Founded in December 2004, the Organic and Printed Electronics Association (OE-A) represents the entire value chain of this emerging industry.
The OE-A is a working group within VDMA – the largest industry association in Europe – that aims to build a bridge between science, technology and application.
The Association has more than 230 members from over 32 different countries in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia.
It sees world-class global companies and institutions work together to promote the establishment of a competitive production infrastructure for organic and printed electronics.
Loughborough University has an excellent track record for research in this area having been home to the Innovative Electronics Manufacturing Research Centre (IeMRC) ‘hub’.
Set up by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the IeMRC focused on the electronics manufacturing sector and over a 10 year period, received more than £16m funding, supporting over 45 individual projects.
Another current ongoing funded-project the University is involved in is EPSRC’s ‘Sustainable Manufacturing of Transparent Conducting Oxide (TCO) Inks and Thin Films’.
The five-year £2.28m collaboration between Loughborough University, University College London and a large industrial consortium seeks to develop sustainable and inexpensive versions of transparent conducting materials that can be found in computer, phone and tablet screens.
Dr Darren Southee, a Senior Lecturer in Design with more than 15 years of experience in printed electronics research, says joining the OE-A will continue to build on the University’s success in this field.
He said: “The OE-A is a global strategic platform, building bridges between science, technology and applications, and fostering collaborative links wherever possible. Loughborough can take nationally recognised world-leading research and move it onto the International stage”.
“For Loughborough to be a part of the OE-A is how it should be and we are looking forward to making our meaningful, collaborative contribution.”
As a member of the Association, Loughborough students will have the chance to enter the 2019 OE-A competition and showcase their new ideas, prototypes and designs related to organic and printable electronics.
One of the benefits to entrants is that their projects may be displayed at the OE-A booth during LOPEC 2019 – the leading trade fair for printed electronics.
Students on the new MSc Integrated Industrial Design Programme and PhD students working in relevant areas are also to be treated to a talk by Sandy Gunn, the Business Development Manager for the Centre for Process Innovation – a member of the OE-A.
Sandy will be at the University on 27 September discussing ‘Designing with Printable Electronics’.
Loughborough University’s membership profile is available to view on the OE-A website here.