Have you taken your medicine? Is the head of salad in the fridge too old? Are the tickets genuine? These are just a few of the many questions which tomorrows consumer and other users can get answers to from packaging and displays for example. This is all about electronics, or to be more precise, Printed Electronics. With this technology clothes and other products can be equipped with displays and sensors which provide increased functionality. Soon a testbed will be opened for the products of tomorrow which will be housed in Norrköping Science Park located in the historical and traditional old industrial landscape in Norrköping.

Established technology offers new opportunities
Printed Electronics is a new technology using conventional printing methods to produce electronics quickly simply and cheaply. Electronic identity cards with invisible information, dry phase patterning allows for inexpensive production of antenna and heating foils, printed displays for security labels and “smart” packaging for pharmaceutical articles and food products are just a few of the possible areas of use. Visionaries talk about using printed electronics to replace existing lighting techniques and displays that can be folded and put in the pocket.

Over the last 10 years or so research relating to this technology and methods has been successful conducted in close cooperation with Linköping University and the research institute Acreo. Printed Electronics is one of the profile areas within Norrköping Science Park and now the time is right to begin commercial activities and exploit these fantastic discoveries.

Official opening of testbed in May
PEA Manufacturing will officially open the new, 500 sqm testbed premises located in the industrial landscape in May as an aid to this commercialisation process. This will house the whole business chain, from material supplier – via producers and trade mark owners – to distributors and converts who can now try out their ideas, produce prototypes and test future products before they are unleashed on to the market. Not only is this testbed designed for production but there is also room for office facilities and, if necessary, laboratory environments for various analyses.

- There will also be room for business operations within this greenhouse, for example if a company is interested in trying out a small run which can be sold, says Ragnar Fridman who is the Process  Leader for the profile area Printed Electronics at Norrköping Science Park. A number of national and also international companies are already knocking on the door which is open to both hived off companies as well as those already established in the industry, he adds.

National priority area
Ragnar Fridman runs the network PEA which stands for Printed Electronics Arena and is a knowledge centre for Printed Electronics with such members as Holmen Paper, Fiskeby, Billerud, SCA Display, Printcom Grafiska and Östgöta Correspondenten.

- The aim of PEA is to create sustainable and long term growth within the region based on leading international research and an innovative environment. This requires close cooperation between academia, the business community and society. The field Printed Electronics has been declared a national priority by the Authority Vinnova which is the principal financier of the operations, says Ragnar Fridman.

Optimistic noises are being heard from the research institute Acreo.

- Technically we are in the forefront of world wide development of Printed Electronics. PEA will make it possible for the region to become a world leader within the commercial sphere, says Head of Department Leif Ljungkvist.

The visionaries of these operations hope to see the integration of Printed Electronics in products and services which will lead to increased competitiveness by the Swedish paper and packaging industry.

- As a result of the work relating to Printed Electronics there are now three new clusters under development: relating to packaging, building materials and major displays, concludes Ragnar Fridman, who is busy seeing to all the last minute details relating to the opening of the new testbed in May.