This year again, BASF New Business is exhibiting at LOPEC trade show in Munich March, 29-30 (booth B0, 518). LOPEC is one of the most important exhibitions and conferences for the Printed Electronics Industry in Europe attracting several thousands of visitors from all over the globe.

Besides the existing product portfolio of solution-processable semiconductor, dielectric and auxiliary material inks which allow to manufacture organic thin film transistors (OTFT) on flexible substrates in a cost-efficient way, BASF presents its new InkSet 1000SP package for fully structured transistors. “InkSet 1000SP is a comprehensive package which includes inks for planarization, contact treatment, semiconductor, gate dielectric and interlayer dielectric, as well as a complete process description for their application. The inks and processes are perfectly adapted to each other.” says Dr. Jochen Brill, Head of R&D of BASF’s Field Effect Transistor team. “Our customers can directly use our InkSet 1000SP and apply it according to the process description to manufacture their own active matrix backplanes or circuitry, thus saving resources on process development”, Brill adds.

Along with the products, BASF is also showcasing demonstrators highlighting the benefits of flexible and lightweight electronics in various applications. The recent demonstrator built jointly by BASF and InnovationLab, Heidelberg, visualizes the opportunities for Printed Organic Electronics in packaging. An interactive label is an example of a marketing tool for a brand owner that adds a unique feature for consumers. This system can be applied to a variety of packaging, enabling the trend for increased interactivity.

Most parts of the demonstrator are printed: piezoresistive sensors and OTFTs – which means the fabrication is simple and cost efficient. The possibility to integrate printed circuits into continuous roll-to-roll processes, typical for label production, makes printed TFTs the solution of choice for the next generation of smart labels and packaging.