Every electronic system is comprised of numerous individual components. Many of these components can be realized with flexible, organic and printed electronics, offering the advantage of being thin, lightweight and flexible. As such, printed batteries as a source of power supply with a flexible form factor can be realized. Further electronic components facilitated by organic and printed electronics are active devices, e.g. transistors, circuits, diodes or piezoelectric elements as well as display elements. Besides, passive devices, such as antennas for RFID and NFC tags can be fabricated via printing processes.
Implementation examples
Transistors, Circuits & Diodes
© InnovationLab GmbH
Organic transistor backplane, an array of adressable transistors. Transistors (small dark squares in the matrix) are used to address sensor nodes that can be placed on top of electronically switchable electrodes (bright squares close to the transistor.
Harvesting energy
© Holst Centre
Smart Home and IoT applications have to be energy autonomous, i.e. without having to install cables. Energy harvesting modules supply enough power for small sensors and wireless data transfer. A printed battery for energy storage can be added as well.