Symposium Spotlight: "Printed and Flexible Electronics"

October 31, 2016 01:38 AM EST By: Regina Ramazzini

The "Printed and Flexible Electronics" symposium will be taking place at TechConnect World Innovation Conference, May 2017 in DC. TechConnect interviews symposium chair, Mandakini Kanungo, Senior Scientist at Xerox Corporation.

  Mandakini Kanungo

Please introduce yourself and tell us about your role within your organization.

I am a Senior Scientist at Xerox Corporation. Since joining Xerox in 2008, I have led research efforts around the fabrication and characterization of printed electronics devices for high-resolution digital printing and display applications, and have made significant contributions to surface design and fabrication for major printing programs and the adhesive material design for Xerox printhead development. I have led multiple open innovation collaborations with different universities including two grants with Cornell University and an MIT Fellowship program and authored more than 30 peer–reviewed publications; hold 35 U.S. patents and 20 patent-pending applications.

Please tell us about Printed and Flexible Electronics- what are the areas of greatest interest/excitement in this field, and what types of applications are possible.

Flexible and printed electronics is an emerging technology offering completely new product concepts combined with low production costs, low energy consumption and environmentally friendly materials and processes. Although most flexible electronics products are likely to be produced through roll-to-roll printing processes, some are currently being fabricated on conventional liquid crystal display and microelectronics production lines. The application areas are boundless and include consumer electronics, healthcare, military and transport, advertising, textiles, displays and lighting. Xerox research center at PARC has made pioneering contributions to printed electronics both in terms of materials and print technologies. Recently Xerox launched “Printed Memory” to combat counterfeiting. This is the first real roll-to-roll demonstration of a printed memory device in a manufacturing scale.

What can we expect to see from innovation and applications in the next 5-10 years?

The forecast for printed electronics market is predicted to be $74 billion dollar by 2024.  We can expect an increase in commercialization, components that are more active and more products reaching the market. Asia Pacific is expected to account for the largest share of the total printed electronics market in near future. This region has emerged as a major electronics manufacturing hub with robust manufacturing activities in countries such as China, Japan, India, and South Korea, which is boosting the demand for printed electronics systems in this region. OLED and display market using printed electronic will continue to grow but some of the exciting next generation printed electronics applications will be in wearable devices, diagnostics for healthcare, reconstructive surgery, stretchable electronics and 3D printed electronics.

Please tell us about the Printed and Flexible Electronics symposium you chair at the TechConnect World Innovation Conference. What topics are you focusing on?

This year we have expanded the symposium beyond bendable and conformable applications and will include more direct write applications, hybrid electronics to increase the exciting application space. Symposium speakers will provide perspectives from industry, academia, and government labs. Speakers will cover topics ranging from materials and processes, large scale roll-to-roll manufacturing to the applications of flexible electronics.

Is there anything else you would like to say about your program at the upcoming TechConnect World Innovation Conference?

I am very excited to have this opportunity to chair this exciting and stimulating symposium. I am looking forward to the symposium and am confident it will bring forth many new fundamental research, innovations, and applications in this emerging and disruptive area of future electronics.

 

  Subscribe to our mailing list, and we'll keep you posted of the latest developments.

RSS feed of TechConnect News™ RSS feed of TechConnect News™