THE SCIENCE

ENGINEERING &
TECHNOLOGY
MAGAZINE FOR
NORTH EAST
ENGLAND

ISSUE 7
AUTUMN
2008
PRINTABLE
ELECTRONICS

RADICALLY REDUCING THE

COST OF SOLAR ENERGY

CREATING SUNSHINE
ON A RAINY DAY

REVOLUTIONISING THE
LIGHTING INDUSTRY

HLBBshaw...
NEW FIRM ON THE BLOCK

ISSN 1753-6677
Letter from the Editor
With the completion of the Printable Electronics Technology Centre (PETEC) at
NETPark, the North East has a welcome addition to an astonishing array of scientific
excellence.

The Institute for Ageing and Vitality in Newcastle, the North East Stem Cell Institute,
the National Industrial Biotechnology Facility at Wilton, and the Centre for New and
Renewable Energy are just four of the region’s world-class facilities for science and
innovation.

And at NETPark itself, the Durham University Research Institute supplies instruments
that have to be right first time every time to major telescopes around the world.

Sometimes it can be easy to remember that the North East once led the world in
certain industries and just as easy to forget that it still does – the spirit of innovation
never went away, it was just transferred into different industries.

PETEC is the UK national flagship for printable

electronics, a technology that could make the
laptop I’m using obsolete and replaced with
something I can fold up and put in my pocket.
Technology that can print electronics into flexible
materials will fundamentally affect how we interact
with our electronic devices and will be even more
disruptive than the iPod.
Fortunately, the North East is ahead of the game – the location of PETEC at NETPark
was an acknowledgement that we have the expertise and also the nous to translate
that expertise into technologies that create new products, new markets and new
jobs. Even though PETEC is only just becoming operational, the Centre, NETPark
and Durham University have already saved 600 jobs from going overseas and it
already houses two new companies.

So the potential of this technology to benefit the region is enormous and that is what
this issue of NETWorks celebrates.

