TechBlick's Electronics Reshaped Event - Berlin 2023

23 Oct, 2023

TechBlick's Electronics Reshaped Event - Berlin 2023

From stretching skin patches, to printed circuit boards, the Electronics ReShaped Event gave an insight into the exciting future of printed and flexible electronics.

From 17-18 October 2023, the "Future of Electronics Reshaped" global conference and exhibition took place at the Estrel Congress Center in Berlin, Germany. The event aimed to reshape the future of electronics, emphasizing additive, sustainable, flexible, hybrid, wearable, structural, and 3D electronics.

The TechBlick event gathered the global industry in Berlin, where the latest updates were unveiled, key conversations occurred, and new ideas and projects were initiated. Attendees benefited from a curated world-class agenda and masterclass program. They also had the opportunity to experience the latest technologies and products at 78 booths and connected with over 650 peers, partners, and customers from around the world. Notably, the exhibition had grown by 50% compared to its 2022 iteration.

The event also featured a unique hybrid package, allowing attendees to participate in the 2-day in-person event in Berlin and gain year-round access to all TechBlick live-online virtual conferences, masterclasses, and an on-demand library of previous presentations.

Wevolver attended the event and spoke to some of the exhibitions about their technology and its impact. We include just some of the exciting companies below.

Voltera

Voltera is at the forefront of the future of electronics, emphasizing additive methods. They specialize in rapid prototyping platforms for printed electronics, catering to both traditional circuit boards and the evolving world of flexible, stretchable, conformable, and biocompatible electronics. Their product range includes the V-One, suitable for PCB prototyping and the Nova, which is ideal for printed electronics R&D, flexible electronics, microdispensing, and functional materials research.

Key Insights:

Unlocking New Possibilities: Voltera believes that the future of electronics will be cost-effective, lightweight, bendable, and seamlessly integrated into structures. Their platforms are designed to give users a competitive edge in this direction.

Materials Freedom: The additive technology they employ offers freedom in choosing inks and substrates. This opens doors to new applications in wearable electronics, biomedical devices, printed sensors, and more.

Efficiency in Design Iteration: Digital additive prototyping, as championed by Voltera, is faster than many alternative methods. It allows for quicker design iterations without the need for heavy investments or long waits for tooling.

V-One, Voltera's desktop PCB printer. Image credit: Voltera.

Fraunhofer IAP

The Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research (IAP) is dedicated to creating materials that are fit for the future. They focus on innovative solutions to address contemporary and upcoming challenges such as climate change, pandemics, energy transitions, structural changes, and evolving mobility concepts.

The institute emphasizes bioeconomy and sustainability by exploring sustainable raw materials and promoting a circular economy to decrease reliance on fossil energy sources. They believe that integrating innovative materials into products is crucial for energy transition and the development of new mobility solutions. Additionally, the institute works on new active ingredients, products, and processes for the medical and health sectors. Fraunhofer IAP supports the entire value chain, from the inception of innovative materials to the development of market-relevant prototypes.

Key Insights:

Addressing Global Challenges: Fraunhofer IAP is actively involved in finding creative solutions to global challenges, ensuring that materials and processes are sustainable and future-ready.

Promotion of Circular Bioeconomy: The institute has a roadmap for a circular bioeconomy in Germany, emphasizing the strategic research field of bioeconomy.

Engagement in Various Research Fields: From biopolymers and functional polymer systems to life sciences and bioprocesses, the institute covers a wide range of research areas.

Fraunhofer IAP are developing polymers with a focuis on bioeconomy and sustainability.

Molex

Molex, a global leader in connectivity solutions, is pioneering the development of smart skin patches that leverage hybrid printed electronics to enhance medical sensing capabilities. These patches are designed to improve patient outcomes by offering a range of functions:

Evolution of Smart Skin Patches: Modern smart skin patches have evolved from containing a single wired sensor to incorporating a myriad of functions. They utilize hybrid printed electronics, allowing for the integration of various electronic devices and noninvasive sensors onto a thin, flexible substrate. This advancement enables the creation of connected devices that can monitor vital signs or activity without invasive methods.

Key Insights

Demand for Connected Medical Sensing: The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the importance of remote patient monitoring. Smart skin patches offer a lightweight, comfortable, and portable solution for monitoring patients both within and outside healthcare facilities. They are also gaining traction for home health monitoring, sleep and brainwave activity tracking, and femtech applications like pregnancy monitoring.

