Light-emitting or energy-converting, intelligent and flexible: Customers are eagerly awaiting the products of the future, prototypes of which will be shown during K 2010, the world's leading plastics and rubber trade fair, held in Düsseldorf, Germany, October 27-November 3, 2010.

The conversion of light into energy and electrical conductivity is part of the future for a plastics industry that is undergoing massive change with electronics providing the focus for innovation. Flexible plastics-based solar cells, printed batteries, smart materials or bio-analysis on a plastic chip will be products much in demand in the near future.

"Plastics-based electronics offers new opportunities for technological advances with intelligent processes and materials," explains Dr. Klaus Hecker, Managing Director of the Frankfurt-based Organic Electronics Association (OE-A). An international working group within the German Engineering Federation (VDMA), the OE-A brings together the activities of the entire value chain of organic and printed electronics. The OE-A's latest road map says that, having made great strides in research and development, more and more branches of this young industry are going into mass production.

Organic and Printed Electronics and VDMA

"A young technology needs a strong association to represent its interests," says Andrew Hannah, Vice-Chairman of the OE-A and CEO of Plextronics, USA, adding that for five years now, this highly dynamic network of international companies and research institutes has provided "international visibility," which is of "inestimable value" for the technology and the firms that produce it.

Organic and Printed Electronics and the Plastics Industry

Organic and printed electronics has the backing of the plastics industry. "The highly-promising combination of plastics and electronics, unimaginable half a century ago, has brought fresh impetus and is opening up new markets," explains Thorsten Kühmann, Managing Director of the VDMA Plastics and Rubber Machinery Association. There is no doubt that polymer electronics can help the EU achieve its ambitious climate targets.

Market for Polymer Electronics

Polymer electronics transforms plastic into a high-tech material on which many industries are pinning their hopes. According to the findings of market research organisations turnover is set to rise from the present 1.5 billion euro to nearly 250 billion in the next 20 years, driven by organic photovoltaics, organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays and lighting and printed transistors and data memories.

Investment, which amounted to 2.2 billion euro last year, will double by 2015. New factories are springing up, and it is estimated that globally more than 2,000 firms are active in the various branches of organic and printed electronics, with Germany and Europe as major players.

A Material with a Future

As a basis for electronics, polymers are becoming the material of the future. Battery chargers, sunshades and carrier bags will convert light into energy and reduce dependence on existing power grids. The need for taking the charger for the mobile or looking for a socket in the train compartment will then be a thing of the past.

"What we have here is a completely new process for mass producing electronics," explains Dr. Hecker. "The new components for electronic appliances are flexible, thin and light, but at the same time they are strong and inexpensive," underlines the expert in organic and printed electronics. The electronics can be produced on virtually endless rolls of plastic substrate--with no silicon or copper--and the functional parts directly integrated into numerous products.