Uploaded byFlexEnable
Truly Flexible Electronics for Wearables and Everywhere-ables
The document discusses the potential for flexible electronics to enable truly wearable and ubiquitous ("everywhere-able") technologies. It outlines challenges facing wearables like design, comfort and utility that have led many users to abandon their devices. Flexible electronics could help by allowing fully integrated, lightweight and shatterproof displays, sensors and systems directly on clothing and everyday objects. The company FlexEnable is introduced as uniquely positioned to enable this with its thin, bendable transistors and capabilities to integrate flexible displays and sensors into entire systems on plastic. Partnerships are discussed to build new supply chains combining flexible electronics with textiles and usher in a new generation of wearables and ambient interactive technologies.
More Related Content
Similar to Truly Flexible Electronics for Wearables and Everywhere-ables
Truly Flexible Electronics for Wearables and Everywhere-ables
- 1. Truly Flexible Electronicsfor Wearables and Everywhere-ables Indro Mukerjee Chairman , FlexEnable Ltd. Printed Electronics Europe, 2015
- 2. Truly Flexible Electronicsfor Wearables and Everywhere-ables Technology embedding further into our lives………. 28 April 2015 | 2 Everywhere-ables = wearable technology for our environment - furthering the reach of electronics into our lives Technology must be Flexible, Bendable, Formable, Robust https://devcentral.f5.com/articles/oh-is-that-the-internet-youre-wearing http://www.computerworld.com/article/2496611/personal-technology/why-your-clothes-need-a-mobile-upgrade.htm Wearables • On body • In clothes Everywhere-ables • On surfaces and everyday objects
- 3. Truly Flexible Electronicsfor Wearables and Everywhere-ables Wearable Technology is the obvious next step………. In our rooms In our bags / carried In our pockets On our bodies In our clothes 28 April 2015 | 3
- 4. Truly Flexible Electronicsfor Wearables and Everywhere-ables Wearable technology is not new… • Wearable technology has been around for many years… • …and function ultimately adapts to fashion / social norms http://www.tie-a-tie.net/blog/the-evolution-of-the-necktie/ Functional Tie (Croatian, 17th Century) Fashion Tie (21st Century) Example: The Neck Tie 28 April 2015 | 4
- 5. Truly Flexible Electronicsfor Wearables and Everywhere-ables The same is already happening for wearable technology today… Function Fashion © Under Armour 28 April 2015 | 5
- 6. Truly Flexible Electronicsfor Wearables and Everywhere-ables Challenges remain: 9 criteria needed to drive sustainable adoption1 1 - http://endeavourpartners.net/assets/Endeavour-Partners-Wearables-and-the-Science-of-Human-Behavior-Change-Part-1-January-20141.pdf Selectability / Adoptability Design / Aesthetics Out-of-Box / Setup Experience Fit / Comfort / Form Factor Quality / Robustness User Experience API / Integratability Lifestyle Compatibility Overall Utility 50% of US consumers who have owned a wearable no longer use it (33% stopped within 6 months of receiving it)1 https://consumerinnovationadoption.wordpress.com/2015/02/13/will- you-stick-by-your-wearables/ 28 April 2015 | 6
- 7. Truly Flexible Electronicsfor Wearables and Everywhere-ables Challenges remain: 9 criteria needed to drive sustainable adoption1 1 - http://endeavourpartners.net/assets/Endeavour-Partners-Wearables-and-the-Science-of-Human-Behavior-Change-Part-1-January-20141.pdf Selectability / Adoptability Out-of-Box / Setup Experience API / Integratability Flexible electronics plays a key enabling role in at least 6 of these criteria 28 April 2015 | 7
- 8. Truly Flexible Electronicsfor Wearables and Everywhere-ables Flexible Electronics: a route to sustained behaviour change • Flexible displays and sensors unlock a step change in available utility for wearable devices • Daily mobile phone charging is now a habit like brushing teeth • This habit-forming behaviour change enabled by exceptional utility • Wearables can offer the same – flexible electronics is key 28 April 2015 | 8
- 9. Truly Flexible Electronicsfor Wearables and Everywhere-ables Introducing FlexEnable 28 April 2015 | 9
- 10. Truly Flexible Electronicsfor Wearables and Everywhere-ables A uniquely enabling technology… • The most significant new transistor and flexible electronics platform in decades- based on high performance Organic Thin Film Transistor (OTFT) • Enables true flexibility, bendability and unbreakability, for displays, sensors & entire electronics systems on plastic • Fully industrialised and suitable for all high volume display (LCD,OLED,EPD) & sensor technologies ……launching a spectacular future for flexible electronics 28 April 2015 | 10
