It's not your father's twinkling gift card anymore

Printed Electronics USA starts Tuesday, and I’m looking forward to another preview of the coolest gadgets and energy-harvesting components made possible by tomorrow’s flexible, printed electronics and photovoltaics. This technology is truly a new market for coaters, laminators, narrow-web printers and other converters.

According to conference organizer IDTechEx, more than 2,250 organizations around the world are developing an entirely new platform of materials, manufacturing processes and associated equipment for printed electronics. A $300-billion industry is in the making.

“An array of devices is now available, such as batteries, photovoltaics, transistors, new display technologies, sensors and printed conductors. But while enabling technologies, these are NOT products,” says Raghu Das, CEO of IDTechEx. “That’s the current weakness and challenge for the industry.” Eventually, printed electronics WILL displace some conventional electronics, but it will take time and money to gain scale, he says.

Early successes of printed electronics include printed battery testers—about 1 billion of these simple electrical devices are printed yearly (think Duracells); cosmetic skin patches enabling faster absorption of cosmetic into the skin; and eReaders. All have created new markets, Das explains.What’s needed next are basic circuit functions, such as electronics that can provide a changing message, detect presence, provide timing functionality, change an indicator, etc. These could then work on their own or be combined in applications for the military, health care, consumer goods, consumer electronics, advertising and media. On that CPG note, Procter & Gamble, the world’s largest consumer packaged goods company, will open the conference with a keynote.

OK, so stay tuned to my Blog and follow my real-time CnvCurmudgeon reports on Twitter with the hashtag #PEU09.

Printed electronics are a real and growing opportunity for converters. Ignore it at your company’s peril.