Ntera unveils nanotechnology for printed electronics on packaging

Ntera has debuted a nanotechnology to mass produce electronic displays on a wide range of paper, packaging, ticket and greeting card products. The technology, which is already being market-tested in Europe, allows color displays to be ‘printed’ on almost any traditional printed product at low cost and with minimal power requirements, says the company. 

Working on a similar principle to how automotive mirrors are able to darken in response to light stimulus, Ntera’s NCD display deploys an array of electrodes made of a metal oxide semiconductor mounted on a flexible film that reportedly allows it to produce images with a resolution equivalent to conventional inkjet print resolutions. When electrochromic molecules are attached to a film of semiconducting nanoparticles, it effectively creates a film that is several hundreds of layers of electrochromic molecules thick. A charge applied through the semiconducting particles causes the molecules at the surface to be charged and therefore to change color. Because the film is many layers of particles thick, the optical change, barely detectable in only one layer of particles, is dramatic. Adding an opaque white layer behind the electrochromic layer as background to the images makes these displays even more vivid. Like printed text on paper, NCD displays can be viewed clearly from virtually any angle and under a wide range of lighting conditions, and require only a fraction of the power of LCD displays to maintain the image.   

Ntera’s NanoChromics technology is translatable to virtually any kind of printable surface. Applied using Ntera’s NanoChromics ink systems, which enable cost-effective manufacturing of printed electronic NCD displays on a variety of flexible substrate materials using industry standard screen printing, flexo and inkjet printing techniques and equipment, the printable nature of NCD displays will create ubiquity throughout numerous markets and product categories.  

‘Printed electronics is being redefined beyond the printing of conductive traces and electrochemical materials to the more elaborate construction of multi-layered components such as batteries, diodes, transistors, memory, solar cells and displays,’ explained Dr David Corr, Ntera’s president and CEO. ‘You once had to attach a display to an energy source, using the printed circuits as the conductors; with printed electronics technologies the entire device completely printed. The possibilities of combining an all-printed multi-layered system with the economies of scale from an established manufacturing infrastructure are rather incredible.’ 

Ntera’s NCD display technology is said to differ from that of the liquid crystal display (LCD) in significant ways. Where an LCD requires a constant electric charge to maintain its image, an NCD image requires electrically charging a material to change its color, using a charge-storing layer as a source of charge for the electrochromic material lets an NCD image remain active for as long as several hours. As a result, Ntera’s technology has low power requirements – as low as 0.5 volts for activation, since color changes in the displays are triggered at voltages below 1V DC.  

‘The ability to print low-power electro-optical displays on virtually any type of item, using existing industrial printing infrastructure, heralds a new dimension of interaction between people and information,’ said the company in a statement.  

These ultra-thin, sunlight-readable, low power NCD displays can be integrated into any number of products, including plastic cards, packaging, smart labels, RFID systems, greeting cards, toys and games, and consumer electronic devices.  Ntera is based in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, with research and development facilities in Dublin, Ireland.