March 2010

www.cikc.org.uk

Welcome to CIKC

CIKC acts to accelerate commercial exploitation of emerging research and technology in flexible and distributed electronics in partnership with industry. It is a centre of excellence for low temperature processing using macromolecular materials, such as polymers, liquid crystals and nanostructures, for applications in computer technologies, displays and communication systems. The Mission of the Centre is to provide the business and technical expertise and infrastructure to enable those with exploitable concepts to achieve commercial success.

CIKC brings together research activities in Cambridge University in molecular and macromolecular materials in the Electrical Engineering

Division and the Cavendish Laboratory with the expertise of the Judge Business School, the Institute for Manufacturing (IfM) and the Centre for Business Research (CBR), to create innovative knowledge exchange activities spanning business research, training and technology exploitation.

CIKC pilots a new approach to the exploitation of research by integrating:

• skilled professionals from academic and business within a University to leverage world class research

• shared space for small and large companies to partner innovatively

• flexible transition of ideas, activities and people between Universities and Industry

• an entrepreneurial environment

Contents: 2 Technology Projects 9 Facilities

11 Training

13 Commercialisation

15 Small Grants 16 Work with CIKC

2

CIKC

Technology CIKC has three core technology themes:

– Plastic (opto-) electronics: flexible displays/electronics and distributed electronics on rigid substrates at a “low” temperature budget

– Augmented or additive processing on active substrates (e.g. liquid crystal on silicon devices, LCOS)

– Complementary actions such as photovoltaic or energy storage/batteries

Molecular and macromolecular material based components are likely to meet a very large range of commercial applications in displays, lighting, photovoltaics, smart packaging, smart windows, RFID etc. For example, solution-based processing of polymer semiconductors offers the potential of integrating electronic, optical and photonic devices into flexible, low-cost plastic substrates enabling a range of innovative products, and LCOS devices are becoming the main contenders in the microdisplays industry.

Technology Portfolio Project Topic Partners

3PV, 3PV+

OPV Carbon Trust, TTP

Process technology for roll-to-roll printing of organic photovoltaics on flexible substrates

HiPZOT TCO, i-TFTs CAPE, Plasma Quest

Low temperature deposition of transparent conductors and inorganic TFTs based on zinc oxide on flexible substrates

PASSBACK LCOS CAPE

Liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) devices for phase-only holography for applications in video projection and telecommunications

PIES, PSIAC

Optical datacoms Dow Corning, Avago

Low cost polymer waveguide interconnects for optical communications

PLACORD, LEAF Reflective Display Advex, Dow Corning

Lamination processes for electroactive materials on flexible foils, e.g. large area liquid crystal reflective displays

MIPE, PRIME, COPE

oTFT Plastic Logic, Merck, DuPont Teijin Films

Scalable self-aligned printing processes for next generation polymer TFT circuits

ROOT oTFT Hitachi

Characterisation techniques to understand operational degradation in organic TFTs

ACET

Roadmaps for MMM technology.

www.cikc.org.uk

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Printing for Manufacturing of Electronics (PRIME)

A self-aligned method for producing fully-downscaled printed organic FETs has been developed and this project aims to develop this as a manufacturable process for organic transistor circuit fabrication.

Partners: Plastic Logic, DuPont Teijin Films, Merck

Technical objectives • Prove manufacturability of printing process • Assess and improve manufacturing yield and uniformity • Assess device reliability • Development of prototype

Achievements • Reliable fabrication of arrays of SAP electrodes with channel length of 200-400 nm and

100% yield • Fabrication of all-printed, short-channel organic FETs with gold and silver electrodes to

reduce series and contact resistance

Y.-Y. Noh, et al., Nature Nano, (2007).

