Towards 2020 – Photonics driving economic growth in Europe

2. Photonics Research and Innovation Challenges
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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, requiring
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.
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. Highfidelity
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 preferred
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.
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
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