Invisible Electronics for Packaging Applications

Lecturers at the conference revealed that total transparency is now also possible with printed transistors and many other forms of electrical and electronic devices. For example, a watch is on the way that generates electricity invisibly from a solar cell coating on the viewing glass.

Light emitting plastic was first discovered in Europe, at Cambridge University in the UK, and the Dye Sensitized Solar Cell was invented in Switzerland and is now in production - printed reel to reel - in the UK. Nanosolar described how it will soon be printing an alternative, the Copper Indium Gallium diSelenide DSSC photovoltaics reel to reel in Berlin, another world first. Markets inaccessible to silicon chips will be accessed by transistors printed reel to reel, PolyIC of Germany being in the lead, and photovoltaics cleverer than silicon solar cells (for instance transparent, tightly rollable and working from heat as well as light) have arrived.