There has been a wide range of news regarding the flexible and printed electronics industry during the first quarter of 2015, from new products to collaborations. These were the five most read Printed Electronics Now Breaking News items during the first quarter of 2015:
 
1. Sensor Films Inc. Signs Agreement with Xerox
 
Sensor Films Incorporated (SFI) and Xerox announced an agreement to develop and bring to market advanced manufacturing solutions for the high volume production of touch sensors using polymer-based transparent conductive films.
 
Under the agreement, Sensor Films will develop and market scalable inkjet-based manufacturing process equipment utilizing Xerox’s proprietary solid ink technology. SFI announced that in the near future it will unveil a family of equipment that provides a means for mass production of the next generation of flexible, low cost devices.
 
Current plans call for the delivery to customers of a sheetfed digital deposition system configurable to customer production demands during the second half of this year. In addition, a high volume, in line roll-to-roll digital deposition system is under development and will be available in 2016, officials said.
 
2. Cima NanoTech Wins Best New Touch Technology at DSE 2015
 
Cima NanoTech was awarded Best New Touch Technology at DSE 2015 by rAVe [Publications], an official media partner of DSE, for the company’s proprietary SANTE technology. This technology enables true projected capacitive multi-touch solutions for fast response large format touch screens. Cima NanoTech demonstrated at DSE a 57-inch Interactive Table Top with a touch response time of up to 6 milliseconds, similar to the speed of tablets today.
 
3. Alien Technology Introduces Largest Rollout of Higgs-4 IC-Based Inlays
 
Alien Technology announced its largest rollout of new Higgs-4 inlay products. The three new inlays join additional product variants across two other inlay products, representing 15 new Alien inlay products in all, and are available now.
 
The Alien Technology ALN-9714 Bio RFID inlay is designed for use in pharmaceutical applications, especially glass vials or ampules containing fluids or powders. The Alien Technology ALN-9741 Doc RFID inlay (95mm x 8mm / 3.74” x 0.32”) is designed for use on paper products such as documents and file folders where tags may be used in close proximity to each other. The Alien Technology ALN-9730-E Squiglette-E is a world-tag with special tuning for the most challenging applications using European frequencies. Squiglette-E is already used in many high-volume applications including retail/apparel, enterprise-wide asset management, warehouse management and the tracking of other challenging materials and objects.
 
4. Northumbria Students Granted Funding to Develop Wearable Technology Designs
 
Design students from Northumbria University have been awarded grants to work on a number of novel wearable technology designs. The funding will allow the product designs to be developed from concept to design prototype with the vision towards commercialization and creating significant cost savings for the NHS. As part of the postgraduate WearCare project, groups of postgraduate design students from the university were tasked with creating product concepts for a patient-centered device for health monitoring or treatment.

The winning project developed the idea of a device that provides music therapy for autistic children to help to focus their attention. Other wearable technology concepts in the program included a device specifically targeted at NHS staff which aims to reduce back injury and a smart-watch based app that uses video gaming technology to treat depression. Printable electronics provides the opportunity to incorporate electronic functionality into a wide range of medical and healthcare products. Printable electronics will be adopted in a variety of forms ranging from implants, smart skin patches and RFIDs to applications in automatic drug delivery, anti-counterfeiting and smart packaging.
 
5. Heliatek Announces Start of Pilot Project for Energy Self-Sufficient Air Dome Using HeliaFilms
 
Heliatek has successfully installed its solar film, HeliaFilm, on a PVC-based membrane air dome in Berlin, Germany. The project was implemented together with PARANET Germany, which produces air domes for sport, events or emergency accommodations supporting humanitarian aid missions. The HeliaFilm has been affixed with an integrated mounting on the outer shell on 50 square meters, in 2×2 meter squares. With a total electrical output of 1.4 kWp, the current project should provide about 5% of the annual energy demand of the air dome. The long-term goal of the cooperation is the ability to set up air domes without any external power supply.