Low-cost printing of electronics
A UK printed media firm claims to have developed a low-cost way of applying electronic circuitry to packaging, which could turn an ordinary carton into an interactive game.
The technique, discovered by Cambridge-based company Novalia, uses existing high-volume printing processes, such as screen, offset and flexography, to pattern metallic conductive tracks onto substrates. The process is said to be as easy as adding a barcode.
Dr Kate Stone, CEO of the company, believes that this could transforms consumer packaging. ‘Many companies in this field borrow some form of printing and take it back into an electronics environment’, she explains. ‘But we are the first people to use conductive inks on commercial presses, taking printed electronics to the printers themselves, who have the manufacturing facilities and a validated route to market.’
The concept uses a compact, self-contained printed elect-ronics control module consisting of a power source, integrated circuits for input/ output control and interaction flow, and a sound transducer.
Novalia’s designers incorporate lines into the graphics of the product, which form the circuit to drive user interaction. These will be printed with conductive inks – silver, carbon or polymer depending on the print process. The specific nature of the interaction will depend on the programing of the chip. Sensors, LEDs and audio devices can be added, but no extra wiring is required.
‘At the moment the controller is a couple of millimetres thick, but there is always somewhere in a package to put something like that,’ explains Stone, adding that the company eventually hopes to shrink it to the size of a postage stamp.
Stone envisages a take-away meal carton turning into a toy with lights and sounds, or a pharmaceutical package that highlights safety precautions.
‘Printing has very low tooling cost,’ she points out. ‘The value is that the whole printed surface is the user interface. We’re not trying to put a display on a cereal packet, we are trying to make a printed product interactive.’
‘We have working examples of this concept, such as a carton that becomes a toy fire engine’, says Stone. ‘Touch various parts of the image and the fire engine makes a different noise. Once [the demo model] has passed through a manufacturing phase, it could be produced on a million boxes per week, in just one factory.’
The company is working with battery developer Blue Spark Technologies, based in Westlake, USA, to achieve a cost-effective power source. Blue Spark claims that their carbon-zinc batteries are thin, flexible and disposable, meeting the RoHS directive.
Further information: Novalia and Blue Spark TechnologiesPackaging Professional Magazine, 13 Nov 2009
The technique, discovered by Cambridge-based company Novalia, uses existing high-volume printing processes, such as screen, offset and flexography, to pattern metallic conductive tracks onto substrates. The process is said to be as easy as adding a barcode.
Dr Kate Stone, CEO of the company, believes that this could transforms consumer packaging. ‘Many companies in this field borrow some form of printing and take it back into an electronics environment’, she explains. ‘But we are the first people to use conductive inks on commercial presses, taking printed electronics to the printers themselves, who have the manufacturing facilities and a validated route to market.’
The concept uses a compact, self-contained printed elect-ronics control module consisting of a power source, integrated circuits for input/ output control and interaction flow, and a sound transducer.
Novalia’s designers incorporate lines into the graphics of the product, which form the circuit to drive user interaction. These will be printed with conductive inks – silver, carbon or polymer depending on the print process. The specific nature of the interaction will depend on the programing of the chip. Sensors, LEDs and audio devices can be added, but no extra wiring is required.
‘At the moment the controller is a couple of millimetres thick, but there is always somewhere in a package to put something like that,’ explains Stone, adding that the company eventually hopes to shrink it to the size of a postage stamp.
Stone envisages a take-away meal carton turning into a toy with lights and sounds, or a pharmaceutical package that highlights safety precautions.
‘Printing has very low tooling cost,’ she points out. ‘The value is that the whole printed surface is the user interface. We’re not trying to put a display on a cereal packet, we are trying to make a printed product interactive.’
‘We have working examples of this concept, such as a carton that becomes a toy fire engine’, says Stone. ‘Touch various parts of the image and the fire engine makes a different noise. Once [the demo model] has passed through a manufacturing phase, it could be produced on a million boxes per week, in just one factory.’
The company is working with battery developer Blue Spark Technologies, based in Westlake, USA, to achieve a cost-effective power source. Blue Spark claims that their carbon-zinc batteries are thin, flexible and disposable, meeting the RoHS directive.
Further information: Novalia and Blue Spark TechnologiesPackaging Professional Magazine, 13 Nov 2009
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