Towards 2020 – Photonics driving economic growth in Europe

50 Towards 2020 – Photonics driving economic growth in Europe
By acting as a launching
customer for SSL,
public authorities will
be able to benefit directly
from the savings offered
by this technology.
OPV contribute to energy
creation. © Holst Centre
mance ratio will be needed, requiring, amongst
other things, a massive investment in production
equipment.
The development of Flexible Electronics is now
offering a variety of new functionalities, having the
potential to open up a completely new branch of
industry. This European industry will be built around
a large number of SMEs, each of them targeting
specific application domains with their customised
devices, complemented by existing large companies.
Flexible Electronics will also unlock innovation
in traditional industry segments, such as printing,
plastic moulding, paper, and even textiles. In order
to respond quickly to the demands of the market,
all these companies will need access to flexible
production facilities. Considering the current limited
availability of financial resources, such capital
investments will present a clear challenge.
Despite the display market being dominated (in
terms of production volume) by players from Asia
Pacific, Europe has maintained its position of
strength in material supply, production equipment
and visualisation systems. The display industry is
currently shifting its focus from LCD (Liquid Crystal
Display) towards OLED technology for direct-view
displays, from lamps towards LEDs for microdisplays,
and towards high brightness LEDs or solidstate
lasers for projection displays. 3D displays that
do not require special viewing glasses will be the
next step in televisual experience, ultimately enabling
remote collaboration. This will require the
development of display systems showing a resolution
exceeding that of current HDTVs by at least a
factor of 100. The ubiquitous presence of displays
will continue to create profitable niches, answering
different needs throughout the European market.
Involvement of Value Chain Partners
With respect to energy efficiency and carbon
footprint reductions, the involvement of public
authorities will be critical for pinpointing the added
value offered by SSL technology (encompassing
LEDs and OLEDs). Indeed, public authorities own
a substantial part of the existing infrastructure for
both indoor and outdoor lighting, so, by acting as
a launching customer for SSL, public authorities will
be able to benefit directly from the savings offered
by this technology. Additionally, guided by the early
feedback from the initial launching customers, the
SSL industry will be able to achieve a much faster
rollout of this technology.
Fragmented information on the effect of incumbent
lighting technology on people’s health and
well-being is already available. However, with the
advent of SSL technology the spectral, spatial and
temporal distribution of lighting can be readily
adjusted, offering as yet unexplored new opportunities.
To investigate and better understand how
tailored lighting conditions could impact the health
and well-being of people, the direct involvement of
end-users and experts will be required, the latter
drawn from the fields of medical science, gerontology,
psychology and sociology. In addition to
its impact on humans, tailored lighting conditions
could also affect animals and plants. Therefore,
close collaboration with experts from the biological
and agricultural domain will be essential, allowing
the potential impact of tailored lighting on the
reliability and efficiency of global food supply to
be assessed.
The building of a manufacturing infrastructure for
OLED, OPV and Flexible Electronics will require close
collaboration with both production equipment