Abstract

Over the last 10 years, a new field of electronics has been developed, which is referred to as plastic or printed electronics. In this approach, organic or, more generally, printable materials are used to build electronic circuits. This is opposed to conventional inorganic materials such as silicon, which are usually deposited under vacuum. The development of printable materials has made it possible to manufacture electronics using the basic processes already developed by the printing industry. This is leading to the creation of a whole range of novel products such as rollable displays, flexible photovoltaic cells and large area lighting. This novel technology will not substitute the well developed silicon (and in general inorganic) microelectronics but will facilitate the development of new products complementary to those already possible using conventional technologies.