Photonics Driving Economic Growth in Europe - Photonics21

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54 Towards 2020 – Photonics driving economic growth in Europe A doubling of the present efficiency of the OPV is being targeted. It is estimated that a massive market uptake of OPV will occur around 2020. © Holst Centre As with LED technology, system integration for creating user-centric solutions will require the development of hardware and software architec- tures, enabling the interoperability of light sources, actuators and sensors from different suppliers. OPV Initially OPV is expected to penetrate dedicated niche markets, subsequently leading to serving new volume markets. A notable example of this would be providing energy to the 1–2 billion people in the world, who will never have direct access to an electricity grid. This could be the perfect stepping- stone for this technology, exploiting the exceptional robustness offered by OPV in comparison to conventional photovoltaic technology. Future mass markets are anticipated to lie with e-mobility and with building-integrated photovoltaics, which are both application fields that will profit significantly from conformable, flexible and transparent solar cells. The European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) predicts that this massive market uptake of OPV will occur around 2020, allowing sufficient time for OPV technology to improve and outperform conventional Si-PV technology. The innovation challenges facing OPV are very similar to those facing OLED lighting technology. Major improvements in the cost performance ratio will be required to become competitive with the established Si-PV technology. To achieve this, a doubling of the present efficiency will be needed, as well as a substantial increase in lifetime, and these targets must be high on the research agenda. New materials will play a major role in achieving these improvements. In parallel with this, scaling up fabrication from cells to modules, and the transition from ‘lab to fab’ to manage the complexity of the processes, will both make a major contribution to cost reduction. However, this goal can only be reached though a substantial increase in investment in pilot production facilities. There are clear opportunities for cross-fertilisation between the technologoies developed for the OLED lighting and
2. Photonics Research and Innovation Challenges the OPV industries. For example, whilst OPV will evidently benefit from mass-production methods developed in the OLED industry, the roll-to-roll processes developed for OPV could also benefit the OLED industry. Flexible Electronics based on OLAE devices Cheap, mass-produced smart systems built around organic, flexible and large-area electronics will create many new business opportunities. These will make use of what is termed ‘human size electronics’, as well as advanced man-machine interfacing. Examples include electronic labels for logistics, smart packaging, personalised health diagnostics, and medical therapy. To date, most attention has been given to the realisation of generic OLAE devices, but the heterogeneous integration of proven functionalities into systems will pave the way towards industrialisation. Initially these devices will integrate simple functionalities using the existing infrastructure with proven integration technologies. In a subsequent phase, multiple functionalities will be integrated in conformable and flexible systems, re- quiring new processes and more advanced heterogeneous integration approaches. Most of these innovative devices will include large area photonics devices, such as displays, lighting elements, OPV and photonics sensors. The first steps for creating open prototyping and small series production facilities have already been made. The recommendations of the COLAE (Commercialisation clusters of Organic and Large Area Electronics) co-ordination and support action will be instrumental in rationalising the existing European production infrastructure. This rationalisation effort should be strengthened to offer startup companies, existing SMEs and fabless design houses, the opportunity of exploring the full market potential of their product ideas. Although modelling and simulation tools are readily available for silicon-based devices, these are not suitable for complex heterogeneous Flexible Electronics devices. The development of such tools will be essential for achieving a short time to market for new Flexible Electronics devices. Displays Displays are one of the most visible expressions of photonics as a key enabling technology. High- fidelity visual communication will increase efficiency and competitiveness, in particular for high added-value applications for remote collaboration between professionals, for example, engineers, business executives, medical doctors, etc. The display demands are very heterogeneous and the pre- ferred display technology will depend largely on the specific end-application, for example, direct-view AMOLED (active matrix OLED), e-paper, projection displays, and near-to-eye displays. A high priority has been assigned to the development of technology for AMOLED displays because, when compared to conventional liquid crystal displays, this technology is potentially superior in overall image quality, thickness, power efficiency and weight, and all achived at lower manufacturing cost. Research topics are focusing on improvement of the metal oxide TFTs and organic TFTs, new OLED and film materials for longer lifetime, increases in wall plug efficiency, and the development of curved, flexible and rollable displays. Specifically for near-to-eye micro-displays, the main challenges include achieving high luminance at reduced pixel size, as well as power reduction. Research topics should therefore focus on new lighting structures and materials, on the optimisation of colour generation, and on new packaging technologies, including improved thin film encapsulation. The glasses-free 3D display system with >100 views, needed for a truly immersive experience, will require large bandwidth access at the network endpoints. A rich immersive visual experience requires life-size displays with a resolution corresponding to nominal visual acuity. There is a 55
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Towards 2020 - Photonics driving ec
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Page 5 and 6: Index Index Impressum 2 Photonics21
Page 7 and 8: 0. Executive Summary 7 Underpinning
Page 9 and 10: 0. Executive Summary environment, a
Page 11 and 12: 0. Executive Summary that will allo
Page 13 and 14: 1. Introduction Finally, to conclud
Page 15 and 16: 1. Introduction To support this val
Page 17 and 18: 1. Introduction Regional innovation
Page 19 and 20: 2. Photonics Research and Innovatio
Page 53: 2. Photonics Research and Innovatio
Page 97 and 98: 3. Expected Impact of a Photonics P
Page 99 and 100: 4. Appendix Photonics Multiannual R
Page 101 and 102: 4. Appendix Interactive workshops &
Page 103 and 104: 4. Appendix Figures illustrating th
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4. Appendix Photonics21 Publication
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