Another plastics major, another printed electronics investment

It seems not more than a month can pass anymore without investment by a major plastics supplier in printed electronics technology. This month, the star is Solvay, which has announced it has taken a minority stake worth $4 million in Polyera Corp. (Skokie, IL), a materials developer for the printed electronics market.

Polyera develops and commercializes organic semiconductors and dielectrics for organic thin-film transistors (OTFT) and organic photovoltaics (OPV), enabling applications such as flexible display backplanes, printed RFID tags and printed solar panels.

Printed electronics is an emerging industry that relies on printing technologies to manufacture electronic devices on thin, lightweight, and flexible substrates - with plastics now among the leading materials being considered for these.

The investment complements similar investments by Solvay in printed electronics, including in Plextronics Inc. (Pittsburgh, PA) and in Norway's Thin Film Electronics. Solvay and other large plastics suppliers including BASF, Bayer and Teijin all have been investing in printed electronics both internally and through acquisitions or investments such as this recent one by Solvay. BASF's Future Business unit in fact announced n 2007 it would work with Polyera in the development and commercialization of semiconductors.—matt.defosse@cancom.com