Printed Electronics

For tomorrow’s economic electronics!

Electronic components from the printing machine are expected to be a hugely important market of the future. The reason is the production technology for silicium electronics, which is used to produce the circuits, logic and storage elements of a microchip, requiring high technical and financial effort. The technology is unbeatably superior when it comes to the production of high-end products such as Pentium® processors, but its limitation is the production of fairly simple chips at a relatively low cost per unit.

This is where the vision of printable electronics comes into play. If it became possible to print conductor paths and electronic components just like colors, investment costs for the equipment necessary should come down from billions to millions of Euros. Costs of processing should also become comparable to the printing of newspapers or labels, markedly lower than in the semiconductor industry. The new technology could help to make products such as RFID labels and electronic playing cards far less expensive, or facilitate the production of flexible displays. However, in order to realize new printable electronics it is necessary to develop material and processes that can be applied to printing machines. The goal of Evonik’s project “Printed Electronics” is to develop the material systems needed to realize the vision of printable electronics and conquer these new markets.

This project was financially supported by the state of NRW and co-financed by the European Union.

Our goals are:

supply of a product portfolio (semiconductor, conductor, dielectric, isolator) for cheap, printable electronics
supply of materials / system solutions for clients. Our focus is on matching of materials with each other, like a complementary system with semiconductor and dielectric, as well as adaption to the processes of the client, i.e. the printing technology or drying processes used.
Validation of materials systems in industrial printing processes.

Our expertise

Formulation know-how for various printing methods
Printing technology, sample prints and know-how (Ink Jet, screenprint, flexo, engraving, offset)
Clean-room production capacity
Commissioned production
Physical and chemical characterisation in-house
Synthesis lab
Interdisciplinary approach
Distinct research network

We draw back on a broad academic network of research partners and have the following referrals among public funded projects and cooperations:

Graduate college Duisburg-Essen “Nanotronics –Photovoltaics and optoelectronics from nano particles”
Graduate college Erlangen-Nürnberg “Disperse systems for electronics applications”
Nanomatch (EU RTN-Network)
PriMeBits (EU FP7 project)
Assemble! (BMBF project)
MaDriX (BMBF project)

Information material

Here you find information material about our product portfolio (conductor, insulator, antenna and semi-conductor) in the field of printed electronics.