It was another year of growth for the flexible and printed electronics industry.  Companies set up interesting new partnerships, while there was limited merger and acquisition activity.
 
These partnerships helped set up new opportunities. In one noteworthy collaboration, Xerox and Thin Film Electronics partnered on two new projects using Thinfilm Memory. Xerox will produce its Xerox Printed Memory and Xerox Printed Memory with Cryptographic Security at its Webster, NY plant. Among the target markets are supply-chain security applications and anti-counterfeiting capabilities for pharma, governmental tax stamps and refill authentication.
 
In another example, Enfucell is bringing its SoftBattery thin, flexible printed battery to a powered wireless golf sensor patch, which was created in conjunction with Qualcomm.
 
There are more of these partnerships; some of them have been publicized, and others are still in development. It is likely will see more of these projects come to fruition during 2016.
 
In significant news, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) awarded FlexTech Alliance $75 million in federal funding over a five-year to establish and manage a Manufacturing Innovation Institute (MII) for Flexible Hybrid Electronics (FHE MII) n San Jose, CA.
 
The FHE MII includes 96 companies, 11 laboratories and non-profits, 42 universities and 14 state and regional organizations. In addition, FlexTech will more than $96 million in matching funds from San Jose, industry, universities, states and non-profits.

Mergers and Acquisitions
 
The flexible and printed electronics industry did not see a lot of merger and acquisition activity in 2015, although there were some exceptions.
 
In May 2015, Molex announced the acquisition of Soligie, one of the early leaders in printed electronics manufacturing. Molex is a leader in the field of printed circuit boards, and will combine its expertise with Soligie for products ranging from sensors, thin film batteries, RFID, flexible displays, memory and IoT.
 
“Soligie’s business expands our capabilities in the high-growth field of printed electronics,” said Todd Hester, VP and GM, Molex Printed Circuit Products business unit.
 
With an eye on the display industry, BASF Corporation acquired Seashell Technology, a silver nanowire specialist based in San Diego, in March 2015.
 
“We will build on this platform and develop innovative, efficient next generation silver nanowires tailored to the needs of our customers in the display industry and strengthen our recognition as a leader in the electronic materials industry,” ,” said Lothar Laupichler, SVP, Electronic Materials at BASF.
 
In November 2015, OLEDWorks finalized its acquisition of Royal Philips’ OLED assets and intellectual property. OLEDWorks now offers Philips’ Lumiblade line.
 
“OLEDWorks is dedicated to developing technology partnerships that emphasize our commitment to producing low cost, high performance, leading edge OLED solutions for integration into lighting products,” said David DeJoy, OLEDWorks Board chairman.
 
On the supplier side, the largest move is the planned merger of DuPont and The Dow Chemical Company. DowDuPont, the combined company, will have approximately $90 billion in sales; the merger is expected to be completed by the second half of 2016.
 
In the semiconductor field, NXP finished its acquisition of Freescale, first announced in March 2015, forming a $10 billion industry leader.
 
“The combination of NXP and Freescale creates an industry powerhouse focused on the high-growth opportunities in the Smarter World,” said Rick Clemmer, CEO of NXP.
 
In other moves, Merck acquired Ormet Circuits Inc., a materials supplier for the semiconductor industry. In a separate acquisition,Merck completed its $17 billion (€13.1 billion) acquisition of Sigma-Aldrich.
 
As we close the books on 2015, it was another good year for flexible and printed electronics, which bodes very well for the coming year.