examples), sensor fusion and beyond.

Sensor development is driving the next generation of wearable devices, and this development is now going further than simply attaching sensors to devices that can be stuck on the body. Professor Mark Allen of the University of Pennsylvania gave a fascinating presentation about development of advanced MEMS for wearable devices. MEMS remains the dominant force in wearable sensing, but examples are now becoming broader than the increasingly commoditized, off-the-shelf and near ubiquitous IMU. IDTechExResearch’s bestselling report on the topic, “Wearable Sensors 2016-2026: Market Forecasts, Technologies, Players” finds that IMUs continue to dominate the wearable sensing space, counting for almost half of the total wearable sensor shipments in 2016.

The majority of wearable sensors today are found placed on the body within devices. One step further involves inserting sensors more permanently, whether via something like a skin patch that can be worn for weeks or months at a time, or to use Professor Allen’s example from work at Georgia Tech, magnetometers to detect motion of a magnetic stud inserted as a tongue piercing. Here, the use case is to enable patients suffering significant paralysis to other areas of the body to control an electric wheelchair using the tongue. The next step is to ingest sensors – Proteus Digital Health provide perhaps the most popularized example here, but devices like pill cameras are also regularly used in the diagnostic and clinical trial settings. The next steps involve the full implantation of a sensor, either permanently or through a planned lifetime followed by degradation.

Professor Allen spoke of some of their recently FDA approved work towards implantable sensors for intra cardiac pressure sensing. By fabricating a MEMS devices using ceramics, they created a biologically stable sensor that can be inserted inside the heart in high-risk patients to enable predictive diagnosis and treatment of heart disease. With the group prolifically producing new work, one area is looking at using a core-shell structure to make biodegradable sensors that can maintain structure and communication for a useful lifetime before dissolving. Sensor development is constantly improving the value proposition in many wearable and implantable products, producing state-of-the-art products for the medical space in particular.

IDTechEx Research covers all of the main types of wearable sensors found in products today, as well as sensors of the future in their report “Wearable Sensors 2016-2026: Market Forecasts, Technologies, Players“. The report groups sensors in prominent categories. For each sensor, the technologies and major players are described, backed up by detailed interviews and company profiles of key bodies in each sector. The report also views the big picture, discussing the implications of sensor fusion and the relative merits of each sensor type for various applications. This extensive primary research is used to produce detailed market forecasts for each sensor type over the next decade. Market data is provided for the growth of each sensor type, and is used to illustrate key trends that are observable in various application sectors.

sensors

Insights from pure mathematics are lending new insights to material physics, which could aid in development of new devices and sensors. Now an international team of physicists has discovered that applying a magnetic field to a non-magnetic metal made it conduct 70% more electricity, even though basic physics principles would have predicted the opposite.

“We never expected that magnetoresistance could be lowered even further in the compound we tested, because in theory it should have increased,” says Kyoto University study author Shingo Yonezawa.

Applying a magnetic field to metals affects how well they are able to conduct electricity. Resistance arising from the magnetic field — magnetoresistance — is used in contexts like writing data in hard discs. Because of its wide application potential, material physicists are constantly striving to find new materials that show large-scale magnetoresistance.

Exposing a non-magnetic metal to a magnetic field typically increases its resistance and reduces the amount of electric current that is able to pass through it. Researchers at Kyoto University and the National Institute for Materials Science, in collaboration with researchers at National High-Magnetic Field Laboratory in the US, observed otherwise, however; when they applied a magnetic field to the compound PdCoO2, its resistance actually decreased, consequently increasing electrical current.

“Oxides tend not to deliver currents so readily, but PdCoO2 is one the oxides that actually conduct electricity beautifully,” says Yonezawa. “It already has low resistance relative to other oxides.”

The phenomenon remained unexplained until colleagues from the United States made a link with an analogy from topology, a mathematics discipline concerning continuous deformations.

“Electrons in some classes of materials have topological characteristics that lead them to be ‘boosted’ by magnetic fields, ultimately decreasing resistance,” continues Yonezawa. Although PdCoO2 was believed to lack such topological characteristics, it turns out that in the magnetic field this material can exhibit a phenomenon similar to these, aided by its very ‘clean’, layered crystal structure.”

