High Value Manufacturing for Low Cost Electronics

Transcription

1 High Value Manufacturing for Low Cost Electronics Cambridge Integrated Knowledge Centre 18 December 2012

2 Low Cost Printing? Myth Printing is cheap Functional inks enable printing of electronics Additive processes minimise usage of expensive functional materials Digital printing allows designs to be changed easily High speed roll-to-roll printing provides economies of scale Conventional printing companies can easily move into printed electronics Reality Improving printing sufficiently for electronics makes it expensive Controlling quality & consistency of functional inks is very challenging Subtractive processes can use lower cost materials; smaller feature sizes enable much lower material usage Electronic reliability requires standard designs (or at least standard building blocks) so benefit is limited Starting and stopping a roll-to-roll process wastes material Electronics requires expertise in functional testing & yield management

3 Manufacture in Far East? Myth Printed electronics requires a large fab similar to conventional electronics Far East labour rates will make production more cost effective there Far East companies are generally better at manufacturing in high volume on razor-thin margins Reality Simplified processes allow smaller scale manufacture and modularity of production Printed electronics production can be largely automated, hence maximising utilisation of capital equipment is often a more significant cost driver Many printed electronics applications are driven by value not merely price (thin, flexible, transparent, robust, ) so decent margins can be maintained

4 PragmatIC Printing enables printed logic circuits that introduce intelligence and interactivity into a wide range of novel product form factors: thin, flexible, transparent, robust, disposable,

5 PragmatIC Printed Electronics Ultra small feature size enabling dense logic in a small footprint Minimises material usage Maximises capital equipment utilisation High volume production with low throughput processes High Value Manufacturing for Low Cost Electronics

6 Imprinted Electronic Logic Thin, flexible, transparent, robust, disposable,

7 Electronics via Imprint The oldest form of printing! Clay imprints from stone stamps ~4000BC Cylinder seals in recorded use ~2000BC Mesopotamian cylinder seal & impression Industrial use for high volume, low cost replication Optical microstructures (e.g. holography for security / decoration) Optical disc manufacturing (CD, DVD, BluRay) Nano-imprint proven down to feature size ~10nm PragmatIC imprinted electronics feature size 50nm 5µm Planar Nano Diode array via imprint

8 Novel Device Architectures Conventional Thin Film Transistor (TFT) PragmatIC Planar Nano-Transistor (PNT) Insulating Trench Gate Gate Contact Dielectric (Insulator) Semiconductor Semiconductor Contact Gate Contact Substrate Substrate Complex 3D structure Multiple patterning steps needing precise alignment Challenging to print Can improve by using self-registered structures Simple planar 2D structure Single patterning step entirely within semiconductor layer Requires sub-µm features Nano-imprint enables ultra-small devices

9 PragmatIC Business Model Imprinted Logic Manufacturers Integrators & Converters Application End-Users Commercial Licensing Prototype/Pilot Supply Technology transfer with joint industrial process development System integration to demonstrate functionality and form factor Pilot Production Facility Scale-up of lab process using off-the-shelf equipment Intellectual Property Platform for Imprinted Logic Proven & patented transistor, diode and circuit architectures optimised for imprint

10 PragmatIC Pilot Production Printable Electronics Technology Centre (part of Centre for Process Innovation) in Sedgefield, U.K. 600m2 cleanroom plus 100m2 test & inspection lab Suitable for projects with 10k 1M unit quantities Centre for Process Innovation

11 Production Scale-up Example Optical disc production model Self contained cleanroom Thin film vacuum material deposition (up to 7 layers) Nano-scale imprint patterning (to 50nm) In-line test and inspection Origin Azul Blu-ray Disk production equipment Throughput 5s/disk: >10Bn circuits per year Cost $1/disk: <0.1c per logic circuit

12 Summary Unique platform for printed logic Patented device architectures using proven imprint process Higher density and performance than other printed electronics Simplified, scalable, ultra low cost manufacturing Compelling market opportunity Potential in multiple billion dollar market segments Growing revenue from end customers validates initial applications Licensing technology for industrial process scale-up Also partnering to solve system integration challenges Pilot-scale production for early commercial deployment

13 PragmatIC Printing Ltd St John s Innovation Centre Cowley Road, Cambridge CB4 0WS United Kingdom