EU projects – Technology Scouting – Business Innovation

LOPEC: the perfect place to experience the future of printed electronics

From February 28 to March 2, AMIRES team had the pleasure to attend LOPEC and to become part of the leading platform for the printed electronics community. Following the tradition, LOPEC offered a good mix of key stakeholders and value chain members supporting the growth and development of electronics applications. In total, 168 exhibitors from 25 countries showed innovations and trends in the field and more than 2,300 visitors from 43 countries joined the event in the ICM – International Congress Center Messe München.

We were lucky to take part in the event and the key benefits of our participation can be summarised as follows:

  • Projects’ dissemination and impactful outcomes
LOPEC gave us the chance to meet partners from our projects and long-term clients as well as to benefit of the networking opportunity. Several projects from AMIRES portfolio related to the printed and flexible electronics technologies were presented in booths and by project partners.
Great achievement that needs to be mentioned is the smart-ski, which was successfully developed within the Horizon 2020 project Smart2Go (where AMIRES was involved in the project management, dissemination and exploitation activities), was awarded as Best Publicly Funded Project Demo category at the OE-A Competition 2023. Combined with the high laboratory-based reliability and validity of the PyzoFlex® prototype, the developed technology aims at providing skiers with relevant information about the skis’ condition as well as performance feedback which has a positive impact on both the safety of the skier and the product lifetime. For further information for the large potential for the smart system integration as a turn-key solution for energy management of wearables can be found on Smart2Go project website (HERE).
  • LOPEC 2023 Start-up Form
One of the highlights at the LOPEC was Start-up Forum competition where Roman Pašek, Programme Manager for Deep Tech at AMIRES,  participated as a Jury. The Forum offered entrepreneurs and start-ups the opportunity to present their business ideas and products in highly thought-provoking pitches, with the goal of adding partners and investors for their project. The presentations showcased both technologies for making large area printed electronics and novel end-user applications for printed electronics products. The jury, composed of experts in business, investment, and technology, selected the winners in two categories. As Best Business Case was shortlisted a project offering a wearable printed measurement system in combination with software that enables therapists, researchers, and patients to digitally manage musculoskeletal disorders. For Most Impactful Technology or Product category, the winner offered an atmospheric plasma surface functionalization technology that is a key enabler for printing on challenging surfaces.
  • New ideas and knowledge sharing
LOPEC2023 presented the latest state of the technology and great new applications for a lot of end-user industries by highlighting the entire spectrum of flexible, organic and printed electronics, and showing the potential that lies in this key technology. In terms of the novelties and trends, it is visible that applications with sensors from typical industrial parameters to medical biosensors will only increase. The new products, such as indoor solar cells will drive new applications in smart buildings and infrastructure. In addition to that, the sustainability has come into even sharper focus of LOPEC with talks and exhibits revealing many innovations from the world of green electronics. Lots of positive examples for truly sustainable solutions, which are more environment-friendly, lighter, cheaper, and more digital manner, for company’s or product’s ecological footprint were showcased.

LOPEC is, indeed, the perfect place to experience the future of printed electronics.

Looking forward to LOPEC2024!