100 µm

Drain

Source

Gate Ink jet printed TFT

SH

FF

F

SH

HH

H

SH

CN

Au

-

+

SH

FF

F

SH

HH

H

SH

CN

SH

FF

F

SH

HH

H

SH

CN

Au

-

+

ga

Source Drain

SAG dielectric

Channel

3 High mobility organic semiconductors

1 Self-aligned printing (SAP)

2 SAM

5 Self-aligned gate architecture (SAG)

4 Thin gate dielectrics

4

CIKC

High Performance Zinc Oxide Thin Film Transistors (HiPZOT) Plasma Quest Ltd has developed a novel system for sputtering thin films at high deposition rates with exceptional control of material properties and low substrate temperatures. This project aims to fabricate high mobility thin film transistors based on zinc oxide on plastic substrates using the Plasma Quest HiTUS system, for applications such as active matrix backplanes for OLED displays. As well as being compatible with plastic substrates, zinc oxide technology potentially offers lower cost and higher performance than amorphous silicon.

Partner: Plasma Quest Ltd.

Results

• Fabrication of a new generation of TFTs using metal oxide based materials is possible at plastic-compatible temperatures. Mobility µFE 10 cm2 V-1s-1 and switching ratio >106 achieved with an amorphous indium zinc oxide (IZO) channel.

• Hafnium oxide dielectric with amorphous structure, resistivity > 1014 Ωcm and εr = 30.

• Aluminium oxide dielectric with resistivity > 1014 Ωcm.

• HiTUS sputtering offers clear advantages for material control over rf magnetron sputtering.

• Excellent optical properties observed in all films - fully transparent devices possible.

Transparent metal oxide TFTs

Amorphous Indium Zinc Oxide IZO TFT Characteristics

VDS

[V]

I DS [m

A]

TDP00C_a

-5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30

-0.1

0.0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6 VGS

= -2.5 V

VGS

= 0.0 V

VGS

= 2.5 V

VGS

= 5.0 V

VGS

= 7.5 V

VGS

= 10.0 V

5

www.cikc.org.uk

Polymer Interconnects with Environmental Stability (PIES) This project aims to determine how polymer waveguides able to operate in environmentally hostile applications can be fabricated using high resolution imprinting techniques in a low cost manner and to produce a range of optically functional multimode components suitable for direct integration with electrical circuit boards.

Partners: Dow Corning, Tyco, WCPC, Avago

Successful integration of optical components into existing electronics architectures and manufacturing processes requires material capable of withstanding high-temperatures related to soldering and lamination. Siloxane polymers from Dow Corning can withstand > 250°C, can be integrated onto standard FR4 PCB and have low intrinsic optical loss.

This project is an investigation into low cost, high performance optical integration components using these siloxane polymers. The aim is to take the technology to the stage where it can be readily transferred to production and to enable a wide range of low cost products based on opto-hybrids.

Optical transceiver integrates optical waveguide and electronic components on a common PCB substrate with novel through-board connectors for endfire coupling

Polymer waveguides over copper tracks

10 card optical backplane

10 cm 10 cm

10 card optical backplane

Polymer waveguide over copper tracks

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CIKC

Plastic Large Area Colour Reflective Displays (PLACORD)

New Smectic A liquid crystal materials and electro-optic technology for reflective colour and ‘electronic print’ displays have been developed and this project is developing processes to laminate these materials between plastic substrates for large area display applications.

Partners: Dow Corning, Advex

Advantages of Smectic A liquid crystal for reflective displays • Bistable – low power consumption • Greyscale response. • Bright white state > 55% reflectivity. • Reflective contrast > 7:1 • Stackable for full colour displays • Very large arrays of pixels can be multiplexed

Project Aims: − Set up a state-of-the-art laboratory for making plastic encapsulated devices. − To develop and test liquid crystal guest-host materials for e-posters. − To make a composite tile involving three stacked layers of single colour sub-tiles.

Schematic of SmA liquid crystals

Electro-optic bistability in Smectic-A liquid crystal

AC voltage low frequency (~50

Clear State LC

AC voltage high frequency (1–2 kHz)

Scattered State LC

Schematic of state changing conditions

Stable with no voltage applied.

