SmartKem Moving to Market Following €3 million Financing Round

UK start-up SmartKem is planning to take its organic thin-film transistor (TFT) technology to product prototype stage following the completion of a Series A financing round raising €3 million.

The funding was secured from BASF Venture Capital, Octopus Investments and the Entrepreneurs Fund. Finance Wales, the company's principal shareholder, supplied additional funding. Finance Wales has invested £3 million (€3.8 million) to date in the St Asaph-headquartered firm.

SmartKem, a materials supplier for organic semiconductors and TFTs, has already announced a number of joint development agreements with Asian display makers. The latest funds will be invested in the company's in-house capability and expansion of its TFT development team, to take its technology to prototype stage with its partners.

Investment
In an exclusive interview with +Plastic Electronics, Mike Cowin, head of product development and marketing at SmartKem, comments: 'We are making SmartKem more responsive to customer needs - we're talking about responding in a matter of weeks.'

SmartKem's tru-Flex semiconductor technology, has been developed to offer industry-grade TFT performance in a flexible form factor, the company claims. The target is to enable applications for bendable and foldable mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, as well as conformable wearable products.

Merck Gives Update on AZ Electronic Materials Acquisition

Speciality chemicals firm Merck is on track with its integration of AZ Electronic Materials, a chemicals supplier for the flat-panel display industry and silicon technologies. The company announced the $2.6 billion (€2 billion) purchase in May 2014.

Since then, the company has announced in late June the transition of all remaining AZ shares to Merck, exercising its compulsory acquisition right.

Merck discussed the purchase during a presentation at LOPEC 2014 on 28 May. Bjorn Hofman, senior vice president for performance materials - advanced technologies at Merck, spoke about the strategic fit of AZ's technologies while presenting on 'Partnering - the key enabler to develop the printed electronics industry.'

In an exclusive interview with +Plastic Electronics, Markus Kaiser, business partner for group communications in Merck's performance materials business, provides an update on the integration process and outlines the rationale for the acquisition.

LG releases 77-inch and 66-inch 4K OLED TVs

LG Electronics has unveiled its first 4K OLED televisions at a launch event in Seoul on 26 August. These boast a 3840 x 2160-pixel resolution.

Game changer
Two models were shown, the 77-inch 77EG9700, and the 66-inch 66EG9700. Both incorporate an advanced curved panel mounting LG's four-pixel WRGB technology. This gives infinite contrast, a more natural picture and a response rate that is faster than competing technologies according to the manufacturer.

Hyun-hwoi Ha, president and CEO of LG's Home Entertainment says: 'As the next evolutionary step in display technology, OLED will play a major role in reshaping our industry.

'LG's 4K OLED TV is the pinnacle of technological achievement and a new paradigm that will change the dynamics of the next generation TV market. I feel confident when I say that 4K OLED is a bona fide game changer.'

Premium price
LG is now taking orders for the 4K OLED screens from consumers in Korea. It plans to make them available to the US and European markets later in 2014. Display models will be shown at the IFA 2014 consumer electronics show in Berlin on 5-10 September.

It is reported that the 4K screens will command a premium price [http://news.yahoo.com/lg-bets-pricey-oled-technology-060536835.html] - with the 66EG9700 costing 12 million won (€9,020). This is likely to confine it to high-end home cinema market and limit the technology's penetration to the wider consumer market.

$3500 models
LG has moved to make non-4K OLED technology more affordable too, cutting the price of 55-inch models. These cost over €11,000 when they were first offered for sale in July 2013. In August 2014, it started selling its 55-inch 55EC9300 model televisions for $3,500 (€2,615) on the US market for the first time. This low price is encouraging general electronics stores, like Best Buy to stock the screens.

The price drop has been enabled by improving yields from LG's OLED manufacturing lines. It is potentially a more important development from a business point of view. As tapping the mainstream market will be the key goal for LG to realise returns from its undoubted lead in OLED screen technology.

Sweat-powered battery demonstrated

US academics have developed a skin-mounted battery which generates power for a chemical released in human sweat during exercise. If the technology could be improved, it could provide discrete power for disposable biosensors and other wearable devices.

Biosensor
The battery project began with the team from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) producing a biosensor to monitor lactate mounted on temporary tattoo paper. Lactate is released during exercise as a by-product of the breaking down of glucose in cells to produce energy. Its presence in blood has long been used to gauge how strenuous the exercise an athlete is.

Keen to eliminate the need to invasively take blood samples to measure lactate concentrations, the UCSD researchers printed a biosensor sensitive to the chemical on to the tattoo paper.

The sensor was impregnated with an enzyme which strips electrons from lactate excreted through sweat. As these electrons flow it is possible to equate the size of the current to the level of lactate present.

Sweat power
The next step was to redesign the sensor as a battery by creating a printed power cell with the electron harvesting enzyme on the cathode. As a result of harvesting the current, the sensor became self-sustaining.

