International Symposium on Flexible Organic Electronics IS-FOE 2008
The 1st International Symposium on Flexible Organic Electronics (IS-FOE08), which took place in Halkidiki (Greece) on 10-11 July, brought together scientists and engineers actively engaged in the research, development, and manufacturing of flexible organic electronics including organic/inorganic materials, flexible substrates, manufacturing processes, circuit designs, flexible devices, system integrations and product applications.
The IS-FOE Symposium 2008 was organized by the Lab for Thin Film Nanosystems & Nanometrology (LTFN) of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and co-organized by the Plastic Electronics Foundation. It was also supported by the EC-funded R&D projects Flexonics, OLAtronics, PolyNet and OPERA.
The symposium started with a Welcome Opening Event on 9 July entitled "Strategy of Europe & EC in Organic Electronics" during which the EC activities in the area of organic and large are electronics were presented. In addition, the co-ordinators of FP6 and FP7 EU-funded R&D projects, such as Flexonics, OLAtronics, PolyNet, Fast2Light, FACESS, GREENBAT and OPERA, presented detailed information on their breakthroughs, future activities and prospects.
On 10-11 July, the attendees presented their contributions to this symposium. Some of the most significant presentations are summarized below, although all of them were outstanding. In addition, some will be published as peer review papers in the European Physical Journal - Applied Physics http://www.epjap.org.
A total of 97 presentations, coming from 22 countries, were received. Among them, 18 were invited presentations, 33 were oral contributions and there were 46 posters. The fields of expertise which were covered were: organic electronic materials, chemical synthesis, physical and chemical properties of materials, theoretical calculations, device design-manufacturing & testing, encapsulati0n and large area printing systems.
Dr. K. Fostiropoulos, from Hahn-Meitner-Institute of Berlin, presented the current status of the research on OLEDs and OPVs in Germany with the presentations entitled: "The German Initiative on OLEDs & OPVs" & "German Project: Self-assembly in Organic Hybrid solar cells" . During this presentation, the German funding opportunities in this area were presented. Similarly, the scientific-industrial network established within the frame of the OPV-Initiative 2007, called "SOHyb Self-assembly in organic hybrid solar cells", was described in detail.
Dr. N. Meyer from AIXTRON AG, presented the activities of the company on Organic Vapour Physical Deposition (OVPD). More specifically, the principles of the OVPD process were explained and various OVPD systems from lab to industrial scale were shown. The potentiality of OVPD is high enough for it to be applied in large area manufacturing of flexible organic electronic devices.
In the field of applications, Prof. G. Malliaras from Cornell, presented the use of flexible transistors as biosensors in the presentation entitled " Conducting Polymer Transistors for Sensor Applications" . The biosensing properties are based on changes in electrical current of conductive polymers after the interaction with biological molecules.
Regarding large area manufacturing, Dr. A. Campbell, from Imperial College London, with his presentation entitled "Gravure printing of polymer thin film transistors on flexible substrates", gave a picture of the use of gravure printing in manufacturing OTFTs with P3HT top gates.
Finally, the presentation "Nanoscale transparent barrier layers for technical applications" by Dr. S. Amberg Schwab, from Fraunhofer Institut für Silicatforschung, addressed the topic of passive components of flexible organic electronic devices, like the transparent barrier layer on flexible substrates for device encapsulation. This presentation covered the latest results of the technologies used for encapsulation with organic-inorganic hybrid layers.
In this context, Dr. A. Laskarakis from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, with his presentation "Real time optical monitoring of inorganic layer growth onto flexible polymeric substrates", explained a non-destructive method for evaluation of the barrier layer properties on roll-to-roll processes. For further information, please contact Christoforos Gravalidis.
IS-FOE 2009
The 2nd International Symposium on Flexible Organic Electronics 2009 (IS-FOE09) will take place on 8-10 July 2009 in Halkidiki ( Greece).
The topics of the IS-FOE symposium 2009 will include, but are not limited to: organic semiconducting materials (small molecules and polymers), organic/inorganic and hybrid materials and systems, transparent/non-transparent electrodes, flexible substrates and encapsulation methods & materials, molecular electronics and photonics, self organized molecules and systems, theory & modeling (materials, components and devices), manufacturing processes (printing, vacuum, chemical), flexible displays & lighting, flexible solar cells, flexible circuits and sensors and flexible batteries, etc.
For further information on the IS-FOE Symposium 2009, please consult the event website: http://isfoe.physics.auth.gr