Stable with no voltage applied.

www.cikc.org.uk

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Printed Polymer Photovoltaics (3PV)

Objective: 2-year project to develop roll-to-roll manufacturing processes for printed polymer solar cells

Partner: Carbon Trust Advanced Photovoltaics Research Accelerator

Technology Approach: Polymer-based photovoltaics are improving in efficiency to levels where large-area applications are attractive. Roll-to-roll fabrication by printing will allow major cost reductions compared with incumbent silicon technology.

Technical objectives • Develop printing processes for thin active layer deposition • Develop new anode materials • Understand effect of printing process on polymer nanostructure

Commercialisation - Carbon Trust will provide up to £5m funding, initially as a research grant (matching funding for

3PV), and then as equity investment in a new start-up. - Aim to launch spinout in 2010, with combination of strategic investor and seed investor funding

to match Carbon Trust contribution.

Printed films

Printed modules

Roll-to-roll printing

CIKC

8

Photonic and Sensing Systems based on CMOS Backplanes (PASSBACK)

This project aims to develop high quality prototype phase only liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) devices for applications including holographic projection systems and telecommunications modules. The project is establishing equipment and processes for a wide range of additive processing based on the Silicon CMOS platform including opto-hybrids and devices.

Aim: • To develop in-house LCOS prototype device fabrication processes for high-spec

LCOS devices

• To build prototype devices for various applications

Progress: • Successfully commissioned a 20 step semi-automatic LCOS prototyping process

• Phase-only holographic projection engine prototype built and tested in collaboration with commercial partner, ALPS

Holographic µ-projector

Telecoms

3D

Built environment

An ideal phase hologram can manipulate light beams without loss of photons.

Applications of phase-only LCOS technology

Lab-on-a-chip

9

www.cikc.org.uk

www.

Infrastructure and facilities CIKC has a collectively owned core of capital equipment to enable product development right through to pilot production. CIKC collaborative projects draw upon both physical and personnel resource across the partnership.

The CAPE laboratories and the Cavendish are well-equipped with dark-room, wet labs, communications demonstration and test equipment, general electronic component assembly and test as well as large very high quality clean-room suites, which are utilised by CIKC projects.

CIKC has installed equipment sets for

1. Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCOS) device prototyping

2. Printing of organic electronic devices

3. Low temperature deposition of transparent conducting oxides on plastic substrates.

4. Lamination of large area liquid crystal displays on plastic

We welcome enquiries from industry and other academic institutions interested in accessing this infrastructure.

Plasma Quest HiTUS sputter system for deposition of a wide range of transparent conducting oxides on plastic substrates for flexible electronics.

Bench top coater/laminators for liquid crystals on plastic substrates for plastic display structures, plastic electronics and plastic based photovoltaics.

Suss Kadett Semi- Automatic Device Bonder allows accurate assembly for LCOS fabrication.

Litrex L120L industrial multi-nozzle ink jet System for process development for organic electronic circuits. The tool is currently setup for ink jet printing of gold and silver nanoparticle inks.

10

CIKC

Roadmapping Successful achievement of CIKC goals requires a high level of collaboration and integration across the various programme themes, projects and activities. This is particularly challenging given the complexity of both the underlying science/technology and the potential routes to commercial exploitation, together with the diversity and number of stakeholders and projects involved.

Roadmapping is being used as a framework to support strategic planning for individual projects within CIKC, as well as supporting alignment within the programme. Roadmapping techniques are widely used in industry to explore, manage and communicate the linkages between technology and research investments, product developments, business objectives and market opportunities, using a structured visual framework.

The exploratory roadmapping method provides a structured means for mapping and exploring CIKC project exploitation opportunities, in order to

• Support project strategy development at an early stage.

• Clarify exploitation paths (in particular, to identify application opportunities in the short, medium and long term).

• Identify issues of relevance to other projects to support programme alignment

• Initiate roadmapping in projects.

