Partners

The Quadriga Project is a joint initiative of the European Commission, the Directorate General of Information Technology & Media and 4 Collaboration Action Projects within the seventh Framework Programme : OPERA, PolyNet, PolyMap & Prodi.

Main and common objective of all four collaborative projects is to foster the position of Europe as a gravitation point in the research regarding organic & large area electronics and at the same time to foster the position of Europe as a main hub in this new sector of industry emerging out of this technology area. Ultimate objective of all four projects is to contribute to the creation of new start-ups and to contribute to the creation of knowledge based employment. It is all about the future of organic and large area electronics in Europe!

Framework 7, Objective ICT 2007.3.2 : Organic and large area electronics, visualisation and display systems

Objective : Organic and large-area technologies for logic, memory and light-emitting
functionalities addressing e-paper, smart systems on tags, low-cost RFIDs, lab on chip
devices, intelligent packaging, displays, signage, and intelligent lighting systems.
Emphasis will be: on large-area and low-cost manufacturing technologies like printing
involving additive processes and related materials; on new device structures; on advanced
modelling, simulation, and characterisation for circuit design; on encapsulation,
interconnects and system in foil integration; on innovative sensing, energy storage and
scavenging, and power management functions. Attention should be paid to the overall
manufacturing aspects including cost, capital investment and environmental impact.

Support measures will include access to advanced manufacturing and design
competences, training and education for organic and large area electronics, joint user
assessment of prototype equipment from European suppliers and will develop synergies
between the electronics and the printing sectors on circuit design, manufacturing
equipment and standardisation.

Advanced visualisation systems and novel display technologies. Visualisation systems
extending colour gamut and dynamic range beyond current state-of-the-art, taking into
account human vision and perceptual models. They should support multi-viewer, unaided
and unrestricted 3D viewing, as well as natural interaction modalities. This includes signal
acquisition, processing and representation technologies for 3D-systems. Research results
are to be integrated into working prototypes addressing key professional and consumer
applications. Further outcomes will be portable display systems such as zero-power /
'ruggedised' displays, flexible and/or transparent devices, energy efficient microprojectors,
and lightweight high-resolution vision glasses.

OPERA, Organic/Plastic Electronics Research Alliance

Objective: Opera, which is the acronym for Organic/Plastic Electronics Research Alliance, proposes to coordinate the work of academia and industry in organic & large area electronics [OLEA] in Europe. The overall objective of this project is to strengthen the position of Europe as the leading force in OLEA in the world.
At present, the sector of organic & large area electronics in Europe suffers from two main handicaps:
The sector has grown organically without a coherent overall strategy. This leads to duplication of efforts, inefficiency and poor synergy. These are major obstacles to the emergence of truly global force.
Organic & large area electronics is still at too early a stage of development to justify massive investment from the end-user industry. The lack of investment hampers growth towards critical mass. The specific objective of this project is to create the conditions for the establishment of a number of coordinated competitiveness clusters in Europe. This would address both problems simultaneously.

Organic & Large Area Electronics will radically change the way we envisage the distribution, storage and transfer of information and energy. Organic & large area electronics, or often referred to polymer electronics, printed electronics or plastic electronics, is a branch of electronics that deals with [semi-] conductive polymers, plastics, or small molecules. It is called 'organic' electronics because the polymers and small molecules are carbon-based, as opposed to traditional electronics which relies on inorganic conductors such as copper or silicon. Although the technological foundation of organic & large area electronics is still in its early stages of development, it holds out the prospect of new products with reasonable times-to-market and large revenue potential. The market for OLEA products is expected to grow from around million today to .8 billion by 2009.

Project identification number : 215150
Funding Scheme : Coordination and support action
Partners : Plastic Electronics Foundation, The Netherlands, VTT Valtion teknillilinen tutkimuskeskus, Finland, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, University of Dresden, Germany, Holst Centre, The Netherlands and Ciba Specialty Chemicals, Switzerland

WEBSITE : www.opera-project.eu

TIMELINE : 36 months

BUDGET AND FUNDING SCHEME :
CSA - CA
Overall cost : € 1.050.000
EC Funding : € 1.050.000

CONTACT :
Mr. Ed van den Kieboom
P.O. Box 775
5600 AT Eindhoven, The Netherlands
e-mail : ed.vandenkieboom@plastic-electronics.org

