Thin Film Electronics ASA

Thin Film Electronics ASA

Type	Allmennaksjeselskap
Traded as	OSE: THIN
Industry	Printed electronics
Founded	2005 (2005)
Headquarters	Oslo, Norway
Key people	Davor Sutija (CEO) Morten Opstad (Chairman)
Products	Printed rewritable non-volatile memories, Near Field Communication (NFC) tags
Website	www.thinfilm.no

Thin Film Electronics ASA (Oslo Stock Exchange : THIN) is a Norwegian printed electronics company, headquartered in Oslo with its main R&D offices in Linköping, Sweden and San Jose, California, United States. Thin Film Electronics ASA ("Thinfilm") produces rewriteable non-volatile memories based on ferroelectric polymers using roll-to-roll printing and labels based on Near Field Communication (NFC) technology.

Thinfilm has been developing memories based on polymer materials since 1994; first as part of Opticom ASA and then as an independent company. For the first ten years, the focus was on hybrid memory devices with polymer-based memory and silicon-based control circuitry, as developed jointly with Intel.^[1] From 2006, Thinfilm has concentrated its efforts on printed electronics.

Thinfilm successfully demonstrated roll-to-roll printed organic memory in 2009, and was awarded IDTechEx Technical Development Manufacturing Award the same year.^[2][3][4][5]

In September 2012, Thinfilm was selected by web 2.0 blog GigaOM as one of its Top 15 Mobile companies that are changing or could potentially change the mobile landscape in a significant way.^[6]

In January 2014 Thinfilm acquired the assets of Kovio and opened the Thinfilm NFC Innovation Center in San Jose.^[7]

A printed sensor label used to record the storage temperature of a food product

Technology

The ferroelectric polymer is sandwiched between two sets of electrodes in a passive matrix. Each crossing of metal lines is a ferroelectric capacitor and defines a memory cell. This gives a non-volatile memory comparable to ferroelectric RAM technologies and offer the same functionality as flash memory.^[8]

Thinfilm's patented passive matrix dispenses with the need of active circuitry within the memory cell. It allows the memory to be separate from the read/write electronics enabling stand alone application without integration with printed logic. The passive array memory architecture also enables high density memories as well as the possibility to stack memory layers on top of each other.

The printed memory technology was licensed to Xerox in December 2014 and marketed as of June 2016 as Xerox Printed Memory.^[9]

In October 2013, Thinfilm produced the first ever electronically printed stand-alone sensor system. The sensor was built in the form of a temperature tracking label and is expected to go into production in 2014.

Partnerships

Thinfilm is working with PARC, a subsidiary of Xerox, to combine its memory technology with PARC's printed transistor technology to enable fully printed memory systems.^[10][11] In October 2011, Thinfilm together with PARC announced a working prototype of the world's first printed non-volatile memory device addressed with complementary organic circuits, the organic equivalent of CMOS circuitry.^[12][13][14]

Thinfilm and PARC announced in June 2012 that they will jointly manufacture a printed temperature sensor tag using Thinfilm's Addressable Memory technology. Both parties are also working together to develop electronic displays that would combine printed sensors, memory modules and batteries.^[15][16]

Other printed systems currently in development with Thinfilm and its partners will be used in food manufacturing to monitor temperature of temperature-sensitive fresh produce.^[17] The first temperature sensor packaging project to be announced by Thinfilm is a partnership with U.S. packaging giant Bemis Company, the agreement will lead to the development of a flexible sensing platform for the packaging market.^[18]

In December 2012, Thinfilm announced that it has entered into a commercial agreement with the American toy and board game company Hasbro, to supply printed electronic components for their range of products.^[19]

Awards

Thinfilm Electronics has won a number of awards for innovation and technical development since first demonstrating roll-to-roll printing of electronics in 2009. In 2010 Frost & Sullivan awarded the New Product Innovation Prize in Printed Electronic Memories to Thinfilm for its unique non-volatile, printable, polymer-based memory products.^[20]

In 2012 Thinfilm Electronics was awarded both the IDTechEx Product Development Award and the FlexTech Alliance Innovation Award for its Addressable Memory technology built in association with PARC.^[21][22] Also in late 2012, Thinfilm was named as a runner-up in the Wall Street Journal Technology's Innovation Award.^[23]

In October 2012 it was announced that the company had won the 2012 World Technology Award for Visionary Contribution to Materials Science and Technology in the development of printed smart tags for the Internet of Things.^[24]

References

External links

• Official homepage