FlexTech Alliance Announces 2012 FLEXI Award Winners, Recognizes Flexible, Printed Electronics and Display Industry Achievements

PHOENIX and SAN JOSE, Calif., Feb. 8, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- FlexTech Alliance today announced the recipients of the 2012 FLEXI Awards. FLEXI nominations are open to all organizations involved with the flexible, printed electronics and displays industry. The awards celebrate and recognize people, companies and organizations that are leading the development of this emerging industry with innovative and commercially viable technologies.  Thin Film Electronics, PARC, Western Michigan University, and the Georgia Institute of Technology were recognized for significant contributions to innovation, R&D, and leadership in education. Awards were presented at the 11th Annual Flexible Electronics and Displays Conference held February 6-9, 2012, in Phoenix, Arizona.  

ThinFilm Electronics and PARC, a Xerox Company, were the combined recipients of the FLEXI Innovation Award. Entries for this award were considered based on the most innovative flexible and/or printed electronics product announced in the last twelve months. Judging criteria included product design & ingenuity, potential market adoption and revenue generation. In 2011, the two companies announced a working prototype of the world's first printed, rewritable memory addressed with complimentary organic circuits, combining Thinfilm's polymer-based memory technology with PARC's transistor technology. Designed for commercial production, Thinfilm Addressable Memory is the first step in integrating Thinfilm memory with other devices such as sensors, displays, power sources and antennas. The award was accepted by ThinFilm Electronics' Vice President, North America, Jennifer Ernst and PARC's Ross Bringans, Vice President, Electronic Materials and Devices Laboratory.

The Center for the Advancement of Printed Electronics (CAPE) at Western Michigan University was the recipient of the FLEXI R&D Award. Entries for this award were considered based on world-class research, technologically outstanding and original product development, and new significant commercial potential for implementation into flexible or printed electronics. Judging was based on the vision of how entrants show their ability to identify and solve a real problem, and their determination to bring it to reality. CAPE is an application driven research group comprised of Ph.D.'s in chemical, electrical, mechanical, paper and material engineering. For printing and deposition, CAPE offers a variety of R2R and sheet techniques including: gravure, inkjet, screen, flexography, spin coating and various CVD techniques. Their research groups are also actively building analytic tools to model the printed electronics world. The award was accepted by Dr. Erika Rebrosova, Assistant Professor, Department of Paper Engineering and Imaging at Western Michigan University.

The Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics (COPE) at the Georgia Institute of Technology was the recipient of the Technology Leadership in Education Award. This award recognizes and honors outstanding contributions to the flexible and printed electronics industry through education.  Judging was based on the quality of education, practical applicability, number of students completing the course, and degree of focus on flexible, printed electronics. The Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics fosters research, education, and innovation in the field of organic photonics and electronics. COPE offers several interdisciplinary courses in organic chemistry, materials and optoelectronics. More than 90 students have graduated from these programs and now work at some of the leading research institutions and photonics and electronics companies in the world. The award was accepted by Dr. Bernard Kippelen, Director of the Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics.

"FlexTech Alliance is proud to honor ThinFilm Electronics, PARC, Western Michigan University, and the Georgia Institute of Technology for their contributions to the flexible, printed electronics and displays industries," said Michael Ciesinski, CEO of FlexTech Alliance. "These organizations are helping address technology gaps and drive the development of innovative products to the marketplace."

About FlexTech Alliance
The FlexTech Alliance is the only organization headquartered in North America exclusively devoted to fostering the growth, profitability and success of the electronic display and the flexible, printed electronics supply chain.  FlexTech Alliance offers expanded collaboration between and among industry, academia, government, and research organizations for advancing displays and flexible, printed electronics from R&D to commercialization.  To this end, the FlexTech Alliance, based in San Jose, Calif., will help foster development of the supply chain required to support a world-class, manufacturing capability for displays and flexible, printed electronics.  More information about FlexTech Alliance can be found at www.flextech.org.

SOURCE FlexTech Alliance