NoE PolyNet – Network of Excellence for the Exploitation of Organic and Large Area Electronics
Objectives: The Network of Excellence (NoE) PolyNet aims to establish Europe in the area of organic and large area electronics as the world leader in science, technology development and subsequent commercial exploitation of printing and large area technologies for heterointegration of flexible electronics.
Future industrial Exploitation needs a research cooperation base and a service base to foster transfer from science to industry within EU. Therefore fragmentation of European research landscape has to be overcome.
The NoE PolyNet will support these aims with three core platforms:
- a research cooperation platform
- a service platform
- a knowledge platform
For a long-term integration of European research landscape concepts for the continuation of research cooperation and service offers will be developed, validate and put into operation.
Impact is expected not only on the research landscape of Organic and Large Area Electronics but also indirectly on European industry by long-term stimulation of innovative technologies and new companies.
Project identification number : 214006
Funding Scheme: Network of Excellence
Duration: 36 months
Partners: VDI/VDE-IT (Germany), University of Liverpool (United Kingdom), Linköping University (Sweden), TU Lodz, (Poland), ACREO AB (Sweden), Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece), Cardiff University (United Kingdom), CEA-LITEN (France), Fraunhofer IZM (Germany), IMEC (Belgium), Joanneum Research (Austria), VTT (Finland), TNO (The Netherlands), TU Chemnitz (Germany), University Oulu (Finland), Université Paris Diderot (France), Ecole Polytechnique (France)

Technology roadmap of processes and materials for organic electronics

VISION AND AIM

The overall objective of PolyMap is to strengthen the position of Europe as the leading force in organic & large area electronics worldwide. For that purpose, PolyMap undertakes 3 actions :

Mapping public funding in organic and large area electronics [OLAE] and setting up an ERA-NET [WP1]. This task will be coordinated together with the European stakeholder working group 1. Following an analysis of public funding in national and regional programs throughout Europe, a number of round table discuusions will be launched between the involved regional and national bodies to identify opportunities for trans-mnational cooperation. The setting will culminate in the setting up of an ERA-NET plus for the area of OLAE.
Setting up a Wiki application for OLAE [To be defined].
Supporting SME's. Small and Medium Sized Companies [SME's] are essential in the European research and industry area. In WP3 it is proposed to support the SME's, in coordination with the OPERA partner project. Within PolyMap their specific needs will be analyzed, a service and consultancy package will be prepared and proposed to the selected SME's. PolyMap is an essential member of the European house of OLAE imagined by the European Commission. Together with the other 3 European FP7 coordinating projects Polynet , Prodi ,OPERA it forms the "Quadriga" which, led by the European Commission, will help Europe to build its advance in OLAE.

PRODI PROJECT NUMBER : 216120

PROJECT PARTNERS :

TNO Holst Centre, The Netherlands
IZM Fraunhofer Institut Zuverlassigkeit und Mikro Integration, Germany
VTT Valtion Teknillinen Tutkimuskeskus, Finland
CEA-LITEN, France
Plastic ELectronics Foundation, The Netherlands

Website : http://www.polymap.eu

TIMELINE : 36 months

BUDGET AND FUNDING SCHEME :
CSA-CA
Overall cost : € 600.000
EC Funding : € 600.000

CONTACT :
Dr. Herman Schoo
High Tech Campus 31
P.O. Box 8550
5605 KN Eindhoven
The Netherlands
E-mail : herman.schoo@tno.nl

Manufacturing and Production Equipment & Systems for Polymer and Printed Electronics

VISION AND AIM

The intention of the Coordination Action PRODI is to integrate European printing, coating, and other advanced processing machinery manufacturers, production line integrators, and process measurement and automation industry to work together to improve European excellence and competitiviness in roll-to-roll [R2R] Polymer and Printed Electronics manufacturing equipment and production lines business.

The objective of the project include collecting the requirements for the new manufacturing, machinery, measurements and automation systems, and generating a common future vision for the industry on R2R polymer and printed electronics manufacturing equipment and production lines and systems.

Intensive education and training program is organised by means of various workshops, training events and seminars for distribution of the state-of-the-art multidisciplinary technology information to the industry.

The active consortium consists of six core research partners, leading European research organisations in R2R polymer and printed electronics, and an invited industril advisory board [10 to 15 members], a selected group of leading companies in the area of printing machinery, coating, laser, embossing/
imprinting, measurement and instrumentation, automation, and production line integration, to be the industrial reference, actively contributing, advising and supervising body within the project.

For the broader networking and exploitation an associate network [approx. 100 members] will be formed consisting of parties interested in monitoring the developments and future business opportunities of R2R polymer and printed electronics, and especially manufacturing equipment and production systems.

PRODI PROJECT NUMBER : 215150

PROJECT PARTNERS :

VTT Valtion Teknillinen Tutkimuskeskus, Finland
Fraunhofer Institut Zuverlassigkeit und Mikrointegration, Germany
ACREO AB, Sweden
Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany
TNO Holst Centre, The Netherlands
IMEC, Belgium
Website : http://www.project-prodi.eu/

TIMELINE : 36 months

BUDGET AND FUNDING SCHEME :
CSA-CA
Overall cost : € 750.000
EC Funding : € 750.000

CONTACT :
Mr. Juha Palve
Microkatu 1
70211 Kuopio, Finland
e-mail : juha.palve@vtt.fi