Memorandum 120
Submission from the Engineering Professors'
Council
The Engineering Professors' Council represents
the interests of engineering in higher education. It has over
1,600 members, who are all either professors or Heads of Engineering
Departments, virtually all the UK universities, which teach engineering
are represented. It has as its mission the promotion of excellence
in engineering education, teaching and research
INTRODUCTION
1. Plastic Electronics is the general term
for the branch of electronics that deals with devices made from
organic polymers, or conductive plastics (as opposed to silicon)
and their integration with inorganic semiconductors. The UK is
exceptionally well placed to develop this technology as it already
has a first class academic base in this area as well as several
key industrial players. It is also leading in the early commercialisation
of first generation plastic electronic applications.
A. Current and Future Roles of Engineers in
the Field of Plastic Electronics
2. Organic light emitting diodes (OLEDS)
for application in lighting and displays lead the way in the plastic
electronic field with OLEDs emerging as a strong contender for
application in various fields. Their introduction has been slower
than anticipated by some because of the competitiveness of other
technologies, but they are a growing market and many analysts
predict that they will capture a significant share of the Flat
Panel Display/TV market over the next five years. The ability
to integrate electronic functionalities into a range of non-conventional
substrates can also enable new products, such as flexible, light-weight
and unbreakable displays, for applications such as electronic
newspapers or electronic books. Such flexible displays are one
of the early important applications of plastic electronics with
significant market potential.
3. However plastic electronics offers more
than just the above applications. If reel-to-reel manufacturing
process can be made mature, there is the potential for a large
range of products involving both electronic and optical components
to be manufactured at lower costs with more rapid lead times.
More novel applications can also be considered as part of the
distributed electronics field ie large area electronics with local
intelligence and added functionality encompassing areas such as
"chip-on-flexi". These applications would include intelligent
packaging and RFID tags, distributed and conformal electronics
(eg in automotive applications, large area sensors, imaging applications),
smart power management, e-skin, wearable electronics, smart windows
including antenna for wireless communications, medical sensors
and inorganic and organic thin film solar cells on plastic substrates
and foils.
B. The Potential for Plastic Electronics in
the UK/Global Economy
4. The present research base in the UK is
extremely strong with a number of world-class university groups
(including Cambridge, Imperial, Liverpool, Durham, Oxford, Manchester)
as well as a wide reaching commercial sector including Cambridge
Display Technology (CDT), Plastic Logic, the Merck Research Centre
at Chilworth, Sumation, OLED-T, Kodak European Research, Plastic
ePrint Ltd., together with an ink jet printing cluster including
Xaar, Xennia and others and, in the North East, the Plastic Electronics
Technology Centre (PETeC) and DuPont Teijin.
5. Plastic electronics has great potential
for the UK in that substantial manufacturing can be achieved with
much less capital costs than in conventional electronics and hence
new participants who are technically leading can have major commercial
impact, provided they can respond rapidly to the market. The UK
will also be able to build on its strong competence in circuit
and consumer product design. Companies currently operating as
fabless silicon chip companies will be able to apply their competence
to plastic electronics as manufacturing capacity becomes available.
6. It is also clear that a sustainable development
and a lower energy economy can also emerge from this sector's
growth and maturing business development but the availability
of appropriately trained staff for manufacturing is a possible
constraint, given the loss of the training solution previously
offered by large electronics companies.
7. So, as shown above, there is certainly
potential for UK to be world-leading. As well as expertise in
organic materials the UK has relative strengths in both the printing
industry and in pharmaceuticals (in terms of molecular engineering
competence) that may be transferable into plastic electronics.
However we must act quickly and focus on commercial aspects if
we are to be successful.
8. There are practical limits on the size
of investment that can be achieved in the UK in the short term.
However because of the potential market opportunities and technical
feasibilities, we believe that the following deserve special consideration
as areas in which the UK should seek to play a major role: Lighting,
flexible displays, intelligent packaging (eg RFID), and medical
sensors. Displays for public information and outdoor and indoor
deployment, reflective or emissive have huge market potential,
which is as yet untapped.
C. How Universities, Industry, Venture Capital
and Govt are involved in the Development of the UK Plastic Electronics
Sector
9. The Government via the EPSRC and DTI
(now BERR) have made several calls relating to Plastic Electronics
including the Carbon Based Electronics (EPSRC) initiative and
the DTI -funded Plastic Electronics: Materials Processing and
Systems Integration programme. The Cambridge Integrated Knowledge
Centre (CIKC), recently set up to provide a platform Technology
for Molecular and Macromolecular Materials, is an excellent example
of University /Industry interaction in the Plastic Electronics
area. The funding for the Centre from both EPSRC and Industry
is approximately £14 million over five years.
There are several other examples:
10. The Plastic Electronics Technology Centre
(PETeC) is a national centre currently under construction at NETPark
in the North East of England for the development of plastic electronics
technologies. The Centre will make available access to capabilities
around substrate preparation, materials formulation, device modelling,
process development and process integration using advanced printing
techniques such as inkjet, screen printing or web-based printing.
