Disposable Electronics: The First Wave for Printed and Organic Electronics
November 2007
|
GLEN ALLEN, Va.—Two interesting trends in electronics are beginning to come together in a way that NanoMarkets believes will create major new business opportunities in the next few years. One of these is the rise of Thin-film, Organic and Printable (TOP) electronics. The other is the trend towards endowing objects with as much electronic intelligence as possible with the goal of creating environments that enhance comfort, productivity and entertainment value.
The second of these trends has as its end goal a vision that is known by many different names, including “everyware,” “ambient intelligence,” “pervasive computing,” “ubiquitous computing,” “intelligent computing,” and the “Internet of Things.” The exact term used somewhat depends on where you are in the stack. “Everyware” is obviously a software term. “The Internet of Things” is obviously a hardware term and hence probably the most relevant in the context of this report.
There are also differences in the terminology that the different computing, consumer electronics and semiconductor firms use for this trend. But all the rather futuristic sounding names cover up the fact that there is nothing really new about enhancing objects electronically. Simple, inexpensive electronics have been used for decades in such applications as magnetic strips on credit cards and tickets, lights and audio effects for inexpensive toys and novelties; and certain security tags.
What the latest developments in TOP electronics do is to enable embedded electronics of this kind to move to the next level of complexity. Thanks to TOP electronics, that magnetically striped credit card can be transfigured into a low-cost battery operated smartcard with its own display and an onboard printed processor, for example. And that smartcard would still be easily thin enough to fit in a wallet.
At present such transformations stop well short of the more extravagant visions of the “Internet of Things” that are to be found in the literature. But the new wave of electronically embedded products is creating important new opportunities. At the same time, they are also pointing the way to the future. The kinds of products that can be created with the technology discussed in this report may be a long way from “Everyware,” but they are also much closer to “The Internet of Things than we have seen before.
One of the major implications of the intelligence being everywhere is that it be in objects that have very little intrinsic value and which can be discarded with few consequences. Such products are often made from inexpensive materials that do not - and are not intended to - last very long. And they are unlikely to be treated with tender loving care by users. These specs are not the ones that developers of complex electronics usually have to cope with; consider how circuit boards are treated.
The second of these trends has as its end goal a vision that is known by many different names, including “everyware,” “ambient intelligence,” “pervasive computing,” “ubiquitous computing,” “intelligent computing,” and the “Internet of Things.” The exact term used somewhat depends on where you are in the stack. “Everyware” is obviously a software term. “The Internet of Things” is obviously a hardware term and hence probably the most relevant in the context of this report.
There are also differences in the terminology that the different computing, consumer electronics and semiconductor firms use for this trend. But all the rather futuristic sounding names cover up the fact that there is nothing really new about enhancing objects electronically. Simple, inexpensive electronics have been used for decades in such applications as magnetic strips on credit cards and tickets, lights and audio effects for inexpensive toys and novelties; and certain security tags.
What the latest developments in TOP electronics do is to enable embedded electronics of this kind to move to the next level of complexity. Thanks to TOP electronics, that magnetically striped credit card can be transfigured into a low-cost battery operated smartcard with its own display and an onboard printed processor, for example. And that smartcard would still be easily thin enough to fit in a wallet.
At present such transformations stop well short of the more extravagant visions of the “Internet of Things” that are to be found in the literature. But the new wave of electronically embedded products is creating important new opportunities. At the same time, they are also pointing the way to the future. The kinds of products that can be created with the technology discussed in this report may be a long way from “Everyware,” but they are also much closer to “The Internet of Things than we have seen before.
One of the major implications of the intelligence being everywhere is that it be in objects that have very little intrinsic value and which can be discarded with few consequences. Such products are often made from inexpensive materials that do not - and are not intended to - last very long. And they are unlikely to be treated with tender loving care by users. These specs are not the ones that developers of complex electronics usually have to cope with; consider how circuit boards are treated.
|
