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EPTE Newsletter from Japan: Can Organic Electronics be Printable and Flexible?

If you attend technical or academic seminars, chances are you have heard discussions about organic electronics. Every week I read about new, innovative materials that are conductive, semi-conductive, photovoltaic – the list goes on and on. Researchers from universities and material companies are extremely optimistic for the future of organic materials and their sensational performances. These researchers all claim that the new organic material is printable.

Basically, organic materials are flexible, and therefore a roll-to-roll (RTR) manufacturing process is applicable. The RTR process can significantly reduce manufacturing costs, so any electronic device made from this new organic material will be less expensive than current devices made from traditional electronic materials. But, is it practical for organic materials?

In my opinion, their projections are too optimistic. Listed below are a few problems that were overlooked by these researchers:

• Usually, electronic properties of organic materials are much lower than that of traditional materials.

• The conductivity of the unique materials is much lower than that of metallic materials.

• The mobility of the organic transistor is much slower than silicon transistor.

• The conversion rates of the organic photovoltaic cells are smaller than the traditional devices made of inorganic materials.

• Flexibility is not unique to organic materials. Traditional materials can be flexible by reducing their thickness.

The RTR process cannot guarantee a cost reduction for new electronic devices made from organic materials. Sometimes, the material costs for organic electronic devices are higher than traditional devices. Traditional electronic devices will reduce the manufacturing costs, continuously. With that said, organic devices will not have lower costs than traditional electronic devices. This is the primary reason that there are very few successful business ventures from organic electronic devices.

It is my opinion that the new electronic materials or electronic devices have to have unique advantages over traditional products other than cost savings. I believe potential customers are willing to pay more money for this unique advantage.

Dominique K. Numakura

DKN Research, www.dknresearchllc.com  

Headlines of the Week

(Please contact haverhill@dknreseach.com for further information about the news.)

1. Yoneyama Seisakusho (equipment supplier in Japan) 6/19Has started water-jet cutting service for various hard materials such as SiC, AlN and quartz.

2. SMM (major mining company in Japan) 6/20SMM has founded SH Materials, a JV formed with Hitachi Cable for the lead frame market. SMM has a 51% stake of the JV.

3, Hitachi Cable (major cable manufacturer in Japan) 6/21Has completed the early retirement program of its packaging material divisions. A total of 160 employees signed up for the early retirement program.

4. IDEMITSU (major petrochemical company in Japan) 6/24Has developed a new metal plating process for low-loss polystyrene resin for high-speed printed circuit boards.

5. Osaka University (Japan) 6/24Has co-developed a new photolithography process changing both of the machine and resist for the next generation semiconductor processing. The throughput of the new process will be 10 times faster than the EUV process

6. Sumitomo Chemical (major chemical company in Japan) 6/24Has developed a new inkjet printing process to produce organic polymer EL display on glass substrates with a resolution of 423ppi.

7. Olympus (major optical device manufacturer in Japan) 6/24Will commercialize a new portable supersonic phased array non-destructive inspection machine, the OmniScan SX Series.

8. ChipMOS (major packaging manufacturer in Taiwan) 6/26Will increase the monthly capacity of bumping service for LCD driver ICs from 16,000 wafers to 24,000 wafers by the end of 2013.

9. Innolux (major display manufacturer in Taiwan) 6/27Will begin volume production of on-cell type touch panel screen for Chinese customers.

10. Sharp (major electronics company in Japan) 6/27Has rolled out a new all-in-one LCD TV called AQUOS DR, with BD drive and 500GB HDD. It is capable of recording, watching and holding.