ABSTRACT
Organic electronics refers to a new materials set as a technological differentiator; printed electronics, on the other hand, refers to a new process technology as a technological differentiator. Finding one simple name for the technology is complicated because inorganic functional materials may be printed and some organic materials are deposited by evaporation through a shadow mask. In essence though, organic and printed electronics (OPE) is a new way of making electronics enabled by a new materials set. It is a new manufacturing paradigm. Printing offers some generic benefits,
such as the potential for additive manufacture with a reduced number of process steps and less waste than subtractive processes. It also turns out that the new materials are largely low-temperature-processed, which means that low-temperature substrates, such as plastics and paper (which are flexible) can be used. The result is that electronic devices made under the new paradigm may exhibit form factor benefits such as flexibility, light weight, thinness, and robustness when compared to conventional silicon or circuit-boardbased electronics. The actual electronic functionality that is being produced is not new: photovoltaics, lighting, displays, and sensors can all be implemented in other conventional ways. In the case of lighting, for example, organic light-emitting diode (OLED) offers a fourth-generation approach after incandescent bulbs, fluorescent tubes, and light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Innovation using OPE is almost always characterized, therefore, by considerations relating to the incumbent technology. There can be significant benefits, however, in using organic material architectures or printing to produce electronics for a particular application, and it is part of the skill of the business developer and the technologist to identify those applications where there is real value in using the new approach. This could relate to a performance or form factor benefit or it might relate to a manufacturing benefit of which the end user will be unaware. OPE is an emerging technology, that is, science-based innovations with the potential to create a new industry or transform an existing one. Science-based businesses emerge at the intersection of multiple bodies of science. Innovation studies discussing the emergence of new technological and knowledge-based fields like biotechnology and nanotechnology have identified common dynamics that characterize different stages of development: uncertainty, complexity, heterogeneity of actors, distributed nature of knowledge, particularly relevant in the first stage of the industry life cycle, emergence of a dominant design, and convergence of a broad range of technological and scientific fields in a later stage. Technological progress within emerging technological fields is mostly attributed to a large number of small entrepreneurial technology-based firms. However, as the technology develops, the domain of innovation shifts from small de novo firms to large established players and the nature of innovation evolves from advancement in scientific and technological fundamentals
to commercial applications. Another important aspect of new technologies is their potential to be disruptive to the existing market and its value network. Products based on disruptive technologies tend to be simpler and cheaper initially, often inferior in terms of performance metrics as valued by mainstream customers, and offer different attributes (new value proposition) that become apparent and valued only once they develop from emerging markets into noticeable market penetration, from niche to mainstream. OPE, though considered to have high potential for numerous applications, for example, in displays, lighting, photovoltaics, smart systems, sensors, batteries, radio-frequency identification (RFID), and smart textiles, is still developing and faces challenges as the supply chain is considered to be unbalanced with many players involved at producing the components rather than final product. At present there are approximately 3000 organizations active in the field located in Europe, USA, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and China, and they include universities, research institutes, large organizations, and start-ups. The advancement of material and other related technologies indicates greater technology push than market pull and no killer application has been identified yet to drive the whole market for OPE, although OLED display for mobile devices has now broken into the mainstream. It is estimated that 97% of the companies are materials, equipment, or component providers; only 3% make products or do integration. The lack of articulated demand (by end users, and also by busi-ness customers) combined with a lack of articulated directions for product development creates a situation where actors are reluctant to invest and results in waiting games, which occurs when everybody waits for somebody else to commit to the new technology. Analysts argue that the lack of a one-size-fits-all solution in the printed elec-tronics market and the variety of technologies each sitting in its own niche based on its own attributes delays the realization of high-vol-ume markets that would enable true low cost. The progress and development within printed electronics offers close comparison to the other science-based businesses like biotechnology and nanotechnology, which are characterized by a long period of risky investments and uncertainty and where entrepreneurial ventures and start-ups are involved in scientific discoveries owing to stronger technical challenges; reviewing them through innovation lenses tends to be all the more important.
