With a focus on a wide array of areas, including flexible and hybrid electronics, IDTechEx Live! 2017 concluded its two-day conference on Nov. 16 at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
 
Organized by IDTechEx, the conference set new highs for attendance and exhibitors. It included eight co-located concurrent programs this year, including 3D Printing, Energy Harvesting, Energy Storage Innovations, Graphene, Internet of Things (IoT) Applications, Printed Electronics, Sensors, and Wearables. 
 
“It went very well,” said IDTechEx CEO Raghu Das. “We sold out all of the halls, with 253 exhibitors and 3,500 attendees. Our previous high was 3,000 visitors. The feedback I received from exhibitors is that there was a good turnout of buyers.”
 
Das added that the presentations went well.
 
“In terms of talks on printed electronics, one highlight was OSRAM reporting that Audi will pay more for OLEDs due to brad excitement,” Das added. “There is more equipment her, like companies such as Bot Factory and Voltera, and we saw strong interest in flexible electronics.”

Conference Highlights

With eight concurrent tracks, IDTechEx Live! offered numerous insights into key markets.
 
Mark Douglas Jerger, market development consultant for Chromera, discussed “Printable Electro-Optic State Indicators for IoT and Healthcare,” which covered Verichrome, the company’sirreversible electrochromic material.

“Verichrome enables use/don’t use and go/no go decisions easily through our electrochromic color change technology,” Jerger noted. “For example, we can signal to users not to take expired medicines. Our initial targeted applications are the industrial/retail sensor tags, healthcare devices and passive applications that harvest RF energy.”
 
Sri Peruvemba, VP of marketing for CLEARink, discussed the company’s development of color materials offering video speeds for eReaders in his talk on “Frustrated eTIR (electrophoretic total internal reflection).”
 
“We are working on ePaper 2.0,” Peruvemba reported. “Educators and parents want children to have the latest information. Books are good for math, but what about information from yesterday’s TED talk? Outside of displays, we are in the prototype stage in areas ranging from wearables and the Inernet of Things (Iot) to signage and automotive.”
 
Miguel Castillo Holgado, VP global business development IoT for Altair, showed how the IoT can enable advances in food and beverages with his talk on “Smart Beer: How IoT Drives Innovation.” He noted that Carriots by Altair offers an end-to-end Internet of Things (IoT) platform.
 
“With our smart beer system, a flowmeter is installed between the beer barrel and the tap, and each time a beer is served, the information is sent to Carriots,” said Castillo. “We can collect sales data, working conditions on machines and can even change beer formulas remotely.”

In his presentation, “Integrating Printed Electronic Elements,” Nth Degree Technologiesfounder Dr. William spoke about his company’s advances in integrating simple functions into printed electronics devices, such as adding batteries to micro LEDs.
 
“We use traditional printing, such as screen and flexography,” he added.
 
The RAIN RFID session offered insights into how RFID is changing the of retail. RAIN RFIDpresident Steve Halliday President noted that to date, RAIN RFID has connected more than 20 billion things. Wendy Werblin, director industry solutions for Impinj, discussed “RAIN RFID is a Key Enabler of the Internet of Things.”
 
“RAIN RFID adds intelligence to the IoT value chain and facilitates new applications for connected things,” Werblin said. “Wireless technology identifies, locates and authenticates billions of items, and enables a future where everyday items are part of a connected world.”
 
Jeremy Schenof, senior director, RFID solutions for Avery Dennison RBIS, added his thoughts in his talk on “Connected, Intelligent Packaging: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow?”
“Consumer expectations are changing,” Schenof noted. “For example, a study showed that 34% of shoppers have ended a purchase due to long lines.
 
“We have developed connected products that are born digital, which improves the supply chain, in store customer experience and post-purchase experience,” he added. “We have labels that store, transmit and/or sense data.”
 
Schenof outlined four key growth markets for RFID, beginning with baggage handling by airlines.
 
“We see continued growth in baggage tracking,” Schenof reported. “The airlines face a $2.5 billion cost for mishandled bags, and studies show that 80% of travelers want to track their bags in real time. Delta tagged 120 million bags with RFID, and handled the with 99% accuracy.