Flexible Electronics for Security, Manufacturing, and Growth in the United States Summary of a Symposium (2013) / Chapter Skim
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Panel II: The U.S. Interest: Security, Manufacturing, and Growth
Panel II: The U.S. Interest: Security, Manufacturing, and Growth
Pages 49-63
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From page 49... ...
Pellegrino, of the Sensors and Electron Devices Directorate, said he would describe the Army's approach to flexible electronics, beginning with a discussion of the term itself. The word "flexible," he said, is important in itself, but along with flexibility come other attributes: "it can be inherently rugged, is likely to save packaging weight and cost, and can be printed by a roll-to-roll or other large-scale and efficient process." All these attributes have value for the Army; for example, a flexible or "conformable" material may have great medical value, such as the ability to incorporate various multifunctional sensors that detect situational awareness, stress, fatigue, or mental function, or to place sensors in conformable bandages.
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From page 50... ...
He noted the leadership of Wal-Mart in this area, which has pioneered the use of printable electronic labels and other tracking devices for merchandise. In building more capabilities into flexible displays, he said, the military will begin with fully flexible circuit boards and add further displays that may involve many other technologies, such as solar cells, thermoelectrics, and photovoltaics.
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From page 51... ...
Larger Arrays and Grids Beyond the level of sensors and circuits, he said, the Army would explore larger arrays and grids of devices that could be manufactured by a rollto-roll or hybrid process. These arrays and grids, which could gather both geospatial and temporal information, might include flexible solar cells on tents, mess halls, or other structures in the field, generating their own power at efficiencies of at least 30 percent.
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From page 52... ...
I submit that this technology has many more degrees of freedom than we've begun to plumb at this point. Some companies, individuals, and universities are beginning to explore that, and I predict that there's a whole lot more out there." THE ROLE OF DARPA IN PRINTABLE ELECTRONICS Devanand Shenoy Microsystems Technology Office DARPA Dr.
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From page 53... ...
If you could have a single camera with a very wide point of view," he said, "think about the military applications you can enable." DARPA and partners are now developing technologies that address that challenge. Sea Bright, a company co-founded by Nobel Laureate Alan Heeger, had demonstrated a 128-by-128 photodetector array on a curved surface with a very small radius of curvature, which is the "real challenge." He said that Lincoln Laboratories and others had achieved curved surfaces in the past, but the challenge is to achieve the 1-centimeter range and still have enough pixels.
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From page 54... ...
For printing, he said, the performance of printing technology must improve from a resolution of 20 microns to about 1 micron, which would allow "a huge leap ahead in terms of the performance of transistors and other components." Also needed is to significantly improve the transconductance of the transistors. "You have to talk about these numbers," he said, "and then ask whether you can really achieve something that's much better than what we have today." Other building blocks for printable electronics include operational amplifiers, which have been used for many years in conventional electronics.
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From page 55... ...
In addition, Dr. Schen said, the technologies of flexible electronics demand manufacturing innovations of high technical risk, which means that sources of private capital may not be willing to invest.
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From page 56... ...
Schen said that NIST's laboratory programs were focused on both materials processing and electronics aspects of flexible electronic devices. To date, TIP had funded a scale-up in advanced materials competitions for 2009 and 2010, and for critical processes in 2010.
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From page 57... ...
He said that printable electronics represented a "solution pathway" that would affect many sectors of civil infrastructure, including energy and health care, as well as defense. During the first year of funding for manufacturing, he said, NIST had been oriented toward scaling up production from research quantities of electronic materials, including printable inks, to producing quantities that device manufacturers could depend on for precommercial work.
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From page 58... ...
NIST priorities include strengthening its laboratories and facilities according to critical national priorities. It also plans to promote extramural programs that link it more closely with industry and academia, and to emphasize partnerships with state and regional leadership.
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From page 59... ...
The largest was the Ohio Third Frontier Investment, a $2.3 billion program designed to focus on the first three phases: doing the basic research, incubating the new firm, and developing the products to the proof-of-concept stage. The Third Frontier program had begun as a $1.6 billion program in 2002.
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From page 60... ...
The third level was designed to attract investors, featuring a 25 percent state tax credit offered to people who invest in technology. A part of this incentive package was the Ohio Venture Capital Fund, a fund of funds that provided funding to firms that channel at least 50 percent of their investments into technology firms in Ohio.
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From page 61... ...
He said that the Third Frontier program had leveraged its state money by eight or nine to one, as indicated by the STI study, and that NorTech had created about 54,000 jobs across the state, including a portion for flexible electronics. "So this strategy can be very successful." DISCUSSION A questioner asked panel members how much money they had invested in flexible electronics and how much in flexible displays and lighting.
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From page 62... ...
"They pay their own way, which helps lower technical and business risk by stimulating the supply chain as well as cultivating potential clients or customers. Thus TIP is stimulating at not only the front end but also the back end of a large enterprise.
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From page 63... ...
To the surprise of many, it became a fastselling item on Amazon, and the company quickly added employees, shifts, and revenue. They also learned more quickly than most companies about scaling up their manufacturing, "because they had real customers banging on their door." In the cluster, other companies were now saying they might like to look out for applications of their own that they could commercialize.
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