-
- News
- Books
Featured Books
- pcb007 Magazine
Latest Issues
Current IssueThe Growing Industry
In this issue of PCB007 Magazine, we talk with leading economic experts, advocacy specialists in Washington, D.C., and PCB company leadership to get a well-rounded picture of what’s happening in the industry today. Don’t miss it.
The Sustainability Issue
Sustainability is one of the most widely used terms in business today, especially for electronics and manufacturing but what does it mean to you? We explore the environmental, business, and economic impacts.
The Fabricator’s Guide to IPC APEX EXPO
This issue previews many of the important events taking place at this year's show and highlights some changes and opportunities. So, buckle up. We are counting down to IPC APEX EXPO 2024.
- Articles
Article Highlights
- Columns
Search Console
- Links
- Events
||| MENU - pcb007 Magazine
Piezoelectric, Pyroelectric, and Ferroelectric Materials for Printed Electronics
September 11, 2014 |Estimated reading time: 1 minute
Introduction
For a while now, the term “printed electronics” has been used freely, though many people don’t have the full picture of what this industry is all about. Printed electronics (PE) is a platform for bringing down the production costs of electronic devices so that they can be incorporated or sold to the item level (e.g., cereal boxes, battery packs, POP displays, etc.). Incorporating devices such as electroluminescent displays can help grab consumers’ attention. Integrating an RFID tag into a box can inform a consumer about the product’s ingredients, vitamin content, and upcoming offers related to that particular product.. Having said that, all of the electronics that are incorporated into a product have to be inexpensive enough that the packaging, along with the electronics, can be disposed of after the product is used.Several factors can drive down the cost of these devices, such as the use of inexpensive substrates. Such surfaces as PET, PEN, paper, and textiles are all relatively inexpensive and lend well to the next factor that can drive cost down, and that is the printing process.|One of the main cost-saving goals for PE is to move toward a fully additive printing process. What this means is that the material is only printed in the places where it is functional. There is no masking process where material is removed after such steps as etching. This produces a cost savings in not just the labor and material aspect, but it also allows for the device to be manufactured with roll-to-roll processes. The rapid production rates enabled by this process allow for a potentially large cost savings in manufacturing, as well as being able to utilize the flexible nature of the inexpensive substrates.Another way to save on production costs is to use well established materials in novel ways. Some polymeric materials have been used for decades for products such as battery covers, paint additives, and insulated foams and sealants. By investigating these materials’ properties, we find that some of them have uses outside of their intended function. Piezoelectric, pyroelectric, and ferroelectric materials have been around for quite a long time, but are continuing to find useful niches in emerging electronics markets.Read the full article here.Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the August 2014 issue of The PCB Magazine.