Exploratory workshops have been held for a number of CIKC projects using a

roadmapping template to capture participant views and guide discussion. The summary view is then used to create outline roadmaps which highlight short, medium and long-term application opportunities and associated exploitation enablers and barriers.

From a programme alignment perspective, the key outcome from each workshop is a report summarising the commercial and exploitation issues identified, including short, medium and long term application opportunities, in a format that non-technical experts can understand and which are of relevance to the commercialisation projects.

www.cikc.org.uk

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Business & training Training Courses The educational and training component provides CIKC-funded staff and students with skills and tools to understand the challenges and opportunities in the application of science and technology to the marketplace.

Executive Education CIKC can facilitate the attendance of staff from our industrial partners on the Open Programme of Executive Education at the Judge Business School and executive training courses run by the Institute for Manufacturing.

The Cambridge Executive Education programme is a portfolio of over 20 courses enabling participants to extend their skills and understanding to achieve personal development and career objectives. Most programmes are offered in a 2-day format at Cambridge University. More details are

available at www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/execed/

Many of the IfM's courses are run on an in-company basis with modules tailored to address the issues facing a particular organisation and typically involve a combination of technical, management and software training. For details see: http://www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/

Representatives from CIKC partner companies who would like to discuss what assistance CIKC can offer your company please contact the CIKC office.

Ignite CIKC sponsors students and researchers to attend this intense, one-week training programme for aspiring entrepreneurs and corporate innovators which has been run by The Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (CfEL) since 1999. The 2010 course will run from June 27-July 3: http://www.cfel.jbs.cam.ac.uk/programmes/ignite/

MOTI Management of Technology and Innovation equips students with an understanding of how their science, engineering and technology knowledge can be transformed into commercial products and services, and the pathways by which innovations reach the market place. Lectures take place in the evenings during Michaelmas and Lent terms.

Ignite attendee feedback: “Ignite not only provides me with the knowledge about entrepreneurship but also provides me with a valuable network, both which I believe are very important to my future development.”

“After Ignite, my business idea has a brighter future.”

“From the course, I have gained all the tools required to build a successful business.”

12

CIKC

Technology and Innovation Management This three-day course helps managers to understand the key tools and techniques needed to exploit technological investments and opportunities. Attendees gain a working knowledge of how to:

• integrate technological considerations into business strategy and planning processes

• understand and communicate the value of technology investments

• manage new product development in the context of the innovation system

• use appropriate, process-based technology management approaches

Further details of the course are available from http://www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk

ISMM Module This module is on offer to CIKC postgraduate students or research staff. The two-week course runs in January 2011 at IfM. At the end of the module, students will have a practical Technology and Innovation Management toolkit which they will be able to apply to technology commercialisation activities.

i-Teams This is an opportunity for entrepreneurial post-graduate students to build go-to-market strategies for real inventions.

Each i-Team, consisting of 7 students from different disciplines, assesses the

commercial prospects for a University technology by talking to target customers and defines directions for future technology development. For more information see www.iteamsonline.org.

Student projects Student projects bring commercial skills, primarily in strategy, marketing and business planning, to early-stage technology. This provides opportunities for graduate business students to use the skills in a practical context through work on projects related to the commercialisation of CIKC technologies. In return, CIKC partners get access to bright and motivated students to tackle problems of real business importance.

See www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/projects or www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/studentprojects. If you have a business problem that could provide a basis for a project then please contact the CIKC office to discuss.

Project Name Proposal Deadline Project Date

Cambridge Venture Sep 2010 Nov-Dec 2010

MoTI Nov 2010 Jan-Mar 2011

Global Consulting Jan 2011 Mar-Apr 2011

MST Feb 2011 May 2011

MBA Individual Jan 2011 Jun-Sep 2011

MET Oct 2010

ISMM Nov 2010-

Joining i-Teams is an opportunity to be part of an exciting team, learn about taking real technologies to market, strengthen your skills, and have fun

“Our team was like a small company, working together to achieve a common goal”

“i-Teams is one of the most entertaining and inspiring projects I have ever worked on. It has helped to reshape and direct my future career towards entrepreneurship”

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Commercialisation

The CIKC commercialisation programme has four key objectives:

• to improve the speed and effectiveness with which CIKC projects move to commercialisation and facilitate access to commercial and funding partners.

