OREANDA-NEWS. October 30, 2015. Consortium of RUSNANO nanotechnology centers created by the Fund for Infrastructure and Educational Programs (FIEP) joins the program of Holst Centre (joint project of IMEC and TNO) for development of a technology platform for flexible thin-film electronics. The agreement on the Consortium entry into the corresponding Holst Centre program has been concluded during International “Open Innovations” Forum held in Moscow. The document was signed by the Chairman of the Executive Board of RUSNANO, Anatoly Chubais, Director of IMEC in the direction of Large Area Electronics, chief technology officer at Holst Centre prof. Paul Heremans and the General Director of Technospark Nanotechnology Center, Denis Kovalevich.

FIEP nanotechnology centers will gain full access to the latest technology solutions of Holst Centre, i.e. non-exclusive licenses for intellectual property of flexible electronics that have already been obtained by the foreign partners and rights to all patents and know-hows to be developed within the next three years. Consortium of nanotechnology centers will start creating a series of startups for product development and engineering services in the following areas:

  • transport and logistics (for example, new generations of transport maps with mini-displays)
  • packaging and retail (for instance, sensors and state indicators in food packaging)
  • personalized medicine (like adhesive bandages with built-in sensors for pregnancy diagnostics)
  • e-health (for example, systems for monitoring key health condition indicators built-in car seats or mats)
  • new generation of municipal infrastructures (e.g. traffic information collection and transferring to a car via RFID)
  • textile electronics (including “smart” special clothing for municipal services).

One of the most important focus areas of the Consortium will be the development of joint projects with other industrial partners of the program in Russia. Therefore, the Consortium will focus on creation of new products and optimization of the existing ones for the domestic market, as well as on engineering and R&D works.

Holst Centre program is focused both on improving thin-film technology and extending its area of use, and on searching for new materials with improved electrical stability and resistance to aggressive environment. The key objective of the Program is to reduce the industrial costs of flexible non-silicon microprocessors, thin-film sensors and micro-displays as much as possible. The results obtained under the Program will form a basis for further development of the “Internet of Things” concept.

Thin-film technology forms a basis for microelectronics of the future: displays, sensors and wireless tags. Thin-film transistors in comparison with their standard analogues are manufactured under a simplified process. They have improved performance and can be applied on flexible substrates, including plastic ones. The researches of IDTechEx, NanoMarkets, Intertech Pira and EE Times Market Intelligence have shown that in 2015 the volume of the market for plastic and organic electronics amounted to the amount of €10-20 bln. The market is mainly driven by the demand for innovative flexible displays, but the particular growth in the nearest future is expected to be in the area of portable devices and Internet of things.

Reference

Holst Centre has many years of experience in thin-film technologies. It has been recognized worldwide as a leader in location-specific application research and development for flexible electronics. In 2008-2013, Holst Center demonstrated a range of advanced developments for market applications based on Radio-Frequency Identification tags (RFID tags), microprocessors and sensors. In 2014, these know-hows have been implemented for tags using Near Field Communication (NFC).

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The Fund for Infrastructure and Educational Programs was established in 2010 in accordance with federal law № 211-FZ On Reorganization of the Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies. Its purpose is to develop innovative infrastructure for nanotechnology, including realizing educational programs and infrastructure projects earlier begun by RUSNANO.

The chairman of the Supervisory Council, the fund’s highest governing body, is Dmitry Livanov, minister of education and science of the Russian Federation. As stipulated in the charter of the fund, the council determines the priority areas of the fund’s endeavors, sets its strategies, and establishes its budget. Anatoly Chubais, RUSNANO CEO, is chairman of the Management Committee. The fund’s CEO is Andrey Svinarenko.