Breakthrough in Producing Printed Memory: An Interview
March 30, 2009
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By Dr. Peter Harrop, Chairman, IDTechEx Ltd.
Thin Film Electronics, an Oslo, Norway-based company with R&D facilities in Linkoping, Sweden, known as Thinfilm, and InkTec Co. Ltd, known as InkTec, have together made a breakthrough in producing printed memory on flexible substrates. Here Dr. Peter Harrop of analyst IDTechEx, interviews Johan Carlsson, President and CEO of Thinfilm and Kwang-Choon Chung, President and CEO of InkTec, about the latest development.
PH: For a long time, IDTechEx has been advocating more effort on printed memory, one of the missing parts of the printed electronics toolkit that is vital for progress. Can you tell us about this latest breakthrough and the history of your company please?
Johan Carlsson: Our latest development concerns a joint Thinfilm and InkTec project with the aim of demonstrating R2R high volume manufacturing of printed memories. The project has been a huge success with the realization of a R2R production worthy printing process capable of realizing printed memory cells with a yield in the 96-97 percent range for the best device structure. Up to now more than 100 meters of roll has been produced with a total of five printing steps. This is to our knowledge one of the world first established R2R processes capable of producing electronic components other than conductors and antennas with high yield. It is especially impressive given that the printed memory film thickness is only about 200 nm.
Thinfilm is a public research and development company founded in 1997 with aim to commercialize its polymer memory technology. The most promising aspect of Thinfilm’s polymer technology lies in the fact that it is possibly the only nonvolatile memory technology that can be fabricated entirely by printing. Thinfilm’s technology is based on development that we initially performed together with Intel for the production of so called hybrid high density silicon-polymer memories. Together we produced working 512 MB chip modules in 0.25 micro technology and that was five years ago using Thinfilm’s unique polymer memory technology.
PH: That is extremely exciting and significant. How does the partnership with InkTec operate and what other partnerships are in place with Thinfilm?
Johan Carlsson: The partnership with InkTec is characterized by mutual trust, transparency, efficient and professional exchange of information. This has enabled us to quickly resolve technical issues. We are moreover, very impressed by InkTec's facilities at the second factory in Pyoungtaek just outside of Seoul which are entirely dedicated to printed electronics with class 10 000 clean room in general areas and class 1000 around production equipment.
Thin Film Electronics, an Oslo, Norway-based company with R&D facilities in Linkoping, Sweden, known as Thinfilm, and InkTec Co. Ltd, known as InkTec, have together made a breakthrough in producing printed memory on flexible substrates. Here Dr. Peter Harrop of analyst IDTechEx, interviews Johan Carlsson, President and CEO of Thinfilm and Kwang-Choon Chung, President and CEO of InkTec, about the latest development.
PH: For a long time, IDTechEx has been advocating more effort on printed memory, one of the missing parts of the printed electronics toolkit that is vital for progress. Can you tell us about this latest breakthrough and the history of your company please?
Johan Carlsson: Our latest development concerns a joint Thinfilm and InkTec project with the aim of demonstrating R2R high volume manufacturing of printed memories. The project has been a huge success with the realization of a R2R production worthy printing process capable of realizing printed memory cells with a yield in the 96-97 percent range for the best device structure. Up to now more than 100 meters of roll has been produced with a total of five printing steps. This is to our knowledge one of the world first established R2R processes capable of producing electronic components other than conductors and antennas with high yield. It is especially impressive given that the printed memory film thickness is only about 200 nm.
Thinfilm is a public research and development company founded in 1997 with aim to commercialize its polymer memory technology. The most promising aspect of Thinfilm’s polymer technology lies in the fact that it is possibly the only nonvolatile memory technology that can be fabricated entirely by printing. Thinfilm’s technology is based on development that we initially performed together with Intel for the production of so called hybrid high density silicon-polymer memories. Together we produced working 512 MB chip modules in 0.25 micro technology and that was five years ago using Thinfilm’s unique polymer memory technology.
PH: That is extremely exciting and significant. How does the partnership with InkTec operate and what other partnerships are in place with Thinfilm?
Johan Carlsson: The partnership with InkTec is characterized by mutual trust, transparency, efficient and professional exchange of information. This has enabled us to quickly resolve technical issues. We are moreover, very impressed by InkTec's facilities at the second factory in Pyoungtaek just outside of Seoul which are entirely dedicated to printed electronics with class 10 000 clean room in general areas and class 1000 around production equipment.
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