According to electronics industry and graphic overlay design professionals, the market for printed electronics was estimated in 2011 to be at over $2 billion, which grew to become a $24 billion industry by 2014. While these were initially created as potential low-cost replacements for silicone-based products, they are now widely used in high-volume market segments where the high performance of conventional electronics is not needed.
Among the products that use printed electronics include luminescent films, smart labels, flexible displays, keyboards, animated posters and various sensors, thereby turning simple everyday products into smart objects or devices.
The production line of printed electronics gives an outlook on the fully automated factory of the future. In addition to the technical feasibility of automated production lines for printed electronics, it also shows the technology’s economic viability. A digital manufacturing approach can enormously speed up the development of prototypes.Special properties and functions can be easily implemented, in particular using printed electronics. printed electronics concentrate mainly on applying electrically conductive structures, structures, insulating layers, 3D surfaces, and sensory components.
Through the resource-saving, direct application of structures made of valuable materials based on pastes or inks using aerosol-jet, inkjet, screen printing or dispensing methods, electrical circuits and sensor elements can apply to various surfaces. The thermal activation that is often necessary to functionalize the printed structure occurs depending on the possible temperature load through UV curing, in ovens, through a laser, or electrically.
Printed electronics is one of the primary applications in functional printing and should complement conventional electronics. Because of further developments in printing technology, the large-area design of plastic semiconductors is now possible. When researching suitable processes, findings and outcomes in electronics, chemistry, materials science, and polymer chemistry must be considered. In principle, almost all known industrial printing processes produce printed electronics, but in a changed or adapted form.
The special printing companies worldwide use various printing processes such as screen printing, pad printing, and digital printing/UV printing. Since screen printing offers the possibility of creating thick layers from pasty materials, the process is mainly used to manufacture printed electronics. With this method, conductor tracks made of inorganic materials and insulating passivation layers can be produced.The printed electronics are known for being as flexible as the name suggests. The transistors can be made from either inorganic or organic materials, and also it can be both by mix components of the two. For example, printed electronics is the transistor that is fabricated using the organic materials that were replaced the silicon and hard ceramic materials with soft, carbon-based materials.
In case of comparison, the organic thin-film transistors are inherently flexible and have greater performance than the amorphous silicon. It reflects to have a higher performance because it can be processed at a temperature that is lower than a hundred degrees which are allowing the use of lower-cost thin-film substrates thus empowering flexible devices. With today’s advancement of technology, it seems that the components of electronic devices turn out to be flexible as well, such as electronics for the automotive, consumer electronics, smart home instruments, and even digital signage.
Another thing that could make the printed electronic great is the portability. While most conventional electronics feature glass-based displays that are made of rigid and conceivably fragile elements, advances in organic thin-film transistors allow consumer-end products to be extensively lighter and thinner. This change in design makes everyday responsibilities either house tasks or jobs, easier. From traveling to grocery shopping, users are able to depend on a single, sturdy device to access a wide array of functions and services that could offer anytime and anywhere. These advantages make electronics an engaging alternative to modern silicon technologies.
It is far-fetched that printed electronics will be able to contend with traditional silicon-based electronics elements when it comes to execution, dependability, and proficiency to manage the complicated structures. But the chance of firmly fixing the electronics in any object and shape and at a low cost is very unusual yet interesting. Consequently, printed electronics should be regarded as a complementary technology to traditional electronics. This realization of the fruit of the visualization about the conventional and what could encourage the innovation of hybrid electronics systems. These can manipulate the better of the two worlds and mitigate their restrictions. Moreover, printed electronics use a simple and cost-effective low-temperature manufacturing procedure and are consistent with fully automated mass production printing by the roll-to-roll regulation.
Printed electronics have become secure, flexible, and cost-effective, all of which make them demanding to a broad range of industries. Printed circuitry has the potential to lessen costs and technical constraints typically associated with mass constructing electronics. Printed electronics also need fewer input materials and less power to operate with them. And, printed electronics pave the path for flexible devices that people previously may not have considered possible.In addition, printed electronics using printed graphene treated with lasers for paper electronics is a cost-effective option if you want to create flexible, wearable products. Inkjet-printed graphene is now being used to make sensors with biological uses, paper-based electronics, energy storage systems, and electrical conducting components.
Nevertheless, key advances are made in the field of printed electronics. Improvement of printing equipment & printing processes is part of the research and development. Materials also are further developed with specific design, software development, integration of hardware, & development of materials.In the field of consumer products, printed electronics has provided better functionality to devices, control panels and even clothes. In clothing and other everyday wearables, thin circuits and flexible conductive inks provide enhanced performance without sacrificing comfort.Printed electronics is an all-encompassing representation of the printing process employed to complete electronic machines by printing on a combination of substrates. Initially, printed electronics were related to organic or malleable electronics that utilize one or more additional links created from carbon-based combinations.
Nowadays, one can find various types of printed and flexible electronics sensors. For starters, printed biosensors can measure a reaction between and enzyme and a bodily fluid.