Printed electronics are, for the most part, manufactured on plastics. It has always been a hope that printing on paper could become a mainstream approach. This would have many benefits, beginning with sustainability; the EU Packaging Regulation is looking to control the use of plastic packaging. However, paper has hardly played a role as a carrier material for electronic devices.

Creating printed sensors on paper would be an ideal opportunity, and is one that is being worked on with the EU project SUPERSMART. The concept is to get paper printed electronics from the lab to fabrication. The project, which ended in December, was honored by the OE-A competition at LOPEC 2021 within the category “Best Publicly Funded Project Demonstrator.”

SUPERSMART’s partners developed two application examples – a shock detection sensor and an intelligent anti-counterfeit label – which can be read out via a cell phone app. They can easily be integrated into packaging and consumer goods.

Fabrice Domingues dos Santos of ARKEMA Piezotech is the coordinator of the SUPERSMART project, with Fraunhofer ISC among the key partners. The partners developed and tested a wide range of products, including piezopolymers, ferroelectric nanoparticles, electrochromic materials, metal-oxide semiconductors and barrier coatings for papers.

Domingues dos Santos noted that printed electronics appeared on the scene more than 10 years ago, as key partners wanted to bring printed electronics to the market. However, the challenge was to bridge the gap for a printed electronics ecosystem from lab to scale. This led the EIT RawMaterials, a body of the European Union under the Horizon 2020, the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, providing funding for the SUPERSMART project.

“The EIT RawMaterials Upscaling Programme was the ideal frame to reach that goal and the idea for the SUPERSMART project was born,” Domingues dos Santos added.

“With its approach to transferring technologically mature high-throughput processes to the printing of electronic components, the SUPERSMART project has removed major hurdles to wider use,” said Domingues dos Santos. “Paper-based sensors and labels are attractive for numerous applications. They can easily be integrated into packaging and consumer goods. An anti-counterfeit tag for particularly vulnerable or expensive goods can help to protect manufacturers and consumers from fraud. Large-area shock detection sensors integrated into packaging or other paper-based elements provide transportation protection and event traceability.

“These printed elements can be used as security features, that add reliable and cost-efficient smartness to simple products. The smarter the packaging, the greater is the benefit. Even completely new areas of application are conceivable, e.g. filter technology or in the education sector.”

SUPERSMART gathered many competencies from materials design and processing architecture – industrial development was completed with fundamental or applied research where necessary. Domingues dos Santos said that the strength of SUPERSMART lies in the diversity of its partners, which range from big industrials like Arkema and Arjowiggins, smaller companies like Coatema or Luquet & Duranton, applied research organizations like Fraunhofer ISC, VTT, Joanneum, as well as fundamental research from CNRS, CEA, Uninova Lisbon, and the University of Bordeaux – as well as understanding in design and market mechanisms.

“We had all what printed electronics needs – a wide scope of competencies to reach the market,” Domingues dos Santos added. “With its approach to transferring technologically mature high-throughput processes to the printing of electronic components, the SUPERSMART project has removed major hurdles to wider use.”

There are numerous environmental and cost benefits of printed electronics produced on paper.

Gerhard Domann from Fraunhofer ISC said that the life cycle assessment (LCA) analysis showed a lower impact on the environment by using paper instead of plastics – around 80% regarding the substrate.

“Moreover, using paper opens the well-established paper recycling chain, where packaging and smart labels can be treated together,” Domann added. “Costs will depend on application and volume growth. It was the initial target of SUPERSMART to develop and upscale material, process and devices with appropriate costs for the very competitive packaging market.”

Domann said that SUPERSMART had to deal with many challenges, including technical, regulation, marketing and commercialization. “We tried to manage all the best ways to bring the technology to the market,” Domann added.

Domingues dos Santos noted that SUPERSMART’s products are already being produced.

“Some material developed in SUPERSMART are already commercial and smart labels are to be introduced to the market,” Domingues dos Santos said. “Smart sensors target in a first step packaging of high value and very sensitive goods (luxury, pharmacy, medical products), then we hope to extend the market to packaging of all kinds of goods in the future. We also target other applications besides packaging – monitoring of damage or shock, reliability, ambient sensors for ambient assisted living, etc.”