COLAE

Commercialisation Clusters of Organic and Large-area Electronics

Europe’s leading organic and large-area electronics (OLAE) organisations, including the JOANNEUM RESEARCH Institute MATERIALS and NanoTecCenter Weiz, have joined forces in the Framework 7 project COLAE, which aims to speed up the commercialisation and adoption of organic and large area electronics by promoting collaboration between industry clusters throughout Europe. COLAE will utilise the resources and know-how of the project partners to provide tools and services for the existing organic electronics industry, as well as supporting the entry of new players.

The OLAE market is expected to grow swiftly, with leading forecasters predicting a worldwide industry worth up to $96bn by 2020 (IDTechEx, 2011) as it promises the opportunity for low cost manufacturing of electronic circuits on rigid or flexible substrates leading to the creation of an innovative range of products such as flexible displays, large-area lighting, logic & memory, sensors, batteries, smart bandages, intelligent tickets, low-cost solar cells and entirely new physical forms for functional electronic devices. Ilkka Kaisto of VTT, the project coordinator, says “The COLAE collaboration will allow Europe to remain at the forefront of developing this key technology area, while driving future advancements in highly lucrative markets”.

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