August 29, 2008--The U. S. Display Consortium (USDC; San Jose, CA) is formally expanding its mission to support the emerging flexible, printed electronics market and has changed the organization's official name to the FlexTech Alliance to reflect this new activity and opportunity. At the same time, the board recommitted its support for supply chain development for next-generation displays, such as OLEDs, flexible displays, MEMs-based, and 3-D displays.
The USDC board took this action to signal its intent to commit resources to the increasingly synergistic technologies driving advances in the flexible and printed electronics sector. USDC officials state that the move is a natural progression for the organization based on the success of the Flexible, Printed and Organic (FPO) Electronics Initiative that it launched in December 2006, which was designed to gauge potential development and growth of this new market. Since the launch of that initiative, industry interest has grown steadily with a definite need for programs dedicated to the sector. Based on substantial industry and academic support, as well as the growing synergies between all of its served markets, the USDC board has now officially broadened the consortium's mission to serve the common interests of the display industry and the flexible, printed electronics industry.
As part of this effort, the USDC and all of its programs will be absorbed under the broader FlexTech Alliance umbrella. In addition to continued strong emphasis on electronic display supply chain R&D, the FlexTech Alliance will focus on creating a flexible, printed electronics infrastructure within North America that will ultimately enable the production of active, ubiquitous devices. These devices will be manufactured using new, flexible form factors that deliver high functionality at low cost. Near-term applications for this market include RFID tags, sensors (chemical/biological), energy (solar-cell panels and flexible batteries), solid-state lighting, medical/healthcare, disposable electronics and displays. Given their myriad applications, FPO electronics hold tremendous potential, with experts predicting that the market for some applications could exceed $50 billion by 2017.
For more information, visit www.usdc.org.