• to deliver practical, evidence-based policy recommendations to Government, EPSRC, and the University, on how the UK science base can best be exploited for the benefit of the UK economy.

• to develop a set of best practice outcome and impact metrics to enable CIKC to be a leader in this area.

• to make a significant contribution to the academic literature on technology commercialisation.

Portfolio Project Investigators Partners COIN Minshall Unilever

Capabilities and skills for an open innovation strategy.

DEVA Holweg BT, Nissan

Value chain evaluation for emerging technology.

FTB Cosh NESTA, EEDA, NW Brown

Funding routes for early stage technology.

IKCCL De Meyer

Participant observation of commercialisation process

ComLab Hughes

International comparison of policy frameworks. Best practice metrics for knowledge exchange. Opportunity recognition, commercialisation facilitation.

MIN Gregory

Managing international networks for emerging technology.

Commercialisation Activities

Commercialisation Panel Objectives

CIKC Strategic

Objectives

Discovery, Facilitation

and Measurement

L I T E R A T U R E S U R V E Y

Best Practice Case Studies

Participant Observations

Speed & Effectiveness Metrics (Best Practice)

& Database

Management Lessons Govt Policy Lessons

Academic Literature on Technological

Commercialisation

Advancing Codified Knowledge

Fundamental Research

Targeted Research

Pre - prototype Development

Pilot Manufacturing

Transfer to Full Production

Top - level Roadmapping

Competitive Analysis

Value Chain Analysis

D I S C O V E R

E X P L O R E

S H A P E

Licence Contract Partner Spinouts

INCEPTION PHASES I and II

Commercialisation, partnering and

risk management strategies Systems

Development and Applications

Engineering

People People

Strategic Objectives

Discovery, Facilitation

and Measurement

L I T E R A T U R E S U R V E Y

Best Practice Case Studies

Participant Observations

Speed & Effectiveness Metrics (Best Practice)

& Database

Management Lessons Govt Policy Lessons

Academic Literature on Technological

Commercialisation

Advancing Codified Knowledge

Fundamental Research

Targeted Research

Pre - prototype Development

Pilot Manufacturing

Transfer to Full Production

Top ;level Roadmapping

Competitive Analysis

Value Chain Analysis

D I S C O V E R

E X P L O R E

S H A P E

Licence Contract Partner Spinouts

INCEPTION PHASES I and II

Commercialisation Laboratory Research Activities

KEY: Emerging Commercialisation opportunities

Commercialisation Laboratory Research Activities

KEY: Emerging Commercialisation opportunities

Commercialisation, partnering and

risk management strategies Systems

Development and Applications

Engineering

People People

CIKC

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Regulation of Molecular and Macromolecular Materials

Laure Dodin from IfM has been exploring the regulatory regimes for nanomaterials in the EU, US and Japan as part of the IKCCL project.

Nanotechnology has been earmarked by the UK, the US and the Japanese governments as a strategic sector for their economy. But the development of a regulatory framework for this technology, rendered necessary by the rapid expansion of nanotechnology R&D as well as the handling and commercialisation of nano-products, is difficult as this new technology presents risks still largely unknown.

The regulators from all three countries have adopted a similar regulatory strategy to deal with the situation: prioritising the reduction of scientific uncertainty over the creation of new regulations, they have developed a cradle-to-grave approach which permits taking into account the possible hazards posed by nanomaterials at each stage of their life cycle.

However, the investigation of possible regulatory options solely at the domestic level is insufficient and national regulators are also involved in an international collaboration.

Laure’s notes on the regulatory regimes in each region and a comparison of the different approaches they have adopted can be accessed on our Camtools site.