Project leader, Wenzhao Jia explains: 'The current produced is not that high, but we are working on enhancing it so that eventually we could power some small electronic devices. Right now, we can get a maximum of 70 µW per cm², but our electrodes are only 2mm by 3mm in size and generate about 4 µW -- a bit small to generate enough power to run a watch, for example, which requires at least 10 µW. So besides working to get higher power, we also need to leverage electronics to store the generated current and make it sufficient for these requirements.'

Unhealthy power
During research on the prototype battery it was discovered that test subjects who exercised less regularly generated the most power with the enzyme battery. This is thought to be because less fit people move more quickly into a physiological process called glycolysis which produces more lactate.

The printed lactate sensor will be beneficial to athletes interested in their performance and medical patients with conditions like heart or lung disease which increase lactate production. Taking a wider perspective, the enzyme batteries could provide power to a range of other epidermal printed electronic sensors.

The research was presented on 13 August to the American Chemical Society's 248th National Meeting and Exposition in San Francisco.

Haydale signs major functionalised graphene distribution deal for Asia

UK company Haydale has announced a deal with Korean firm PlanarTech, to distribute its range of, functionalised graphene materials to developers in Asia.

PlanarTech
Under the agreement announced on 4 August, Haydale will be able to sell its range of functionalised graphene nanoplatelets, conductive inks, sheets and carbon nanotubes through PlanarTech's existing network in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) zone.

Haydale hopes to prioritise sales and the development of strategic partnerships with electronics companies in South Korea, Japan, China and Taiwan.

Haydale CEO, Ray Gibbs says: 'The ability to fully commercialise graphenes has been a stumbling block for industry in recent times, particularly in the APAC region where the majority of patents for graphene-based applications originate.'

Functionalised graphene
A key step in harnessing graphene's material and electrical properties is to enable it to chemically bond to a range of other materials.

Haydale believes its patented plasma process for functionalising raw graphene gives greater options, is more cost-effective, and less damaging to the graphene than competing wet chemistry processes.

To support its policy of forging partnerships Haydale uses its process to produce samples with three different levels of functionalisation for each customer. This allows the end user to identify the appropriate level of functionalization for his or her specific application so as an optimised supply can then be produced in Haydale's reactors if commercialisation takes off.

Turning market
The accord with PlanarTech is the latest of a series of distribution agreements that Ammanford-based Haydale has signed in 2014. Deals with InVentures and Goodfellow have already increased its presence in the US.

Speaking to +Plastic Electronics Gibbs reveals that his company is already seeing demand for these materials building. The functionalisation offered by Haydale and its scale up potential will thus help move graphene out of university research labs and into more and more commercial electronic applications like biosensors, flexible displays and batteries.

Stained glass hydrangea dye solar cell made in Tokyo

A new dye solar cell made at the University of Tokyo combines energy generation in a decorative floral pattern. The colour of the flower's petals even change colour as it charges and discharges.

Hydrangea
The multi-coloured cell is based on an image of a Hydrangea plant. As in a real flower the leaves of the design generate the power, this is then stored in the area of the cell which represent the flower.

As it gains charge the flower's petal turn from white to blue, as it discharges these turn back to white.

The design has been named Annabelle after a species of hydrangea.

Home use
The Annabelle, design draws on the traditions of Japanese painting. It is supplied as one 200mm side of a square wooden box. The aesthetically pleasing design is intended to allow it to be used at home, in a conservatory of similar room.

The Annabelle cell can hold enough power to recharge two modern mobile phones and the dye solar technology means it can be charged by the low light levels encountered indoors.

Hollande and more
The team led by University of Tokyo professor Hiroshi Segawa emphasises that a myriad of decorative designs will be possible using the dye solar technology.

Segawa has already produced versions of the Annabelle cell with images of French president Francois Hollande and the Japanese computer-generated pop singer Hatsune Miku.

Dyesol signs developer distribution agreement with Sigma-Aldrich

All dye solar materials made by Australian company Dyesol are being made available via a global distribution agreement with Sigma-Aldrich.

The accord was announced on 14 August. It will focus on selling dye solar cell (DSC) and solid-state dye solar cell (ssDSC) materials to other developers across the world. Under an existing agreement Sigma-Aldrich already sells the Canberra-based firm's range of organo-metal dyes. This will now be extended to Dyesol's full product range, which includes other dyes, titanium pastes electrolytes, materials and Dyesol's range of silver inks - which can be also be used to print electronic components.

Luca Sorbello, Dyesol's sales and marketing manager, says: 'Our alliance provides scientists around the world with easy and dependable access to Dyesol's extensive line of dye solar cell materials.

'This agreement opens market opportunities for high performance Dyesol products and provides Dyesol greater exposure to an established user community that has experienced the benefits of the quality provided by Sigma-Aldrich. In addition, Sigma-Aldrich will expand its product selection aimed at the rapidly growing DSC and ssDSC materials market. It is my belief that this agreement will ultimately benefit the scientific community.'

In May 2014, Dyesol demonstrated the potential of dye sol photovoltaics when they produced a cell with a then record efficiency of 9%.

Access to Sigma-Aldrich's worldwide distribution network will give higher exposure to materials in Dye Sol 3rd generation photovoltaics portfolio - Source: Dyesol