Resistance also decreased in compounds PtCoO2 and Sr2RuO4, which have similar layered structures to PdCoO2.

“From these observations we now know that the phenomenon generally applies to other oxides with a layered structure,” explains Yoshiteru Maeno, a senior author also at Kyoto University. “Further developments in stratified non-magnetic metals with good conductivity should bring about new devices and sensors that have large magnetoresistance even when exposed to weak magnetic fields.”

According to their latest report, Technavio analysts expect the global piezoelectric smart materials market for 2016-2020 to exceed USD 42 billion by 2020 growing at a CAGR of almost 13 percent.

According to Chandrakumar Badala Jaganathan, lead research analyst at Technavio for metals and minerals, “The global piezoelectric smart materials market is expected to be vibrant during the forecast period due to increasing investment in R&D for product innovation and the rising demand from the automotive industry. In addition, high demand from APAC is expected to further drive market growth.”

Technavio’s lead chemicals and materials market research analysts have identified the following three factors that will drive the global piezoelectric smart materials market:

-Increase in demand from military and aerospace sector
-Growing demand from construction industry
-Rise in R&D efforts

Increase in demand from military and aerospace sector

The spacecraft industry has provided a tremendous boost to the piezoelectric smart materials market globally. Materials with enhanced functional properties such as shape memory, electrochromism, and piezoelectricity, are gaining demand in the aerospace industries. These materials help in controlling the airflow across the wings of an aircraft, maintaining it in takeoff, flying, and landing it more efficiently with less noise.

Some applications for aircraft include wing morphing and flapping wing technologies. These materials are used to solve some common problems with the aircraft such as engine vibration, high cabin noise levels, ice formation on wings, flow separation due to turbulence, and control surfaces in cold climatic conditions.

In the military, piezoelectric materials are used in applications such as smart sensors, smart nanorobotics, smart combat suits, and smart skins. The majority of the demand from aerospace industry is expected to come from the US followed by Europe.

Growing demand from construction industry

The application of piezoelectric smart materials in the construction industry falls into three categories: structural health monitoring, vibration control, and environmental control. Structural health monitoring is where piezoelectric smart materials find their most widespread applications. The primary focus of structural health monitoring lies in the monitoring of loads and detection of damage in the structures. In addition, the trend toward longer and more slender cables has given rise to the demand for piezoelectric smart materials for use in structural monitoring and vibration control.

North America has the highest level of activity involving structural health monitoring. In the US, optical fiber grating systems are used to monitor traffic and composite repair monitoring. Additionally, embedded and surface-mounted MEMS sensors are used to monitor concrete and metal structures. “The growing construction sector will lead to a greater demand for piezoelectric smart materials,” says Chandrakumar.

Rise in R&D efforts

Transportation, healthcare, and smart packaging are among the sectors that have been receiving tremendous attention with respect to R&D. In the transportation sector, the military and aerospace sector, followed by the automotive and marine sectors account for the major R&D.

In the US, a considerable amount of funding has been offered by organizations such as the Naval Research Laboratory, Army Research Laboratories, Air Force Research Laboratories, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration. A lot of this funding has been offered to the universities that have given rise to a lot of startup organizations in the field of smart materials.

In Europe, many similar initiatives involving Central European Chapter funded plans. In addition, defense programs, financed by the Western European Union, and a few of the large aerospace companies, are being undertaken by many institutions.

Technavio is a technology research and advisory company.

The global semiconductor materials market decreased 1.5 percent in 2015 compared to 2014 while worldwide semiconductor revenues decreased 0.2 percent. The impact of exchange rate changes, coupled with lower overall semiconductor unit growth, contributed to the year-over-year revenue decline.

According to the SEMI Material Market Data Subscription, Total wafer fabrication materials and packaging materials were $24.1 billion and $19.3 billion, respectively. Comparable revenues for these segments in 2014 were $24.2 billion for wafer fabrication materials and $19.8 billion for packaging materials. The wafer fabrication materials segment decreased 1 percent year-over-year, while the packaging materials segment decreased 2 percent. However, if bonding wire were excluded from the packaging materials segment, the segment would have remained flat relative to last year. The continuing transition to copper-based bonding wire from gold is negatively impacting overall packaging materials revenues. The depreciation of the Yen further impacted the total materials market due to the importance of materials suppliers based in Japan.

