Henkel, the world market leader in adhesives, sealants and surface treatments for consumers, craftsmen and industrial applications, and innovation initiative Holst Centre have announced their partnership in the field of flexible electronics.

Henkel’s knowhow in adhesives brings a new field of expertise to the Holst Centre’s shared research programmes. It aligns with a large number of Holst Centre activities, such as the research towards large-area flexible OPV and OLED lighting and signage. Holst Centre is an open-innovation initiative by Imec of Belgium and the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research.

'Adhesives with functional properties like electrical conductivity or moisture barrier protection have great potential in future electronics applications,' a Henkel spokesman said. 'Think about heterogeneous integration of silicon and plastic electronics or lamination and interconnection of functional foils to form working devices such as flexible solar cells, OLED lighting devices or flexible displays. Henkel plans to bring many of its technologies to these applications, drawing on expertise in electronics adhesives, pressure-sensitive adhesives and more,' he added.

Within its programme on 'Integration technologies for flexible systems,' Holst Centre built a track record of generic technologies that can decrease the design complexity of flexible electronic devices and therefore the future cost of fabrication. Henkel adds a new field of expertise to the existing eco-system of industrial partners in the shared research programme. Adhesives can potentially impact a large number of the investigated processes.

The partnership allows Henkel to further evaluate and develop its optically clear, electrically conductive and moisture barrier technologies, amongst others, on actual devices and not just on isolated material samples. This makes it more efficient to assess the market readiness of new developments.

Jeroen van den Brand, programme manager at Holst Centre, said the new partnership with Henkel opened up a lot of new options within the technology roadmap. Thomas Kostka, R&D manager at Henkel, remarked: 'This partnership brings for Henkel a great opportunity to evaluate adhesives in real (organic) electronic devices. It allows us to create and test new adhesive concepts with technical experts in flexible electronics and key future end-users. Our customers will also benefit as this allows Henkel to bring innovative fit-for-use technologies significantly faster to the market.'

A key feature of Holst Centre is its partnership model with industry and academia around shared roadmaps and programmes. Such cross-fertilisation enables Holst Centre to tune its scientific strategy to industrial needs. Located in Eindhoven, it benefits from state-of-the-art on-site facilities.