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Printed Electronics in Next-Gen Mobile Phones
December 31, 1969 |Estimated reading time: 1 minute
By Peter Harrop, Ph.D., IDTechExPrinted electronics are an emerging $300 billion business of transistors, memory, displays, solar cells, batteries, sensors, lasers, and more printable or potentially printable electronics. End products manufactured in this manner will be foldable, conformal, wide area, low cost, edible, rollable, transparent, and biodegradable, as needed. Transparent transistors, batteries, solar cells, and related products are hitting the market, and Kodak has developed edible RFIDs for medical applications. Beyond this, the printed electronics industry will be pivotal to the future of mobile phones.
RFID-enabled phones, used by 40 million Japanese consumers already for transportation tickets and purchases, will develop into a global handset sector, hitting one billion units annually. Miniaturization and cost reduction will come from printed electronics. The Printed Electronics USA conference will cover the role of printed RFID labels in replacing trillions of barcodes yearly, making purchasing an RFID-labeled product instantaneous with an RFID-enabled mobile phone.
Mobile phones also could be applied to medical concerns, using printed intelligent labels to remind patients to take medicines. "More than 300,000 people die in Europe and the U.S. yearly from taking medicines incorrectly. Printed electronics used on existing medicine packages can reduce this number by including invisible intelligence. We can make it simple to use these additional features with a mobile phone," said Jos Geboers, The Compliers Group (Netherlands), presenter at Printed Electronics USA. The Compliers Association targets developing low-cost intelligent medication packages.
Using printed electronics, mobile phones will have large snap-back keyboards, chargers, and color video displays. Displays could perform better under direct sunlight. "Organic solar cell technology can be printed into OPV chargers for cell phones and laptops," notes Andy Hannah, CEO of Plextronics, who also will speak at Printed Electronics USA. "Cell efficiency is progressing quickly in labs across the printed electronics sector, and these products could reshape how renewable energy is captured and used."
For more information from IDTechEx, see www.idtechex.com, or visit our Events page for details on Printed Electronics USA.