For the sixth consecutive year, Taiwan was the largest consumer of semiconductor materials due to its large foundry and advanced packaging base, totaling $9.4 billion. Korea rose in the rankings to claim the second spot during the same time. Annual revenue growth was the strongest in the Korean and Chinese markets. The materials market in North America and Europe experienced nominal growth of 1 percent, while the materials markets in Taiwan, Rest of World and Japan contracted. (The ROW region is defined as Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, other areas of Southeast Asia and smaller global markets.)

2014 and 2015 Regional Semiconductor Materials Markets (US$ Billions)

Region 2014 2015 % Change
Taiwan

9.60

9.41

-2%
South Korea

7.03

7.16

2%
Japan

7.01

6.57

-6%
Rest of World

6.39

6.05

-5%
China

6.01

6.12

2%
North America

5.00

5.04

1%
Europe

3.01

3.05

1%
Total

44.04

43.40

-1%

Source: SEMI, April 2016

BSE_BostonSemiEquipment_Logo - Higher Resolution

Date: May 11, 2016 at 12 PM ET

Free to attend

Length: Approximately one hour

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In 2015, the MEMS market did not grow as much as we initially expected. In the past, the Smart Phone industry was a strong driver of the MEMS industry with ever increasing volume. Today, MEMS are becoming commodity products with very low price. The webcast will review the latest market data and forecasts for the future. The MEMS “commoditization” paradox will be discussed as well as latest technical trends (sensors combos, packaging).

Speakers: 

EM_4_[1]Dr. Eric Mounier, MEMS Senior Analyst, Yole Développement

Dr. Eric Mounier has a PhD in microelectronics from the INPG in Grenoble. He previously worked at CEA LETI R&D lab in Grenoble, France in marketing dept. Since 1998 he is a cofounder of Yole Développement, a market research company based in Fr ance. At Yole Développement, the “More than Moore” market research and strategy consulting company, Dr. Eric Mounier is in charge of market analysis for MEMS & Sensors, visible and IR imagers (CIS, microbolometers), semiconductors, printed electronics and photonics (e.g. Silicon photonics). He has contributed to more than 200 marketing & technological analysis and 100 reports. Eric is also an expert at the OMNT (“Observatoire des Micro & Nanotechnologies”) for Optics.

image007Philippe Robert, Manager of the Microsystem Components Laboratory, CEA Leti

Philippe Robert received a M.Sc. degree in optical electronic in 91 from the university of Grenoble, and a Ph.D in electrical engineering in 96, from the National Polytechnic Institute of Grenoble (INPG). From 1996 to 1998, he worked as R&D engineer at SILMAG S.A, to develop new TSV interconnections for hard disk silicon magnetic heads. From 1998 to 2001, he was part of the technical staff of THALES-AVIONICS Sensor Unit, where he was in charge of silicon and quartz inertial sensors developments. In 2001, he joined CEA-LETI where he was involved in several projects on RF-MEMS. He is presently manager of the Microsystem Components Laboratory. He has authored or co-authored about 40 journal papers and conference contributions, and he holds more than 40 patents dealing with MEMS, NEMS and packaging.

Sponsored by Boston Semi Equipment

Boston Semi Equipment (BSE) manufactures test cell automation equipment and provides technical services to semiconductor manufacturers and OSATs worldwide. Our test cell equipment solutions include automated test equipment (ATE), gravity and pick-and-place handlers, wafer probers and customized automation solutions. BSE’s worldwide service professionals and technical support offerings enable our customers to achieve maximum uptime from their semiconductor test operations. Our goal is to lower equipment and operating costs for our customers.

BrewerScienceBLUE

Date: May 10, 2016 at 1 PM ET

Free to attend

Length: Approximately one hour

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In order to adapt to new applications and cut down cost, the semiconductor industry seeks further performance and functionality boosts through package level system integration. While transistor scaling options remain uncertain in the shorter term and continue to be investigated, the spotlight is turned to advanced packages. Emerging packages such as fan-out wafer level packages, 2.5D/3D IC solutions and related SiPs together with upgraded flip chip CSP/BGAs aim to bridge the gap and revive the cost/performance curve while at the same time adding more functionality.

