30 Spring / Printemps 2017 30 Spring / Printemps 20 017 7 tronics industry, for substantial socio-economic benefits across Canada and abroad. More than 250 domestic organizations that we know of are active in the space. Researchers at academic and government labs across the country are busy with the funda- mental and applied research that supports innovation by industry in a number of key areas. And yet, significant challenges remain to get PE technology to market. The scale-up challenges of an emerging market Last November, we convened in Toronto our first Sector Leadership Council to take the pulse of this industry in Canada through the eyes of our diverse membership — startups, young SMEs, established mid-sized companies and multination- machine washable, and emits its own light using flexible elec- tronic components. Vagalume, which means “firefly” in Portuguese, is the creation of CPEIA Member company Myant & Co. Myant made waves last year at the Canadian Printable Electronics Symposium (CPES) when it took home the Product Innovation Award. Other innovators have brought to market smart garments for health and wellness that use embedded biometric sensors wirelessly connected to a soft- ware platform. The benefit for users is that they can track and enhance their athletic perform- ance. CPEIA Member OMSignal is one such company. It’s known for the OMbra sports bra, as well as Ralph Lauren’s PoloTech col- lection—smart shirts that can track vitals like heart rate and breathing. The opportunity for Canada Global revenues for products using PEin2016isestimatedatUS$26.9 billion, an annual increase of 31.8 per cent since 2010. Consulting firm Smithers Apex expects the market to grow to an estimated US$ 43 billion by 2020. A separate forecast from market research firm IDTechEx predicts a US$ 70-billion market by 2024, for applications ranging from organic LEDs (OLEDs) to conductive inks for a variety of applications. Canada’s PE sector has the expertise, innovation and oppor- tunity to revolutionize the elec- als with Canadian operations, as well as government organ- izations that support innovation and commercialization. According to our members, sig- nificant challenges remain in scal- ing up the sector in Canada. This is still an emerging industry, frag- mented and dominated by a roster of startups and earlier stage com- panies in need of help to bring compelling products to market. There are currently no geograph- ically concentrated technology clusters, government-funded cen- tres of excellence for industry or dedicated incubators/accelerators. The core group of larger Canadian and global companies that can help early-stage com- panies overcome their R&D and scalability hurdles face their own challenges to remain competi- tive. They are working to under- stand how they can incorporate the advanced features supported by PE into their products. The Council identified four key challenges for the growth and development of this emerging sector in Canada that impact in various ways upon startups, young SMEs, established mid- sized companies and multination- als with Canadian operations: The Market Challenge: Defining applications and products with large and profitable markets in partnership with world-class end users. Critical in this is accessing such end users globally and get- ting them to work with Canadian companies. The New Product Development Challenge: Prototype develop- ment towards commercialization with lead end users/customers for trials and early adoption. Critical in this is conducting trials of new technologies at suf- ficient scale to prove the busi- ness case for profitable com- mercial adoption. Depending on the application, it can be quite difficult to get the unit cost low enough for prototype production, in order for trials to be economic- ally feasible. End users can face challenges in getting the product to market, e.g., in the case of retail, procuring shelf space. The Manufacturing Challenge: Resources for SMEs to invest in their own facilities before the market and business case have been proven for manufacturing scale up. Critical in this is cre- ating and accessing sufficient scale-up manufacturing resour- ces, including equipment, skilled people and production lines. The OPV group refers to organic solar cells or plastic solar cells that use organic electronics—a branch of electronics that deals with conduct- ive organic polymers or small organic molecules—for light absorption and charge transport to produce electricity using the same photovoltaic effect used by conventional solar cells. Although OPV solar cells aren’t as efficient as their inorganic counterparts, they have advantages in terms of flexibility, weight, ruggedness and cost. They can be more readily embedded in other materials, such as window blinds, roofing and plastics. W W W W W Wh h h h h ha at t t a ar re e e o o or r r rg g g ga a an n ni ic c p ph ho ot to ov vo ol lt ta aics (O (O (OPV PV PV) )? W W W W W Wh h h h h ha a at t t i i is s s a a an n n n o o o o o o or r r r rg g g g g g g ga a a a an n n n n n n ni i i i i i ic c c c c c L L L L LE E ED D D? ? ? An organic light-emitting diode (OLED) is an LED in whichtheemissiveelectrolumines- cent layer is a film of organic com- pound that emits light in response to an electric current. Conventional inorganic LEDs are point sources while OLEDs naturally emit light over large areas as sheets or pan- els. At present, LEDs have higher efficacy, lower cost and a longer lifetime. But OLED performance continues to increase. OLEDs can produce comfortable, uniform, non- glare light in a very thin and poten- tially flexible form factor. END USERS MolsonCoors Unilever Bankof Canada LIGHTING Myant Cooledge WEARABLES Myant OMSignal MANU- FACTURING CGI Memtronik ICI Canadian BankNote SWITCHES Memtronik CGI ClickTouch SENSORS Myant Memtronik Tangio EQUIPMENT NovaCentrix Fujifilm,Xenon MGICeradrop Optomec NanoDimensions INKS, PASTES DuPont NovaCentrix Xerox SUB- STRATES DuPont 3M Corning TESTING, QUALI- FICATION CSA NRC R&D 3M,NRC,INO CRC,UWaterloo UBC,UCalgary UQAM,McGill ULaval SMART PACKAGING Jones Netpak TUKU M M M M Mo o or re e e t t t th h h ha a an n n 2 2 25 5 50 0 o or rg ga an ni i iz z za a at t ti i io ons in Canada are involved in the p p p p p p p pr r r r r r ri i i i i i i in n n n nt t t t t t ta a a a a a ab b b b bl l l l le e e e el l le e ec c ct t t tr r ro o on n ni ic cs s s s su up p pp pl ly y c c ch h ha a ai in. Below are some examples.