Today, Dr Khasha Ghaffarzadeh, CEO of TechBlick, delivered his opening remarks to a well-filled auditorium at UMass Boston, welcoming the global TechBlick community to the first American instalment of the event series “The Future of Electronics RESHAPED”, which is the counter piece to the Berlin event (23-24 October 2024). PRO Flextronics’ Editor-in-Chief Martin Hirschmann reports live from Boston.
Asahi Kasei: Development of Smart Logistic Solution Using Flexible Sensor with R2R Submicron Electrode Formation Technology
In the opening keynote, Masayuki Abe from Asahi Kasei highlighted issues related to the supply chain that delivers products and services to end consumers. It is constantly changing and is exposed to various risks such as diseases, counterfeit crimes, geopolitics, natural disasters, and economics. In order to solve these issues, it is important to visualise the end-to-end status of individual products from upstream to downstream, and to upgrade and optimise the supply chain based on the visualised data. According to Abe, one solution is the realisation of smart logistics and flexible sensors for understanding the status of individual products. Asahi Kasei has developed RFID labels with submicron resolution R2R electrode printing technology and a data platform using blockchain. In his presentation, Abe introduced a submicron resolution R2R electrode printing technology and RFID labels, as well as a roadmap towards smart logistics and a data platform.
Energy Materials Corporation: Commercialising High-speed Production of Perovskite Solar Panels
“Our technology aims to disrupt the global monopoly of silicon,” stated Thomas Tombs from the Energy Materials Corporation. According to him, EMC is scaling up to manufacture Perovskite solar panels for multi-GW/year production volumes using high speed roll-to-roll equipment. The methodology of EMC’s commercialisation involves going from lab scale inks and methods to high-speed prototype demonstrations and culminates with full scale production of finished panels. Tombs showed that EMC’s projected cost per Watt for manufacturing perovskite solar cells at the GW-scale is a fraction of the best-case projections for Silicon solar cells, which enables local manufacturing in regions with high energy and labour costs.
Voltera: Multi-layer Flexible Displays using Electroluminescent Ink
In his keynote, Voltera’s Jesus Zozaya unveiled a cutting-edge technique for prototyping multi-layer flexible displays using Saralon’s electroluminescent ink. Additively deposited using a direct ink writing dispensing system, this ink opens up new use cases for functional information display and aesthetic appeal. These inks can be printed on diverse substrates, such as glass, paper, and plastic, enabling a new dimension in creative and interactive packaging solutions across various industries.
FLEXOO: Mass customisation & mass production of Smart Sensors
“Sense everything everywhere,” was the motto of Jean-Charles Flores’ presentation at TechBlick Boston. In detail, he talked about delivering end-to-end solutions for smart sensors and electronics, from initial development to final manufacturing. He highlighted how it is possible to enable the mass production of smart sensing elements in record time. Moreover, he presented FLEXOO’s strategy to go toward mass customisation and provided examples for e-mobility & renewable energy storage, military, automotive and logistic applications.
Readers of PRO Flextronics can benefit from a special discount on all TechBlick products (live and online events, including TechBlick Boston and Berlin) by using the code PROFLEX2024.