The field of printed electronics is drawing interest from across the spectrum of organizations, from corporations and universities to research institutes. In fact, there is strong research being conducted at the national level.

This is certainly the case with the National Research Council (NRC), Canada’s leading organization for research and technology development. Established in 1916, the NRC partners with Canadian industry to take research impacts from the lab to the marketplace, where people can experience the benefits. This market-driven focus delivers innovation faster, enhances people’s lives and addresses some of the world’s most pressing problems.

“We are responsive, creative and uniquely placed to partner with Canadian industry, to invest in strategic R&D programming that will address critical issues for our future,” said Thomas Ducellier, executive director, printable electronics for the NRC. “Each year our scientists, engineers and business experts work closely with thousands of Canadian firms, helping them bring new technologies to market. We have the people, expertise, services, licensing opportunities, national facilities and global networks to support Canadian businesses.”

The field of printed electronics is an up and coming business. Ducellier noted that the NRC has been involved in the area of organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) and organic photovoltaics (OPVs) for more than 10 years, and sees opportunities in printable electronics.

“NRC has long-established, world-leading experience in researching and developing advanced nanomaterials and organic semiconductors,” Ducellier said. “Although activities in organic electronics at NRC started over a decade ago supporting industrial innovation in such field as OLEDs and OPVs, a coordinated system level effort in printable electronics (PE) within the organization started in May 2012.”

The NRC brings expertise in both printing and materials to the field of PE. On the printing side, it has two main printing capabilities: nano-imprinting/nano-embossing and inkjet printing, with plans to grow sheet-to-sheet and roll-to-roll printing capabilities in the near future.

“Our nano-imprinting efforts are primarily focused on the development of advanced optical, microfluidic and electromagnetic functionalities through sheet to sheet and eventually high-speed roll-to-roll (R2R) imprinting process using UV curing and hot-embossing processes,” Ducellier said. “By shaping the topography of polymer and metal surfaces at the micro and nano-scale levels, visually stunning effects can be obtained and used in various applications including document security and very advanced molecular detection for portable low-cost sensing in environmental or clinical applications.

“Our current printing capabilities are based on various inkjet printers of medium to large scale,” Ducellier added. “These are used for prototyping activities, with definite plans to migrate towards larger throughput sheet-to-sheet and roll-to-roll manufacturing in the coming years. We are also in the process of commissioning a medium scale screen printer.”

On the materials side, Ducellier said that the NRC’s overarching goal is to provide materials solutions that address unique partner needs.

“We work as a coordinated team to develop application-specific materials compatible with various printing techniques and planned device designs,” he continued. “Our scope is to validate commercial materials/inks and de-risk the introduction of new materials into processes and devices such as electrodes, conductive circuits, antennae and thin film transistors.”

In particular, the NRC is working with its partners on the development of printable materials with the required electronic properties, including nanocarbon inks for thin-film transistors; a thin-film transistor materials package, including electrode, dielectric and semiconductor; and conductive inks for circuit and antennae applications with near bulk conductivity.

In particular the NRC has a strong basic background in functional materials, including conductive and semiconducting inks; functional devices such as logic circuits, memory, conductors, RFID and NFC; and functional imprinting for security printing.

“NRC prototyping capability in printable electronics provides industry with the expertise and state-of-the-art equipment they need to mitigate R&D risk and succeed in the development, manufacturing and deployment to market of PE products,” Ducellier said. “ We provide design and prototyping of PE components and systems for industry. Specific projects or fabrication services are undertaken and tasks performed based on NRC’s existing knowledge, intellectual property and facilities. NRC’s team of experienced, interdisciplinary commercial and scientific staff helps bring companies’ new PE-enabled products and processes to market faster.”

NRC’s results are promising. In the past few months, the NRC technical team has matched the best published results on material synthesis, purification and separation of single wall carbon nanotubes, printing of conductive traces and functional imprinting of security elements.

Ducellier is optimistic about the future of PE.

“PE solutions have tremendous promise when used at the intersection of four industrial sub-sectors: commercial printing, packaging, security printing and health care,” Ducellier said. “This space is rich with potential applications of PE technologies.

“Packaging applications deal with logistics and inventory management with RFID, and extend towards brand authentication and interactive packaging,” Ducellier added. “Security printing involves payment (banknotes and NFC-enabled mobile payment, identification documents and lottery tickets, and also overlaps with marketing with loyalty cards, gift cards and coupons. Traditional commercial printing is ripe with application scenarios for PE, be it in advertisement (flyers, posters, etc.) or in interactive newsprint.

“These applications feature a one-way or two-way interaction between the object and its user,” Ducellier continued. “While some of these applications can be created with relatively simple PE technologies, the ultimate common goal is the creation of entirely printed RF activated devices conforming to the NFC or RFID standards. The health care sector is poised to benefit from low cost, high throughput flexible devices that will emanate from PE solution for single-use applications.

“The NRC activities’ long-term goal is to position the packaging, health care, commercial and security printing industries to be early adopters of emerging PE solutions, making them global leaders,” Ducellier concluded. “This will be done through a coordinated system approach by engaging industry supply chains.”