Collaborative Conception of a R2R printed Testing Platform for Printed Electronics Standardization

Sharing comparable results and standardizing characterization methods green electronics manufacturing within the pan-Canadian NSERC-GreEN Network is challenging. Therefore, a dedicated project focuses the team efforts to create an open-access tools in the form of 1. share file with printable features usable by every member of the network and collaborators, 2. Common testing platform, and 3. Common testing methods. The project first step developed a collaborative project management approach which allowed the creation of a share file composed of 4 layers required to manufacture by various printed techniques about 100 features used for material testing, devices and systems. One layer of this file, the conductive layer, will be printed on an industrial R2R printing press by flexography on a 1000m PET web. Then, it will be distributed to the NSERC-GreEN collaborators on May 30, 2019. Following, the impact of industrial R2R processes on printing quality and performance of the conductive layer will be investigated in order to start designing the next generation of the platform. The next improved platform will also follow the requirements for integrating the most recent greener materials generated by the network.In parallel, the characterization methods will be standardised to allow the comparison of results and complement the common tool.