UK government pledges £8.4m investment in plastic electronics
Will fund developments such as flexible displays and low-carbon technologies
Thirteen businesses have been awarded total funding of £8.4m by David Willetts, UK Minister for Universities and Science.
The money will fund r&d into plastic electronics technology, resulting in new products such as flexible displays and low-carbon technologies, including ultra-efficient lighting and low-cost long-life solar cells.
The firms secured the funding through two competitions run by the Technology Strategy Board.
Eight companies will receive a total of £7.4m. Just under £1m of this comes from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).
Another five companies share around £1m, which will fund the roll out of projects to encourage UK businesses to adopt the new technology in their product development.
‘The global market for plastic electronics is now worth almost US$2bn (£1.3bn) and is forecasted to grow to US$120bn (£80.2bn) by 2020,’ said Willetts.
‘This technology offers enormous potential to help our local environment, improve our everyday standard of living and support the nation’s economy.’
The projects include Topdrawer, which seeks to show that it is possible to manufacture a printed lighting panel or ‘Polymer light-emitting diode (PLED) luminaire’ that can be used in aesthetic designs. The project is led by Thorn Lighting and involves Cambridge Display Technology (CDT), Tridonic, Pilkington, Conductive Inkjet Technologies (CIT) and Durham University.
Morris (Manufacture Of Really Reflective Information Surfaces) is a three-year programme that aims to develop large reflective information surfaces that can be used for command/control rooms, electronic whiteboards, posters and signage. Hewlett-Packard is leading the project in partnership with Timsons and the Printable Electronics Technology Centre (PETEC), the UK’s national design, development and prototyping facility based at Sedgefield, County Durham.
