FlexTech Alliance Announces 2013 FLEXI Award Winners, Recognizing Accomplishments in Flexible and Printed Electronics

PHOENIX and SAN JOSE, Calif., Feb. 1, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- FlexTech Alliance today announced the recipients of the 2013 FLEXI Awards. American Semiconductor, Corning Incorporated, and Plastic Logic were recognized for significant contributions to innovation and R&D. The awards celebrate organizations that are leading development in flexible and printed electronics with innovative and commercially viable products and technologies.  FLEXI nominations are open to all organizations involved in these foundation technologies.  Awards were presented at the 12^th Annual Flexible Electronics and Displays Conference held January 29 – February 1, 2013 in Phoenix, Arizona.  

American Semiconductor was the recipient of the FLEXI Innovation Award. Entries for this award were considered based on the most innovative flexible or printed electronics product announced in the last twelve months. Judging criteria included product design & ingenuity, potential market adoption and revenue generation. In 2012, American Semiconductor announced Flexible Hybrid Systems with FleX™ Silicon-on-Polymer™, a proprietary process to transform standard silicon wafers into flexible wafers. The process has been demonstrated with functional CMOS wafers and was successfully launched into space in June 2012 under the NASA RockSat program. A wide variety of new applications enabled by Flexible Hybrid Systems is possible in the medical, aerospace, and commercial markets. The award was accepted by American Semiconductor's president and CEO, Doug Hackler.

Two companies were recognized individually for their achievements in R&D. Entries for this award were considered based on world-class research, original product development, and new significant commercial potential for implementation into flexible or printed electronics. Judging was based on the ability of entrants to identify and solve a real problem.  Each of the R&D award recipients has a unique approach for enabling the flexible products of the future. Corning, Incorporated was recognized for its development of Corning® Willow™ Glass, a thin and flexible display-grade glass. Plastic Logic was honored for its color filter alignment process enabling the integration of color displays into flexible concepts.

Corning, Incorporated received the FLEXI R&D Award for Corning Willow Glass, a thin and flexible display-grade glass that has benefits for a variety of electronic devices.  Willow Glass can be used in producing thinner and lighter touch panels and displays, allowing for more light weight portable devices such as smartphones and tablets, without sacrificing device performance or reliability. The technology also enables thin, light, and flexible solar cells and lighting products which can be more easily integrated into both portable devices and living spaces.  Willow Glass can be used as the foundation for electronics made by high-speed, cost effective, roll-to-roll processes, similar to the way paper is processed for newspapers and magazines. Using a research grant funded by the FlexTech Alliance, Corning successfully partnered with other industry leading researchers to demonstrate the general compatibility of a flexible glass web in a roll-to-roll processing and printing of organic photovoltaic devices. Roll-to-roll processing, promises larger volumes at reduced costs. Displays made on roll-to-roll platforms would be large, thin and low-cost enough to be digital wallpaper or counter and table tops in homes, schools and offices. The award was accepted by Dr. Sean Garner, research associate at Corning, Incorporated.

Plastic Logic received the FLEXI R&D Award for its scalable color filter alignment process, a transformational technology that enables the integration of color displays into flexible concepts. The specific ability to align a flexible color filter array to a plastic backplane could be employed by flexible display makers, including OLED manufacturers. This transformational technology enables innovative product manufacturers to integrate color displays into applications such as a car dashboard or a medical bracelet. A proper color display operation demands that the color filter structure is perfectly aligned to the pixel array. Since a plastic film would distort during the diverse range of fabrication techniques used to make the backplane, Plastic Logic developed a top pixel electrode technology that would effectively erase this distortion prior to adding the color filter. The entire flexible electronics industry will benefit from the expertise of developing high throughput techniques for carrying out high resolution patterning on plastic. The award was accepted by Indro Mukerjee, CEO, Plastic Logic.

"Flexible and printed electronics form the building blocks upon which many improvements will be made in the way we interact with electronic devices," said Michael Ciesinski, CEO of FlexTech Alliance. "The creative solutions in materials, tools and processes offered by our award recipients will lead to lower-cost, conformable electronics products."

About FlexTech Alliance
FlexTech Alliance is devoted to fostering the growth, profitability and success of the electronic display and the flexible, printed electronics supply chain.  FlexTech Alliance offers expanded collaboration between and among industry, academia, government, and research organizations for advancing displays and flexible, printed electronics from R&D to commercialization.  More information about FlexTech Alliance can be found at   www.flextech.org.

SOURCE FlexTech Alliance