Memorandum 133
Submission from the Centre of Excellence
for Nano, Micro and Photonic Systems (Cenamps) and the Centre
for Process Innovation (CPI)
Both Cenamps and CPI were established in 2003
as part of the North East Regional Development Agency's (ONE North
East) strategy to transform the regional economy through support
for innovation and technology. CPI's focus has been on the process
industries, including bio-processing, low carbon technologies
and coating technologies for advanced polymer electronics. Cenamps
has focused on new enabling technologies including bio-nanotechnology,
plastic electronics, atomic layer deposition and nanomaterials.
Both companies role is the development and promotion
of these technologies in the North East, bringing together skills,
capabilities and facilities from academe and industry to encourage
greater collaboration of science with business, promoting sustainable
innovation and technological development to open up new markets
for the technology and capabilities, with the long term aim of
generating sustainable economic benefit to the region and the
UK as a whole. As part of this strategy a number of national centres
have been established and are run the both organisations including
the National Bio-processing Facility, the Nanotechnology Knowledge
Transfer Network and importantly for this Committee the Plastic
Electronics Technology Centre (PETeC).
PETeC is a nationally recognised centre based
at NETPark near Sedgefield, that will provide world-class facilities,
services and expertise at the hub of a UK-wide network in Plastic
Electronics. The need for such a Centre was recognised by the
DTI, who said
"The most promising plastic electronics
technologies are now reaching a critical stage in their development.
They have been proven at the laboratory scale; manufacturing processes
now need to be engineered so that devices can be manufactured
efficiently and economically. This calls for an open access facility,
and associated skills, that is between the research stage and
full production and represents an interim development phase prior
to full manufacturing. Without such a facility, these technologies
cannot be brought to the market"
The UK already has an early internationally
pre-eminent position based on university research and the activities
of both SMEs and larger firms. The UK plastic electronics community
is already well established and has a strong collaborative tradition.
PETeC will provide a national focus for the UK's activities in
plastic electronics. The Centre will house clean rooms, production
and testing equipment and design and engineering skills, made
available on an assisted access basis. These will fill the gap
identified above, enabling a range of developers to take technologies
to a stage whereby they can make the full-scale market introduction
and where appropriate manufacturing of new products and related
processes and services.
PETeC will therefore enable the development
of internationally competitive, knowledge intensive activities
for the benefit of the UK. It will enable the commercialisation
of a scientific development made in the UK, which will transform
one of the world's most significant technology industries. It
will enable new applications and opportunities across a range
of sectors, including in healthcare and energy. This national
facility will enable the retention and attraction of regional,
national and international investment.
This response addresses the four aspects requested
by the IUS Committee, namely:
- the current and future roles of engineers
in the field of plastic electronics;
- the potential for plastic electronics in
the UK/global economy;
- how universities, industry, venture capital
and Government are involved in the development of the UK plastic
electronics sector; and
- whether the UK engineering and manufacturing
sector are set up to handle growth in this area or other areas
like it.
The current and future roles of engineers in the
field of plastic electronics
Plastic electronics involves a wide range of
disciplines including chemistry, materials science physics, engineering
(mechanical, electrical, process) and design. Plastic electronics
is pushing the boundaries of existing knowledge and capabilities
and there needs to be training and skills improvements to produce
a workforce capable of implementing these new technologies. It
is not that long ago that the idea of plastics being conductive
was considered radical and had not been observed, now it is possible
to build transistors and electronic circuits entirely from polymers.
The technologies that have formed the basis for plastic electronics
have originated in the disciplines of chemistry, physics and materials
science, this has created the breakthroughs and the understanding
of how these materials and devices work. There is still work to
be done to improve the performance and efficiency, but the next
stage to bring plastic electronics to market is dependent on having
strong engineering skills applied to the conversion of lab devices
into scalable, reliable and repeatable processes that can be use
to fabricate hundreds of thousands and then millions of devices
that can be incorporated into products. Existing expertise in
silicon wafer based device manufacture can be adapted for some
plastic electronics production process but not all. However, the
basic understanding of how to operate processes in high clean
room environments can be transferred to plastic electronics. This
is fine for batch processes but the real benefits of plastic electronics
will only be realised once high volume rapid processing is introduced.
This will take an new breed of engineers who will be able to bring
together the high precision and clean room level cleanliness of
advanced electronics with the high volume of roll-to-roll printing.
There are still some major hurdles to be overcome due to the nature
of the materials used in plastic electronics that need robust
engineering solutions to be developed. This will require a multi-disciplinary
approach to be adopted by current engineers and the training institutions
that will engineers of the future.
The potential for plastic electronics in the UK/global
economy.
Firstly we have to be clear what we mean by
plastic electronics. The printing of conductive tracks onto a
flexible polymer substrate, for example in inkjet printer head
connections and antennas for simple RFID tags, is not considered
to be plastic electronics. For a product to be considered made
from plastic electronics it must have a combination of material
or components that are active, ie change in response to a stimulus,
and preferable polymeric in composition. Examples of products
that are being developed using plastic electronics include flexible
displays, solid state lighting, photovoltaics, and sensors. Plastic
electronics should therefore be considered as a platform technology
that has a myriad of potential applications. This means that plastic
electronics has an enormous potential to generate considerable
economic activity worldwide.
Numerous market studies have been undertaken
that give estimates for the size of the global plastic electronics
markets. These vary from $1.18 billion in 2007 to over $48 billion
by 2017 [Error! Reference source not found.], to $71 million in
2006 through to $31illionn in 2013, and technology analysts speculate
that these new markets could be valued in the hundreds of billions
of dollars within 20 years, with one study estimating the market
in 2027 to be worth $330 billion. Whatever the actual estimates
what is clear is that plastics electronics will be a major industry.