The range of applications for these technologies is extremely
broad, but PETeC, in response to industry interest, is initially
focusing on displays, photovoltaics, lighting and medical sensors-
Partners include Durham County Council, County Durham Development
Company, County Durham Economic Partnership, One NorthEast, The
Northern Way, DBERR and the European Commission.
11. The UK Displays and Lighting Knowledge
Transfer Network (UKDL) was set up by the DTI (as was) to cover
Displays, Lighting and Backlighting in all aspects from fundamental
materials development through to applications for specific end
users. They cater for technology from the point of its invention
to the time when it must be refurbished, recycled or safely disposed
of. They are the home of Plastic Electronics, Flat Panel Displays
and Solid State Lighting in the UK and organize activities in
order to strengthen the community. They aim to support the disparate
needs of the Displays and Lighting communities in the UK including
SMEs, OEMs and Academics from Science Base through Manufacturing
and Standards and into strategic End User markets.
12. The Welsh printing Centre set up in
2006 is a world leading research centre focusing on investigating
printing and coating as a manufacturing process. The Centre enjoys
access to industrial printing facilities and also works closely
with all components in the supply chain, including ink, substrate
and machinery suppliers. Research into image transfer mechanisms
is undertaken on all of the high volume printing and coating processes.
It has particular expertise in screen, flexographic, offset, gravure,
rotogravure, digital and pad printing.
13. There have also been numerous start-up
companies based on plastic electronics-the two most high profile
(both from Cavendish Labs in Cambridge) being CDT (recently acquired
by Sumitomo Chemicals) and Plastic Logic who have recently decided
to locate a $100M factory in Dresden due to substantial support
from that region in Germany.
D. Are the UK Engineering and Manufacturing
sector set up to handle growth in this area or other similar areas?
14. The UK has the skills but there is a
concern that these are fragmented. There is significant potential
for the UK to establish a world leading position in specific areas
as plastic electronics evolves into a mainstream technology, comparable
with that in the 1990s when the UIK optoelectronic industry produced
20% of the world target market. However the UK is not able to
meet all market opportunities in this space. For example, although
the UK has many of the individual components and there is potential
for UK SMEs to capture value from early technological leads, the
value chain is dispersed and we lack system integrators of sufficient
scale to generate sales for suppliers. Impediments are seen as
not on the technical side but are related to coordination and
allocation of resources. The UK must focus on specific areas where
there are clear addressable routes to market.
15. There are potential focussed routes
in which it could be possible to establish commercial production
in the UK within 5 years, for example by involving the healthy
traditional print industry that already exists together with great
expertise in ink jet printing (eg Xaar, Domino etc) and strengths
in molecular engineering from the pharmaceutical industry that
may be translatable into this arena. These could also make use
of pilot manufacturing facilities that are being put in place
at PETeC.
16. To provide a secure market and therefore
a strong business case for investment, the UK should engage in
a detailed study of technical and commercial opportunities taking
into account its existing strengths. On this basis resources should
be targeted on ensuring that existing public funded activities
are operating in a coordinated manner to provide a coherent technical
infrastructure, and that there is a set of economic conditions
to allow UK industry developing in this field to perform fully
in global markets. Careful consideration should be given to the
most appropriate method for developing such policies.
17. As part of this activity, it would be
expected that initial focus might be given to smaller volume larger
margin commercial opportunities, but routes should be developed
to determine the potential development of larger market opportunities.
Policies should explore routes to encourage industrial partnerships
to encourage growth of investment and output, and also where appropriate
due consideration should be given to the use of standards or policies,
for example in environmental related activities, to encourage
the uptake of the technology. Finally, consideration should be
given to the use of UK government procurement to encourage the
UK industry base. Examples might include, for example, the NHS
acting in the medical arena as a customer for diagnostic sensors
for MRSA, or in homeland security there could be a requirement
for RFID tags or biometric sensors that would provide the market
pull to drive the development of the technology.
18. Given their successful use elsewhere,
tax incentives for capital investment in SME and large enterprises
should be considered, along with the tax position of equipment
donations to university as well as targeted R&D tax relief
could be examined. The investment climate and tax regime in the
UK is not favourable for manufacturing industry in this technology
compared with that in other countries. This is important as establishing
such a manufacturing base would be critical to enable UK to create
and sequester wealth from this technology. The level of government
support is not competitive with that offered by other countries
for the development of plastic electronics. The Plastic Logic
experience provides a good example where their factory will now
be situated in Dresden whereas all the initial research and development
work was of course carried out in the UK.
SUMMARY
19. In summary the UK has a long history
in the field of plastic electronics and has led the way in many
aspects. It possesses a vibrant knowledge base and translating
this into wealth creation should be a strategic imperative for
the UK economy.
March 2008
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