Design and Architecture: Smart skin patches utilize flexible printed circuit technology and skin-safe adhesives. Their design can be customized based on the application, with options for disposable or reusable patches. Reusable patches have a design where only the skin-contacting electrodes are disposable, reducing waste.

Opportunities and Challenges: Designing smart skin patches involves integrating various electronic devices, including sensors, batteries, microcontrollers, and RF antennas. Achieving system reliability requires expertise in multiple engineering disciplines, from material science to electronic component reliability. Ensuring product performance and meeting regulatory compliance standards are also paramount.

Molex smart skin patch. Image credit: Molex.

Themes explored during the event included printed flexible hybrid electronics, structural and in-mold electronics, sustainable electronics, wearable electronics, electronic textiles, smart skin patches, continuous vital signs monitoring, 3D printed electronics, and many more.

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Sprayable user interfaces

CSAIL's SprayableTech system lets users create large-scale interactive surfaces with sensors and displays using airbrushed inks.

Rachel Gordon

09 Apr, 2020

3D Printing

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For decades researchers have envisioned a world where digital user interfaces are seamlessly integrated with the physical environment, until the two are virtually indistinguishable from one another.

This vision, though, is held up by a few boundaries. First, it’s difficult to integrate sensors and display elements into our tangible world due to various design constraints. Second, most methods to do so are limited to smaller scales, bound by the size of the fabricating device.

Recently, a group of researchers from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) came up with SprayableTech, a system that lets users create room-sized interactive surfaces with sensors and displays. The system, which uses airbrushing of functional inks, enables various displays, like interactive sofas with embedded sensors to control your television, and sensors for adjusting lighting and temperature through your walls.

SprayableTech lets users channel their inner Picassos: After designing your interactive artwork in the 3D editor, it automatically generates stencils for airbrushing the layout onto a surface. Once they’ve created the stencils from cardboard, a user can then add sensors to the desired surface, whether it’s a sofa, a wall, or even a building, to control various appliances like your lamp or television. (An alternate option to stenciling is projecting them digitally.)

“Since SprayableTech is so flexible in its application, you can imagine using this type of system beyond walls and surfaces to power larger-scale entities like interactive smart cities and interactive architecture in public places,” says Michael Wessely, postdoc in CSAIL and lead author on a new paper about SprayableTech. “We view this as a tool that will allow humans to interact with and use their environment in newfound ways.”

The race for the smartest home has now been in the works for some time, with a large interest in sensor techn

Image: Dancer Loni Landon performing with Tapis Magique

A choreomusical e-textile interactive carpet

Tapis Magique is a pressure-sensitive, knitted electronic textile carpet that generates 3D sensor data based on body gestures and drives an immersive sonic environment in real time.

Irmandy Wicaksono

25 Feb, 2022

digital fabrication

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This article is a part of our University Technology Exposure Program. The program aims to recognize and reward innovation from engineering students and researchers across the globe.

When we think of smart fabrics, we usually associate them with wearable and fashion technology, such as clothing that can track your health and physical activity or gloves that can sense tactile information or your finger gestures. Since textiles are ubiquitous in our environments, other realms of textiles, such as flooring and upholstery, will also benefit from functional materials augmentation and technological integration.

MIT Media Lab researchers have developed a large-scale seamless interactive carpet and established an interdisciplinary project that unites new materials, sensing technologies, and advanced digital fabrication with contemporary dance and music. Tapis Magique project explores the relationship between auditory and physical interaction through an interactive knitted electronic textile interface. The researchers aim to tease the idea of music or an immersive sonic environment that is driven in real-time by movements from dance and choreography and allow dancers to have their own agency over producing and controlling the music.

Credit Images: Irmandy Wicaksono/MIT Media Lab

The project is motivated by traditional textile's extreme craftsmanship and artistry. Irmandy took some design inspiration from the cultural textiles of Indonesia, such as Javanese and Balinese Batik and Ikat. In these textiles, unique designs and patterns carry specific meanings and wishes. Complementing their traditional dance and music, they unitingly and harmoniously amplify a sense of community, identity, and expression. He hopes that by bringing functionality and interactivity to modern textiles, they will become even more appreciated, treasured, and personal and enhan