plastic electronic presents expert system for functional surfaces

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "plastic electronic presents expert system for functional surfaces"

Rudolf Smith
6 years ago
Views:

1 PRESSRELEASE Linz / Austria, February 2013 plastic electronic presents expert system for functional surfaces The Austrian company for technology development and provider of special function foils plastic electronic presented their expert system to produce injection molded parts with functional surfaces on the Sensitive Surface Days, that took place on February 14 th and 15 th 2013 in the event center of injection molding machine manufacturer Engel. Behind this expert system is a partner network, which provides all competences and production possibilities from foil technology and foil production to the electronic system technology and building design to tool making and injection molding. Components with functional surfaces offer a huge potential for product design. Their functionality can be put into injection molded parts as foils with electronic coats and ultrathin components. The current status of foil function technology is a wide range of sensor functions, from the direct touch-operation to contactless near-field handling to extensive gesture control. In addition to sensor technology function foils offer numerous possibilities, like the emission of light as well as visual, haptic or acoustic signals. Even contactless, inductive charging of portable batteries can be provided with according structures on the foil. For plastic injection molding suitably made foils are combined to composite parts through back injection. This gives the foils structural stability and offers sensitive sensor structures optimal protection against mechanical and environmental stress. Application tests were easily passed in the temperature range between -40 and +85 C. This, and the fact that properly chosen foil material can be easily three dimensionally formed, offer design freedom for device designers and product developers. (Fig. 1 and 2a-c) multiskin film integrates design und function The central component of the plastic electronic-technology is the multiskin -film. Multi-Skin stands for a foil that is provided with one or more electrical layers. The multiskin -film can contact@touchskin.net

2 plastic electronic presents expert system for functional surfaces - Seite 2 be finished either as a single film or transformed into a functional housing part with additional films, like design films or protection films. When composite parts are manufactured this way, there are not only numerous creative possibilities to design products and to design the way of operating, but it is also very costefficient, because conventional individual components and related assembly operations can be largely reduced. (Fig. 3) The right material for every application Generally, polyester films like PET (polyethylene terephthalat), PEN (polyethylene naphthalate) or PC (polycarbonate) are used as basic materials. Depending on the manufacturing method, these polyester films show different behavior in terms of conductivity, transparency and malleability. Conductive structures are applied on the films through coating. Due to the surface design, implementation and location of the carrier foils functional structures are freely selectable. Connection plugs to the external electronic components can be either mounted on the film as SMD components or the plugs are applied in the injection molding process. Summary plastic electronic-ceo Philipp Weissel summarizes: Compliant with our self-conception as technology-developer and film-experts, during the last six years we focused our capacities solely on the further development of function films. As an outcome we now offer a wide range of solution approaches, tools and technical data that enable us to make certain projects ready for series-production. After the basic developments we currently have the optimization and the miniaturization of the multilayer-technology and the automatic mounting of ultra-thin chips as part of the reel-to-reel process on our agenda. Even if there will be a lot of work to do, the fundamental system benefits of components with sensitive surfaces are obvious, especially the economically interesting component- and assembly-reduction and they are also available already. The probably biggest advantage of functional surface technology is among the reduction of the number of individual parts their huge potential to realize Batch engineering cost-effectively. Due to the variation of the decor and the functional film a final

3 plastic electronic presents expert system for functional surfaces - Seite 3 product can be individualized unrivalledly in terms of costs. For most applications we can already offer a solution with our expert system. about plastic electronic plastic electronic was founded in 2006 and is a spin-off-company of the Johannes Kepler University in Linz. The initiative to found the company came in 2005 from Serdar Sariciftci, who had researched electrical conductive plastic structures for years together with Nobelist Alan J. Heeger at the University of California, Santa Barbara, before he established the Institute for organic solar cells at the Johannes Kepler University Linz. In parallel with research projects in the field of plastic electronics, the current focus is on touchskin -projects. Contact Philipp Weissel CEO of plastic electronic Lunzerstraße 89 A-4030 Linz philipp.weissel@plastic-electronic.com Internet: Author Reinhard Bauer TECHNOKOMM independent technical writer office@technokomm.at Figures:

4 plastic electronic presents expert system for functional surfaces - Seite 4 Photo: plastic electronic / Linz - Österreich Fig.1: Multiskin -components with touch-sensitive surfaces offer great potential for new, intuitive control concepts, here using the example of a multifunctional console for an automobile.

2a+c: With fully closed surfaces, new concepts of ergonomics and

Examples are the waterdrop-design or the wave-design that can be

5 plastic electronic presents expert system for functional surfaces - Seite 5 Concept studies: plastic electronic / Linz Austria Fig.2a+c: With fully closed surfaces, new concepts of ergonomics and operating logic are realized. Examples are the waterdrop-design or the wave-design that can be operated intuitively. The sensors can be freely positioned in the background through the function film.

6 plastic electronic presents expert system for functional surfaces - Seite 6 Graphic: plastic electronic / Linz - Österreich Fig.3: Multiskin -components offer huge rationalization potential especially due to the possibility of function integration of switch functions and sensor functions onto the electronic function film.

7 plastic electronic presents expert system for functional surfaces - Seite 7

Processes for Flexible Electronic Systems

Processes for Flexible Electronic Systems Michael Feil Fraunhofer Institut feil@izm-m.fraunhofer.de Outline Introduction Single sheet versus reel-to-reel (R2R) Substrate materials R2R printing processes