2018 FLEXI Awards honour innovation and leadership in flexible hybrid electronics

 

On 13 February, the 2018 FLEXI Awards recognised groundbreaking accomplishments in the Flexible Hybrid Electronics (FHE) sector in the last year. Presented at the opening session of the 17th annual 2018FLEX Conference and Exhibition, in Monterey, California, the awards spotlighted the following leaders in the categories of R&D Achievements, Product Innovation and Commercialisation, Education Leadership and Industry Leadership.

Product Innovation – E Ink, creator of Dazzle, the world’s largest electronic paper installation, won a FLEXI for product design and ingenuity, and potential market adoption and revenue generation. Made from electrophoretic display technology, the programmable art installation adorns one side of San Diego International Airport’s new rental car centre.

R&D Achievement – The Wearable Device for Dynamic Assessment of Hydration team – consisting of GE Global Research, UES, The University of Arizona, University of Connecticut, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Dublin City University and AFRL – won a FLEXI for developing a paper-based biofluid patch that collects sweat for human hydration index monitoring. Award criteria included research approach, originality and commercial potential for expanding the bounds of flexible or printed electronics.

Technology Leadership In Education – James Turner, research scientist at Binghamton University, won a FLEXI for outstanding leadership and attention to mentoring students during the development of an FHE electrocardiography (ECG) patch. Turner led a group of students through the development which included a multi-disciplinary approach as well as coordination with industry and several academic institutions to correlate reliability data, simulations and optimize design features of the revolutionary patch.

Industry Leadership – David Morton, formerly with the Army Research Laboratory, won a FLEXI for his dedication to building awareness of advanced flexible hybrid electronics in the broader field of electronics. Award criteria include outstanding leadership in public forums and contributions to industry associations.  

Technology Champion – Robert Reuss, former programme manager in the Microsystems Technology Office at DARPA, won a FLEXI for his extraordinary dedication to growing the flexible electronics industry, early recognition of the impact of large area electronics and strong contributions to helping build the FLEX Conference.

The FLEXI Awards are sponsored by FlexTech, a SEMI Strategic Association Partner, an organisation dedicated to the success of the FHE sector.

Caption: Dazzle by E Ink (photo: SEMI)