13 July 2018

Enabling Internet of Things (IoT) through sensor and communication technologies

The North East Board held their recent meeting at CPI (The Centre for Process Innovation) in County Durham and later toured their new facility at Newton Aycliffe.

CPI's new printable electronics capability has been established to help companies overcome manufacturing challenges and exploit the commercial opportunities offered by Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things (IoT) – a market predicted to be worth an estimated US $253 billion by 2021.

This capability, the first of its kind in the UK, is now available for UK companies, large and small to support the development of smart products for a wide range of print and packaging applications.

The Internet of Things is a world in which every day physical objects are able to communicate and exchange data wirelessly via the internet. Printable electronics adds another dimension to IoT products: low cost, flexible electronic devices that are ultra-thin, and printed sensors which collect a wide range of data.

Applications for integrated thin flexible electronics:

Transportation – Monitoring product condition during transit to ensure delivery in the right condition.

Built Environment – Large area sensing to monitor working environment and enable interaction with the home and retail space.

Wearable Devices – Thin, flexible electronics to monitor health and fitness, and provide support to an ageing population.

Healthcare – Using data to support the process from pharmaceutical manufacturing through to ensuring patients take the right medicine at the right time.

Manufacturing Process – Productivity improvement through the use of sensors tracking the movement and condition of products as they move through the factory floor.

Smart Packaging – Condition monitoring, anti-counterfeiting and tamper detection to ensure the right goods arrive in the right condition, and are used correctly.

About the Capability

This is an open access facility providing state of the art equipment and technical expertise in a low risk environment.

New equipment includes a roll to roll integration tool which can surface mount thin film and conventional electronics at speed to produce reels of thin, flexible electronic inlays at high volume. These smart inlays may combine sensing, communications and energy source to enable the creation or a range of smart products for IoT applications ranging from packaging and printing to automotive and aerospace. The process includes a new converting line which can integrate the inlays into labels for smart packaging applications at volumes high enough to test manufacturability and realistically validate business models.

CPI's world leading facilities and knowledge also include sophisticated electronics design and test capability with specific expertise in the new generation of thin film electronic devices. Thus, CPI can provide companies with a full technical assessment and support design, manufacture and test; and with partners can provide the wider ecosystem support needed to provide full IoT solutions.

Services Available

Our team of experts provide a range of technical, advisory and support services to assist companies working with flexible, integrated electronic applications:

• Feasibility studies,  Design Review Support with collaborative R&D projects proof of concept design, development and prototyping scale up and testing.

Technical specification

The capabilities include an electronics prototyping and test lab equipped to enable the design of circuits using Altium and Illustrator, along with the assembly and test of small batches of circuits.

After the design phase, CPI operates high speed roll-to-roll electronics integration machine, which can produce reels of smart labels at high volumes. The unit can pick and place up to 15 different surface mount components from 0.2x0.4mm to 90x120mm, including bare die, packaged IC chips and importantly, novel flexible, thin film electronic components. CPI also provides access to inkjet, flexographic, gravure, offset lithographic and rotary screen printing processes.

Complementing the integration machine is a new flexible modular system providing a high level of converting possibilities. This can process dry and wet electronic inlay products, converting them into reels of smart labels. With reel to reel web handling, lamination and die cutting; all processes take place on this high volume machine at up to 60metres per minute.

Thanks go to Dr Alan McLelland for the tour and further information.

To find out more about the facility, please contact CPI at:

 www.uk-cpi.com/printable-electronics

 [email protected]

+44 (0) 1740 625 700

NETPark, Sedgefield, TS21 3FD