The principle applications that are being pursued are displays
for electronics, billboard/poster signage, lighting, portable
power, sensors and other components, logic/memory and smart RFID
tags.
The UK has a world leading capability in the
understanding of plastic electronics through the pioneering work
undertaken at Cambridge, Durham, Imperial, St Andrews and Swansea
Universities. The number of other university groups building their
expertise in this field is growing and there is a increasing degree
of multi-disciplinary activities being undertaken both within
and between universities.
The commercial sector is less well developed
in general but commercial activity divides into companies into
that can provide essential enabling technologies and those that
are focused on developing applications. The former category the
UK has considerable capability through companies such as DuPont
Teijin Films, Merck, Xaar, Xennia, McDermid, Akzo Nobel etc. There
are numerous major international companies here but also smaller
companies with world recognised capabilities. In the latter arena
the UK has leading companies in CDT, Micro Emissive Displays,
Polymer Vision, Thorn Lighting and Plastic Logic and has recently
attracted G24i to the UK on OPVs. However, these application orientated
companies tend to be small emergent companies and not the major
multi-national giants, which is a disadvantage for the UK. The
principal value to the UK will therefore lie in materials, device
designs/structures, and process knowledge.
Having said this we firmly believe that the
UK has the potential to be a world leader in this technology area
in the next five years. The technology is still in the emergent
stage with no one country in a dominant position. The scale of
interest around the world is increasing rapidly as researchers
and companies identify new applications and are able to quantify
the levels of investment and reward. Investment will go to where
the best technology and capability is being developed and apart
from displays is not necessarily tied into existing capital investments
The key aspect will be the transition of the
academic lab based science and technology, in conjunction with
the enabling technologies mentioned above, into demonstrable processes
that will provide reduced risk production capability and the proven
ability to manufacture low volumes of usable products. Improvements
in materials and processes will be key to achieving this including
increased mobility materials, encapsulation and extending lifetimes.
How universities, industry, venture capital and
Government are involved in the development of the UK plastic electronics
sector
Much of the underpinning research into plastic
electronics at universities has been funded by the Research Councils
and this continues to be a valuable source of investment into
the fundamentals and basic research. Key academic bases include
Cambridge, Durham, Imperial, St Andrews, Manchester and Swansea
Universities. This is important as there is still much to discover
and understand about how these materials and devices behave which
will not only inform current developments but also create new
opportunities. In addition the DTI and now the TSB have consistently
supported the plastic electronics arena with regular programme
of calls covering different aspects of plastic electronics. This
investment has leverage matching contributions from industry.
This investment has been a major factor in maintaining the UK's
capability and ensuring that we can compete on the world stage.
The approval for the building of the Plastics Electronics Centre
(PETeC) at NETPark in Sedgefield will provide a national focus
for the activity. The IKC at Cambridge will provide early stage
support to PETeC and a link with the academic activities. The
Regional development Agencies have also been significant supporters
of building plastic electronics capabilities, in particular the
Northern Way RDAs, ONE North East, North West and Yorkshire Forward,
and the Welsh and Scottish Devolved Administrations. In addition
other Government supported bodies have recently become involved
in this arena, for example the Carbon Trust recently ran a competition
aimed at accelerating the exploitation of Organic Photovoltaics.
UK industry is also investing heavily in the
development of the tools, materials and manufacturing technologies
for plastic electronics. The companies identified above have,
recognised that plastic electronics will provide a major opportunity
for them and are developing materials and processes that will
play a major part of future applications. However, the UK is not
strong in having capability from the major multinationals in the
UK. The principle display manufacturers are in the Far East, the
major players in lighting are in the US and Europe, the large
chemicals companies are in Europe and the US. So the UK will probably
have to both attract inward investment and partner with overseas
companies to bring their innovations to market. The recent investment
by G24i in Wales indicates that in can be done, but the decision
of Plastic Logic to locate it's first production facility in Dresden
shows that the competition, and provision of related incentives,
from other countries is fierce. It is important that the UK offers
the most attractive package to investors. There is a tendency
in central government to let regions compete and focus in ensuring
a fair internal competition rather than offering the best UK offering.
The venture capital community is active with
most of the UK applications companies mentioned above being funded
through VC funds. However, the levels of investment are still
modest compared to the US, although this is a general trend and
not specific to plastic electronics. As the technologies mature
then VC investments should increase but many innovations are still
some way from attracting the levels of investment that will take
the companies to the next level and bring products to market.
Whether the UK engineering and manufacturing sector
are set up to handle growth in this area or other areas like it
The devices and components made using the current
generation of plastic electronics are small in size, such as readout
displays for consumer goods, and utilise batch processing methods.
The majority of these are fabricated either in Europe but predominantly
in the Far East and not in the UK. The next generation of devices,
larger, better quality and more flexible, are beginning to be
scaled up with plants being built in Germany (Plastic Logic) and
Wales (G24i). Most companies in the UK are specialising in one
activity at one stage in the supply chain and not looking to vertically
integrate their activities. While vertically integrated companies
are not essential we believe the lack of supply chain integration
will add complexity to the commercialisation process. Company
collaboration will be required where there will inevitably be
information sharing sensitivities. However, having said this,
the UK has many of building blocks and skills that be brought
to bear to support the growth in this area. Many if the materials
technologies and emerging companies are UK based and it has expertise
in related industries such as the Si devices, printing and test
equipment. What the UK lacks is the infrastructure and knowledge
of high volume manufacturing such as flat panel displays, solar
cells and LED lighting. Facilities such as PETeC and the IKC at
Cambridge will go someway to providing the UK companies with a
location to acquire these skills and to develop and try out production
process without the high risk investment in unproven combinations
of production equipment that will be required.
March 2008
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