CONTRACT MANUFACTURING
New sustainable materials with enhanced properties for high-volume
production of flexible plastronic products A set of new sustainable materials with enhanced electrical and optical properties has been produced within the European-funded MADRAS project and used for the development of flexible organic and large-area electronics (OLAE) products.
T
he European-funded MADRAS project has developed a set of new sustainable materials, which have been promptly processed via In-Mould Electronics (IME), to fabricate a new generation of plastronic products with enhanced properties. These materials include a sustainable substrate and three types of advanced inks to be implemented as Transparent Conductive Electrodes (TCEs) and Hole Transport Layers (HTLs), allowing the development of devices by printing techniques with increased robustness, while reducing their cost and environmental impact.
The improvement of these materials is leading to a wider range of applications for Organic and Large Area Electronics (OLAE) products, device robustness, materials cost reduction, reduced environmental impact and high productivity rates. The conductive and transparent nanocellulose substrate, based on cellulose nanofibrils films, is made from renewable resources, mostly wood. It has been optimised up to a transparency of 90%, which is the level needed to substitute most of the current polyester films used currently. Gael Depres, senior innovation and R&D Grenoble HUB manager at Fedrigoni Paper, affirms that this substrate is “a perfect replacement for plastic”, as it is “sustainable and recyclable in the same way as paper”. On the other hand, several conductive and semiconductive inks for functional printing applications have been manufactured, including transparent and conductive inks based on silver nanowires suitable for slot die and screen printing, and inorganic semiconductive nanoinks based on tungsten oxide.
These inks present improved properties in terms of stability, transmittance, conductivity and adhesion compared to inks currently in the market used for the development of flexible electronics.
Benjamin Dhuiege, head of R&D at GenesInk, highlighted the sustainability of
16 MAY 2023 | ELECTRONICS TODAY
these inks, ensuring that they are “easy to process, without any toxic component and with high-added value through customisation”
In addition, MADRAS has also performed research on inks based on conductive polymers. An ink based on PEDOT:PSS plastic has been developed, providing higher mobility and conductivity.
The use of organic materials suitable for functional layers of printed electronic devices “is linked to the need to optimise the material,” explained Lubomir Kubac, executive head of the Centre for Organic Chemistry (COC).
Tomáš Syrový, associate professor at the University of Pardubice, added: “Organic- based materials offer a unique opportunity in terms of tuning their electronic properties to achieve suitable functionality in multilayer electronic structures.”
The innovative materials developed have been processed through In-Mould Electronics, a manufacturing approach combining the functional printing of
electronics and the hybridisation of electronic components with traditional plastic transformation processes, such as thermoforming and injection. To demonstrate the potential of the advanced inks and substrates developed, they have been implemented into a geotracking flexible tag for localisation of assets and a biometric photosensor for user identification in a platform of scooter sharing.
The MADRAS project is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme and coordinated by the Eurecat technology centre. It involves 11 other partners from Spain (Eticas Research and Consulting, TECNOPACKAGING, UNE and the Cooltra Group), France (Genesink, Arjowiggins and Uwinloc), Denmark (infinityPV), the Netherlands (TNO) and the Czech Republic (COC and the University of Pardubice).
MADRAS
https://madras-project.eu
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46