This webcast will focus on the status of the advanced packaging industry, the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. A high level overview will be given on current and future global markets, with a particular reflection on the evolution of the market in China. Furthermore, 3D integration packaging technology developments will be summarized, with focus on the 2.5D/3D, FO WLP and advanced FC substrate platforms.

Speakers:

AndrejIvankovic_YOLE2015_Pro_HDAndrej Ivanovic, Technology & Market Analyst, Advanced Packaging & Semiconductor Manufacturing, Yole Développement

Andrej Ivankovic is a Technology & Market Analyst, in the Advanced Packaging and Semiconductor Manufacturing team, at Yole Développement. He holds a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, with specialization in Industrial Electronics from the University of Zagreb, Croatia and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from KU Leuven, Belgium. He started as an intern at ON Semiconductor performing reliability tests, failure analysis and characterization of power electronics and packages. The following 4 years he worked as a R&D engineer at IMEC Belgium on the development of 3D IC technology, focusing on electrical and thermo-mechanical issues of 3D stacking and packaging. Part of this time he also worked at GLOBALFOUNDRIES as an external researcher. He has regularly presented at international conferences authoring and co-authoring 18 papers and 1 patent.

Mike KellyMike Kelly, Senior Director 3D TSV Development, Amkor Technology

Mr. Kelly joined Amkor in 2005 and has led package developments for EMC shielding, low cost thermal enhancements for PBGAs,  image sensors and most recently 2.5D and SLIM package development. He previously worked for HP and Avago. Mike has worked in electronics interconnect for 24 years, including circuit board assembly,  IC package mechanical and thermal design and projects ranging from polyester flexible circuits to eutectic flip chip, and management of IC IP block design and acquisition and electrical signal integrity teams. Mike holds master’s degrees in Mechanical and Chemical Engineering.

Sponsored by Brewer Science

Brewer Science is a global technology leader in developing and manufacturing innovative materials, processes, and equipment for the fabrication of semiconductors and microelectronic devices. In 1981, Brewer Science revolutionized lithography processes with its invention of Brewer Science® ARC® anti-reflective coatings. Today, Brewer Science continues to expand its technology portfolio to include products that enable advanced lithography, 3-D integration, chemical and mechanical device protection, nanotechnology, and thin wafer handling.

Brewer Science was one of the first companies to recognize the potential of temporary wafer bonding for ultrathin wafer handling. Temporary bonding is key as the semiconductor industry pushes for smaller devices, faster processing, and lower costs. The industry is moving toward thinner and larger-area substrates that can handle higher stress levels and more extreme temperature conditions, such as higher-temperature processing and lower-temperature bonding and debonding. Brewer Science offers advanced material and equipment sets for low-volume R&D environments and works with leading equipment vendors to provide fully automated solutions for higher-volume needs. By listening to customer needs and following industry advancements, Brewer Science has created the highest-quality temporary bonding products possible.

ARC is a registered trademark of Brewer Science, Inc.

Molex, a global manufacturer of electronic solutions, announced today the acquisition of Interconnect Systems, Inc. (“ISI”) which specializes in the design and manufacture of high density silicon packaging with advanced interconnect technologies.

According to Tim Ruff, senior vice president, Molex, the acquisition enables Molex to offer a wider range of fully integrated solutions to customers worldwide. “We are excited about the unique capabilities and technologies the ISI team brings to Molex. ISI’s proven expertise in high-density chip packaging strengthens our platform for growth in existing markets and opens doors to new opportunities.”

Headquartered in Camarillo, California, ISI delivers advanced packaging and interconnect solutions to top-tier OEMs in a wide range of industries and technology markets, including aerospace & defense, industrial, data storage and networking, telecom, and high performance computing. ISI uses a multi-discipline customized approach to improve solution performance, reduce package size, and expedite time-to-market for customers.

“We are thrilled to join forces with Molex. By combining respective strengths and leveraging their global manufacturing footprint, we can more efficiently and effectively provide customers with advanced technology platforms and top-notch support services, while scaling up to higher volume production,” said Bill Miller, president, ISI.

