Changes in the Target Markets for Printed Electronics

Happiness is a standard ticket

Those developing printed transistors will find life much easier when they can meet such things as the standard ISO 14443 transport ticket specification with 256 bits of read write memory and an HF (13.56MHz) air interface. This does not call for securely segmented memory let alone microprocessors. The Chinese railway system will need three billion yearly and even Moscow will take up to 360 million yearly. Currently the price is about 20 cents for an unprogrammed ticket and 50 cents when programmed and overprinted, though the highest volume orders will be a little below this. On a ticket, space is not too much of a constraint for printed transistors with their currently large feature size. However, that amount of printed memory with adequate yields has yet to be announced. They will get there. IDTechEx sees $40 million being spent on such tickets in 2011 and that forecast will be sharply increased if the planned big orders in China and certain other countries come to pass.