Laboratory-scale Flexible Organic Roll-to- Roll Manufacturing (LabFORM)

Organic Electronic (OE) & nanotech devices have great potential to improve economic,
environmental & social well being as they allow production of higher performance &
potentially less expensive electronics on large-area flexible substrates. This creates new
markets & opportunities that would be impossible using inorganic materials such as copper or
silicon. Examples of first commercial OE products include displays with lower energy use,
brighter colours & higher resolution for smart phones & TVs.
OE is a high growth sector, expected to reach $40bn by 2020 (IDTechEx) with new
applications including low energy lighting, solar panels, wearable electronics, pollution
sensing & point-of-care diagnostics. However to reach the true value potential, large flexible
substrates will need to be manufactured on a roll-to-roll basis but despite successful
commercialisation of first products, many new OE device types are struggling to achieve
widespread mass adoption. This is largely due to technical challenges in the transition from
laboratory to mass fabrication (lab-2-fab). To improve success rates of business trying to
produce OE devices & therefore associated benefits to the UK it is necessary to reduce or
eliminate R&D-intensive activities from the manufacturing process while simultaneously
increasing the speed & pace of the scientific discovery.
In this project, Ossila will produce a concept system to demonstrate the feasibility of
producing Laboratory-scale Flexible Organic Roll-2-roll compatible Manufacturing
(LabFORM). Such automated fabrication equipment will not only speed up the pace of
scientific discovery to kick-start innovation but also increase the technology readiness level of
OE devices & help with their commercialisation. The project itself will also directly benefit
the UK economy by producing high value capital equipment for export via Ossila’s network
of customers in over 50 countries.