- 11. Truly Flexible Electronicsfor Wearables and Everywhere-ables …and exciting capabilities have already been created. Capacitors Inductors Resistors Chip-on-Plastic Test & Qualify Transistor platforms Flex OLED Flex Image Sensor LOGIC Fingerprint Sensor Flex EPD Plastic LCD Vias Multilayer stack Substrate Handling • Our capabilities enable all mainstream display technologies and sensor technologies to become flexible – all demonstrated • Our capabilities can be integrated into entire systems on plastic • We can rapidly produce new designs and prototypes with our prototype line Ingredients Capabilities 28 April 2015 | 11
- 12. Truly Flexible Electronicsfor Wearables and Everywhere-ables We have the enabling capabilities – Activating Surfaces Plastic LCD – announced February 2015 – partnership with Merck Flexible EPD – in production today via partner Plastic Logic Germany Flexible OLED – announced March 2014 – in partnership with Novaled System on Plastic – Programmable Printed Logic Circuits combined with displays Flexible Image sensor - enables medical imaging & gesture control (ISORG) Biometric Sensors and Systems on Plastic – label-thin high performance area sensor arrays 28 April 2015 | 12
- 13. Truly Flexible Electronicsfor Wearables and Everywhere-ables Textile-thin electronics 0.25mm Transistor Bend Radius Wraps around a matchstick 25µm Substrate Thickness As thin as a human hair 100gsm Weight per area As light as a sheet of paper 60 Hz OLED/LCD Flexible full motion video As thin as a human hair Low Cost Lowest cost for all areas and surfaces Shatterproof Rugged displays and sensors • FlexEnable electronics technology as thin, light, shatterproof, flexible as textiles today 28 April 2015 | 13
- 14. Truly Flexible Electronicsfor Wearables and Everywhere-ables Building Flexible Supply Chains for Wearables • Enabling materials, product and manufacturing companies to accelerate their route to volume and facilitate new supply chains • Enables rapid prototyping and evolution kits for flexible displays, sensors and new product concepts for wearables and Everywhere-ables. 28 April 2015 | 14
- 15. Truly Flexible Electronicsfor Wearables and Everywhere-ables A tale of two industries – with no previous overlap • We are partnering with materials, product, manufacturing companies Flexible Electronics Textiles & Clothing Designers & Manufacturers 28 April 2015 | 15
- 16. Truly Flexible Electronicsfor Wearables and Everywhere-ables A Roadmap to fully integrated smart clothing wearables Removable EmbeddedSeparate Flexible electronics Textiles and clothing Level of integration clip; belt; etc. As two industries increasingly overlap velcro; magnet; zip sewn-in washable foldable 28 April 2015 | 16
- 17. Truly Flexible Electronicsfor Wearables and Everywhere-ables A Roadmap to fully integrated smart clothing wearables Removable Washable Embedded Zipped Velcro-attached Magnetic-attached Sewn-in Foldable Separate Head-set Strap Clip-on Improving quality, robustness and lifestyle compatibility needs truly flexible, wrappable and foldable electronics 28 April 2015 | 17
- 18. Truly Flexible Electronicsfor Wearables and Everywhere-ables Example: Gesture-controlled Smart Sleeve – System on Plastic Sports jacket flexible display Flexible light sensors Flexible curved display • Light, thin, curved display, gesture- controllable in all conditions • Lightweight, glass-free makes magnetic attachment effective and reliable • Can be easily removed for washing the garment, or transferring to another • Option to add wireless charging within the fabric of the jacket itself 28 April 2015 | 18
- 19. Truly Flexible Electronicsfor Wearables and Everywhere-ables Everywhere-ables • Embedding technology into the world around us • Conforming technology to our world, not the other way round. • Activating surfaces – for sensing and displaying data 28 April 2015 | 19
- 20. Truly Flexible Electronicsfor Wearables and Everywhere-ables Keeping the technology under the surface……….. 28 April 2015 | 20
- 21. Truly Flexible Electronicsfor Wearables and Everywhere-ables Tailor-made electronics for wearables & everywhere-ables • We must work together to build new supply chains • FlexEnable launching a Wearable Technology Lab to provide rapid prototype services & validate applications for flexible electronics We invite you to talk to us FlexEnable can help you with your Wearables & Everywhere-ables design, prototypes and building volume supply chains 28 April 2015 | 21
- 22.