Funding Breakthrough Technology

The research aimed to understand the process of commercialization of science through the lens of how this process is funded. The research questions were: − How do commercialisation patterns emerge for breakthrough technologies? − What are the key factors/ decision points in commercialisation? − UK performance in commercialising these technologies

The researchers (Samantha Sharpe and Andy Cosh from CBR) produced case studies of seven “breakthrough” technologies that have emerged to commercial prominence over the last 50 years – liquid crystals, fibre optics, LEDs, PV, inkjet printing, MEMs and GMR. From these case studies, they conclude that the development of these breakthrough technologies was a cumulative process with long time horizons, multi-disciplinary teams were often important, niche and non-price sensitive customers were very valuable and that there was a surprisingly limited role for venture capital.

The implications they draw for an innovation policy to improve UK performance in this area include that long term consistent public support for science discovery and commercialisation is required along with support for focus driven environments, the strategic use of public procurement and a recasting the role of public money in risk capital.

The case studies are available at http://www.cbr.cam.ac.uk/research/programme1/project1-24.htm

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Small Grants To ensure challenging exploration of ideas is encouraged, within a balanced portfolio, a proportion of CIKC funds have been reserved for small scale feasibility studies to build a case that could then be brought forward for further funding or to seek external grant aid with support from one or more partner. Grants for the use of CIKC infrastructure, facilities or services, access for IKC researchers to equipment or services at other institutes or requests from an industry partner for solution to a specific problem will also be considered

Applicants should request an application form from the CIKC office. The intention is to have a rapid turnaround of proposals. Proposals will be reviewed based on the criteria:

• relevance to the CIKC remit

• potential business impact,

o involvement of and support from industrial partners

o potential benefit to technology commercialisation process

• technical quality

• evidence of the need for support by CIKC and cost effectiveness of the use of CIKC funds

Small grant projects include:

CaPro A Ferrari, N Mathur, Toshiba Investigating spintronic devices in graphene.

Conflex N Greenham, DuPont Teijin Testing transparent conductive anodes for organic solar cells.

CWT A Ferrari, Nokia Demonstrate a novel nano-scale FET device concept.

FIPSIP R Penty/A Kar, St Andrews University Using a femtosecond laser writing technique to fabricate high performance integrated optical devices.

IZONano A Flewitt, Nano ePrint Feasibility of using IZO in a novel 2-dimensional transistor architecture.

PLASCOM D Chu, DreamGlass Developing lamination processes for PDLC on plastic substrates.

PPOW R Penty, T Claypole, WCPC Swansea Feasibility of printing techniques for fabrication of polymer waveguides.

For more information please contact Mark Leadbeater or Maggie Tanner in the CIKC Office

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CIKC Electrical Engineering Division University of Cambridge 9 JJ Thomson Avenue Cambridge

Telephone +44 (0)1223 748370 Fax: +44 (0)1223 748342 email: mll35@cam.ac.uk Web site www.cikc.org.uk Intranet: camtools.caret.cam.ac.uk

CIKC www.cikc.org.uk

Ways to work with CIKC Industrial partners can interact with CIKC in a variety of ways: • Small grants fund - Small scale (£20k) projects e.g. feasibility studies and collaborative projects

with external partners seeking access to CIKC infrastructure, facilities or services • Collaborative R&D projects. • Participation in commercialisation research projects. • Student projects. • Training opportunities. • Panel membership (by invitation). • CIKC Outreach Events – roadmapping workshops, etc.

Partner Organisations CIKC has received strong industrial support from partners with complementary expertise and has a close relationship with the knowledge transfer network in Photonics and Plastic Electronics and other UK Centres of Excellence in plastic electronics: The Welsh Centre for Printing and Coating (Swansea), The Organic Materials

Innovation Centre (Manchester) and the Printable Electronics Technology Centre (PETEC) (Sedgefield).

Currently 25 companies are involved in CIKC producing £4.4m of matching funding, surpassing our 5-year target.