The flip chip technology market market is expected to grow from $19.01 billion in 2015 to $31.27 billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 7.1% between 2016 and 2022, according to the new market research report “Flip Chip Technology Market by Wafer Bumping Process (CU Pillar, Lead-Free), Packaging Technology (2D IC, 2.5D IC, 3D IC), Packaging Type (BGA, PGA, LGA, SIP, CSP), Product (Memory, LED, CPU, GPU, SOC), Application and Geography – Global Forecast to 2022,” published by MarketsandMarkets.

The flip chip technology market is driven by factors such as increasing demand for miniaturization and high performance in electronic devices, and strong penetration in consumer electronics sector.

3D IC packaging technology to register the highest growth rate

On the basis of packaging technology, the Flip Chip Technology Market is segmented into 2D IC, 2.5D IC, and 3D IC packaging technology. With the semiconductor technology moving towards integration of diverse chips, 2.5D IC packaging technology and 3D IC packaging technology are becoming the mainstream trend in obtaining the integration objectives. Owing to the growing demand for increasing density, higher bandwidth, and lower power, design teams are expected to adopt 3D ICs with TSVs, which promise ‘more than Moore’ integration by packaging a great deal of functionality into small form factors, while improving performance and reducing costs.

Applications in consumer electronics held the largest market size and would also grow at the highest rate

Smartphones & tablets are observed to have the highest adoption among all the consumer electronic devices, owing to their small form factor and better performance requirements to operate at a higher bandwidth, at a relatively lower cost. The automotive market is expected to grow at a second-highest CAGR rate, catapulting the flip chip technology market further.

The market in Asia-Pacific to grow at the highest rate

The APAC held a large share of the overall flip chip technology market in 2015; moreover, the market in APAC is expected to grow at the highest CAGR between 2016 and 2022. Countries in Asia-Pacific are major manufacturing hubs and are expected to provide ample opportunities for the growth of the flip chip technology. The growing demand for high performance in smartphones and automotive MCUs is driving the market in this region.

Major players in this market are Intel (U.S.), TSMC (Taiwan), Samsung (South Korea), and GlobalFoundries (U.S.), ASE group (Taiwan), Amkor Technology (U.S.), UMC (Taiwan), STATS ChipPAC (Singapore), Powertech Technology (Taiwan), and STMicroelectronics (Switzerland) among others.

On the basis of wafer bumping process, the flip chip technology market is segmented into copper pillar, lead free, tin/lead eutectic solder, and gold stud+ plated solder. The product segment consists of CPU, SoC, GPU, memory, LED, CMOS image sensor, and RF, mixed signal, analog, and power IC. On the basis of application, the market is segmented into consumer electronics, telecommunications, automotive, industrial sector, medical devices, smart technologies, and military and aerospace. The packaging type segment includes FC BGA, FC PGA, FC LGA, FC QFN, FC SiP, and FC CSP. The packaging technology in flip chip has been segmented into 2D IC, 2.5D IC, and 3D IC. This global report gives a detailed view of the market across the four regions, namely, Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Rest of the World which includes the Middle East and Africa. The report profiles the 10 most promising players in the flip chip technology market.

The transistor is the most fundamental building block of electronics, used to build circuits capable of amplifying electrical signals or switching them between the 0s and 1s at the heart of digital computation. Transistor fabrication is a highly complex process, however, requiring high-temperature, high-vacuum equipment.

Now, University of Pennsylvania engineers have shown a new approach for making these devices: sequentially depositing their components in the form of liquid nanocrystal “inks.”

Their new study, published in Science, opens the door for electrical components to be built into flexible or wearable applications, as the lower-temperature process is compatible with a wide array of materials and can be applied to larger areas.

The researchers’ nanocrystal-based field effect transistors were patterned onto flexible plastic backings using spin coating but could eventually be constructed by additive manufacturing systems, like 3-D printers.

The study was lead by Cherie Kagan, the Stephen J. Angello Professor in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and Ji-Hyuk Choi, then a member of her lab, now a senior researcher at the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources. Han Wang, Soong Ju Oh, Taejong Paik and Pil Sung Jo of the Kagan lab contributed to the work. They collaborated with Christopher Murray, a Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor with appointments in the School of Arts & Sciences and Penn Engineering; Murray lab members Xingchen Ye and Benjamin Diroll; and Jinwoo Sung of Korea’s Yonsei University.

