Editor’s Note: In 2015, NextFlex, America’s Flexible Hybrid Electronics (FHE) Manufacturing Innovation Institute, was launched to help build a manufacturing ecosystem for the fledgling flexible hybrid electronics market in the US. Dr. Malcolm Thompson, a display industry veteran, was brought in as its first executive director.

Now, eight years later, NextFlex has awarded $134 million in funding for projects developed by leaders in industry and universities. Dr. Thompson is stepping down as the head of NextFlex, and the industry looks poised for growth in the coming years.


Printed Electronics Now: How did you first become involved with NextFlex and flexible hybrid electronics?

Malcolm Thompson: I was founder and chairman of the US Display Consortium (USDC) from 1993-2003, which was a consortium focused on display technology. Concurrently, I was CTO at PARC and following that, I led dPix when it was formed in 1995 to commercialize digital x-ray technology. After, I ran five startups related to displays, so that was really my area of technical expertise.

At that time, we saw increasing interest in the display industry, but also realized that almost all the manufacturing was moving overseas. This observation was the impetus behind the shift at USDC to focus on flexible hybrid electronics (FHE), where the US could be a leader. So, in collaboration with USDC member companies and the U.S. government, USDC became the FlexTech Alliance in 2008.  Their charter was to facilitate FHE technology development that would lead to manufacturing in the US and to develop a manufacturing ecosystem to support it.

Later, an RFP was released that invited competitive proposals for a new Manufacturing Innovation Institute to focus on FHE in the US. I led the development of the proposal, which the FlexTech Alliance ultimately won, and this new consortium became NextFlex. Given my technical background, I offered to lead the new consortium as executive director, and in 2015, NextFlex was launched.


Printed Electronics Now: When you started with NextFlex, how many companies and people were involved, and how has it grown during your tenure?

Malcolm Thompson: Because I was part of the proposal and awarding of NextFlex, I was there at the very beginning. In the last five months of 2015, six companies and universities had joined. By the end of 2016, 60 more had joined, and today, we have over 200 companies, universities and government partners actively participating in NextFlex project calls, events and activities.

All these entities are working in collaboration to achieve the NextFlex mission, which is to advance hybrid electronics technology for US manufacturing, grow a sustainable manufacturing ecosystem and to accelerate the growth of the workforce needed to manufacture the technology as it matures. It’s been a joy to see the growth of NextFlex, and we’re now seeing hybrid electronics being designed-in to healthcare monitoring products and more.


Printed Electronics Now: What do you see as the advantages of flexible hybrid electronics?

Malcolm Thompson: What’s unique about hybrid electronics is that we can create novel form factors for electronics that are flexible and can conform to any surface, including the human body, or to equipment and other structural assets to measure vibrations and strain.

When NextFlex started, we began to see many applications for this emerging technology that can benefit from light weighting and low cost, and because these devices are all additively manufactured, they are much more environmentally friendly.

Today, with our membership we are actively pursuing applications in RF communications and antennae, automotive, soft robotics, medical wearables, structural health monitoring, and more, all of which are of great interest to the DoD and for commercial products.


Printed Electronics Now: How has the manufacturing of flexible hybrid electronics advanced during NextFlex?

Malcolm Thompson: Hybrid electronics have been in development for many years, but until NextFlex was formed, there was no US-based catalyst that could aggregate industry needs and focus on the greatest challenges that, if solved, would exponentially advance the state-of-the-art.

NextFlex has done that. We now produce an annual manufacturing roadmap that is developed by industry, academia and government, that validates market needs, identifies requirements over the next 3-5 years, and links the funded project work that has been completed to each of the gaps identified in the roadmap.

NextFlex’s mandate is to focus on what’s called Manufacturing Readiness Level (MRL) 4-7, meaning that we don’t focus on early-stage development, but rather, we help our members across the “Valley of Death” by focusing on making prototypes manufacturable and proving the technology can be made reliably in an automated way. Once the technology reaches MRL 7, it’s transitioned to industry for volume manufacturing. This is happening now.


Printed Electronics Now: What have been some of the most interesting projects you have seen over the years?

Malcolm Thompson: Several come to mind. In the area of healthcare monitoring, our members worked together to develop a wireless disposable vital signs monitoring device that can be worn by a patient in the hospital and then travel home for continuous ongoing care.

Another healthcare monitoring example is the device that NextFlex designed and prototyped for a commercial customer that reads blood oxygen levels in pilots to prevent hypoxia. Other notable projects include embedding electronics in textiles for physiological health monitoring, flexible radar systems for drones, and printed sensors for hypersonic vehicles. We’ve also done projects that test for endurance and reliability of hybrid electronics systems.

Printed Electronics Now: Where do you think the technology is headed in the coming years?

Malcolm Thompson: I believe that hybrid electronics has a lot to offer in solutions for electronics packaging, as an augmented approach to traditional electronics packaging. Because of the benefits of hybrid electronics, for both flexible and rigid applications, such as light weighting, low cost, low temperature and additive processing, and the opportunity for high-mix, low-volume manufacturing, the opportunities are seemingly endless. Our members and government partners are on track to astonish the world with the new capabilities enabled by hybrid electronics. Stay tuned!