Petec secures additional £2m funding from EU
Apr 3 2009 by Peter McCusker, The Journal
A FURTHER £2m investment in a hi-tech electronics facility will help the region lead the way in new technological developments potentially creating hundreds of jobs.
The Printable Electronic Technology Centre (Petec) at NETPark in County Durham is a world-leading initiative which has catapulted the region to the forefront of the field in the development of new digital processes.
The £9.5m facility which opened last month has now secured an additional £2m from the European Union to install advanced, equipment in a newly opened cleanroom – the Petec Large Area Coating Equipment (Lace) project.
Petec director Dr Tom Taylor said the project “is enabling SMEs to take the next step forward in the development of new flexible printed circuit applications which will only be viable with this new technology.
“We are talking about leading edge hi-tech products like wearable display devices, portable storage media and design-intensive, low-energy lighting applications.
“Our established Petec business development team is engaging the SME community and other technology partners to develop opportunities using these new capabilities and generally raise awareness of their high value in product development for lighting and photovoltaics (technology which generates electricity from sunlight).” One North East chief executive Alan Clarke said: “Printable electronics as a group of technologies is predicted to be a $30bn industry by 2015.
“While most electronics manufacturing is currently monopolised by Asia, fundamental technology advances in printable electronics in our region are enabling smaller-scale and quicker specialist prototyping and manufacturing.”
Petec, which is a division of the Centre for Process Innovation, aims to connect innovators with commercial activity by identifying the materials, industrial steps and investments required to bring products to market quickly.
It is focusing on the potential opportunities related to electronic displays to cater for demand for larger, more efficient screens which are cheaper than those currently available.
The group is hoping to tap into the emergence of new formats such as E-paper – which reflects light like ordinary paper rather than having a back-light – organic LED displays and flexible LCD screens.