The researchers began by taking nanocrystals, or roughly spherical nanoscale particles, with the electrical qualities necessary for a transistor and dispersing these particles in a liquid, making nanocrystal inks.

Kagan’s group developed a library of four of these inks: a conductor (silver), an insulator (aluminum oxide), a semiconductor (cadmium selenide) and a conductor combined with a dopant (a mixture of silver and indium). “Doping” the semiconductor layer of the transistor with impurities controls whether the device transmits a positive or negative charge.

“These materials are colloids just like the ink in your inkjet printer,” Kagan said, “but you can get all the characteristics that you want and expect from the analogous bulk materials, such as whether they’re conductors, semiconductors or insulators.

“Our question was whether you could lay them down on a surface in such a way that they work together to form functional transistors.”

The electrical properties of several of these nanocrystal inks had been independently verified, but they had never been combined into full devices.

“This is the first work,” Choi said, “showing that all the components, the metallic, insulating, and semiconducting layers of the transistors, and even the doping of the semiconductor could be made from nanocrystals.”

Such a process entails layering or mixing them in precise patterns.

First, the conductive silver nanocrystal ink was deposited from liquid on a flexible plastic surface that was treated with a photolithographic mask, then rapidly spun to draw it out in an even layer. The mask was then removed to leave the silver ink in the shape of the transistor’s gate electrode. The researchers followed that layer by spin-coating a layer of the aluminum oxide nanocrystal-based insulator, then a layer of the cadmium selenide nanocrystal-based semiconductor and finally another masked layer for the indium/silver mixture, which forms the transistor’s source and drain electrodes. Upon heating at relatively low temperatures, the indium dopant diffused from those electrodes into the semiconductor component.

“The trick with working with solution-based materials is making sure that, when you add the second layer, it doesn’t wash off the first, and so on,” Kagan said. “We had to treat the surfaces of the nanocrystals, both when they’re first in solution and after they’re deposited, to make sure they have the right electrical properties and that they stick together in the configuration we want.”

Because this entirely ink-based fabrication process works at lower temperatures than existing vacuum-based methods, the researchers were able to make several transistors on the same flexible plastic backing at the same time.

“Making transistors over larger areas and at lower temperatures have been goals for an emerging class of technologies, when people think of the Internet of things, large area flexible electronics and wearable devices,” Kagan said. “We haven’t developed all of the necessary aspects so they could be printed yet, but because these materials are all solution-based, it demonstrates the promise of this materials class and sets the stage for additive manufacturing.”

Instead of reading a label, consumers could be interacting with an electronic screen on packaging in the future, thanks to a revolutionary new development by scientists at the University of Sheffield.

The scientists collaborated with technology company Novalia to create a new way of displaying information on packaging, a move that could revolutionise the packaging industry.

This technology could be used in greetings cards or products where a customer could receive a simple message. More complex developments could include a countdown timer on the side of a packet to indicate when a timed product was ready – such as hair-dye, pregnancy tests or home-baking using a ‘traffic lights’ system.

In a paper published in the IEEE Journal of Display Technology, the team explain how a screen can be fixed onto packaging to display information.

The process involves printing electronic tracks onto paper and then fixing low-cost electronics and a polymer LED display to the paper using an adhesive that conducts electricity.

Working together, University of Sheffield scientists and Novalia also designed and constructed a touch-pad keyboard on the paper that allows a user to selectively ‘drive’ the LEDs in the display.

The research has been funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and testing so far has taken place on paper but the process could potentially be printed on other surfaces.

The team’s next steps are to create fully flexible organic displays on a plastic substrate that then fix onto the electronic tracks. The LED devices need to be low-cost and flexible enough to be used on all packaging.

Professor David Lidzey from the University’s Department of Physics and Astronomy said: “Labels on packaging could become much more innovative, and allow customers to interact with and explore new products. The use of displays or light emitting panels on packaging will also allow companies to communicate brand awareness in a more sophisticated manner.”

Chris Jones from Novalia said: “The paper-based packaging industry is worth billions of dollars. This innovative system we have developed with the University of Sheffield could give manufacturers a way to gain market share by being able to distinguish its products from competitors.”