Editor Catherine Johns

Scientific Advisor Professor John Anstee Deputy Editor Rob Heslop
NETWorks is published by Distinctive Publishing Ltd
Aidan House, Sunderland Road, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear NE8 3HU
Telephone 0191 4788300
Managing Director John Graham Creative Director Martin Williamson
Sales Director John Neilson
For all enquiries including editorial, subscription and advertising please contact
Distinctive Publishing.
With thanks to all our contributors.
NETWorks is supported by NETPark www.uknetpark.net
Front cover image courtesy of IRIS.
01
GOING FOR
GOLD...
The Beijing Olympics vividly demonstrated that to win
a gold medal it is essential to focus on a few areas
where resources can be used most effectively. It is
also necessary to measure performance against world
standards and to have the infrastructure and the
expert support people available who can help win the
medal. It is the same for a region that wants to win the
economic race.
Here in the North East it is necessary to choose those
industry sectors that have long-term growth potential
and where the region can build significant competitive
advantage. It is then necessary to consistently invest in
the infrastructure required by the sector and to attract
the people, companies and researchers at the leading
edge. The measure of performance must always be
against world standards.
That is exactly what we are doing in the North East of
England. The region’s Science and Industry Council
selected a small number of areas to drive economic
growth in the 21st century. One of these areas is
Printable Electronics: NETPark and the Printable
Electronics Technology Centre (PETEC) is the focal point
for investment in the sector, not only for the region but
for the UK.
PETEC at NETPark is a major facility for the development
and exploitation of direct write technologies and flexible
functional materials. This revolutionary technology is
predicted to be a $16 billion industry by 2015 and could
potentially be even more disruptive than silicon-based
electronics.
Printable electronics have inherent properties that classic
silicon semiconductor technologies can never offer. Their
flexible form means that they can be used to build
displays and panels that can be rolled-up or laminated
directly onto surfaces using low cost production facilities.
They are already being incorporated into consumer
products and will lead to a new generation of products
such as real-time electronic newspapers, electronic tags,
intelligent interactive packaging, handheld medical
diagnostic devices, flexible e-paper for interactive e-
books, reports and advertisements, electro-textiles for
smart fashion and sportswear and energy in the form of
fuel cells, solar cells and batteries.
What about an electronic book that can bend? A flexible
display to hold patient medical records that can attach to
the wrist of the patient? The label on medicine to flash
when it should be taken? Curtains or wall coverings in
your home that change colour based on your mood that
day? Plastic sensors woven into clothing that can
monitor your temperature and health? A credit card with
a display for adverts?
These opportunities are not just for big multinational
companies although many large companies will
participate. The ability of this technology to change the
way current products are used by consumers provides
the smaller company a chance to compete in niche
segments. It gives the North East the chance to grow
smaller companies targeted at these opportunities. The
change in design and functionality of the new products
can lead to opportunities for the region’s design skills.
Imagination will be the only limit to the possibilities. We
want entrepreneurs to start thinking now about the new
business opportunities that can be generated from this
technology. We say to them, come to the incubators at
NETPark to start your business and use the expertise
and critical mass of PETEC to help you develop your
products.
We already know that this will be a major world industry.
We also know that this is an area where the North East
is leading the way globally and we must keep reminding
ourselves that international competitiveness is essential.
The NETPark Advisory Group and the CPI Board (which
is the owner of the PETEC facility) are aligned in requiring
that the new centre must be of international standard.
The Printable Electronics focus of the North East must
be able to achieve a reputation in the top three or four
similar facilities in the world. Today it is our investment in
the basic infrastructure that counts but in future it is our
careful selection of the sub sectors where we can be in
the top tier in the world that will make the difference.
Going forward the NETPark Advisory Group will be keen
to ensure that first and foremost the development of
PETEC is always business led, that attractive and
appropriate sub sectors are pursued and that leading
universities from all over the world are active participants.
We want major industrial partners to be involved but we
are also keen to unleash the entrepreneurial spirit that
this technology allows and we want many new small
businesses to be created.
If we do this, then the world will beat a path to our door
and NETPark will be known as the place to do business
in printable electronics. On that day we will have won the
gold medal.
Bob Coxon OBE
Chairman, NETPark Advisory Group
Chairman, CPI – The Centre for Process Innovation
BOB COXON OBE, CHAIRMAN, NETPARK ADVISORY GROUP
Bob Coxon is a member of the Board of Directors of Mr Coxon is a Senior Advisor to The Carlyle Group,
several international businesses in the chemical and one of the world’s largest private equity firms, with
process industries. more than $89 billion under management. Mr. Coxon
assists Carlyle in developing strategy and
He is a non-Executive Director of AZ Electronic
identifying investments in the chemicals and
Materials, a speciality chemicals supplier to the
process industry sectors. He is based in their
semiconductor and flat panel displays industries
London office.
with manufacturing in Korea, Taiwan, Japan, China,
Germany and the USA. He is also a Director of The Whitehall & Industry
Group (WIG) a charity that fosters senior level
He is a non-Executive Director of PQ Corporation a
relationships between major companies and
Philadelphia based manufacturer of silicas, silicates,
Whitehall departments.
zeolites and catalysts. It is a global enterprise
operating in 19 countries on five continents. In the North East of England he is Chairman of The
Centre for Process Innovation (CPI), Chairman of the
He is a non-Executive Director of Stahl, the world’s
NE Process Industries Cluster (NEPIC) that
leading speciality chemicals supplier to the leather
represents over 400 companies in the region. He is
finish industry with manufacturing in Holland, USA,
also Chairman of NETPark and is a member of the
India, Singapore and China.
North East Science & Industry Council.
He is a non-Executive Director of Ensus, a company
Mr Coxon was awarded the OBE in the 2008 New
established to produce fuel grade bioethanol for the
Years Honours List.
transport industry. The first Ensus plant, which is
currently under construction on Teesside, will be the
largest production facility in Europe. It will produce
bioethanol by the fermentation of wheat grain.
03
Contents

02 05 08
HLBBshaw
SUNSHINE ON A HLBBshaw IS HERE

SUNSHINE ON
GOING FOR GOLD RAINY DAY TO PROTECT YOU

10 12 14
DURHAM
UNIVERSITY
TALKING ABOUT A
REVOLUTION
UNIVERSITY OF
TEESSIDE
TRANSFORMING
HEALTHCARE
POLYPHOTONIX
LIGHTING
TECHNOLOGY
RETURNS TO ITS
BIRTHPLACE A RAINY DAY
17 18 20
NORTHUMBRIA NORTHERN GAS
UNIVERSITY NETWORK
RADICALLY REDUCE KEEPING ENERGY IRIS
THE COST OF SUPPLY SAFE AND AN EYE FOR
SOLAR ENERGY SECURE SUCCESS

22 26 28
UDL
THORN LIGHTING USING
REVOLUTIONISING INTELLECTUAL
THE LIGHTING PROPERTY TO HELP
ABOUT NETPARK INDUSTRY YOU SURVIVE

30 32 34
CELS C.C. JENSEN
BUSINESS FOR LIFE SOLUTIONS IN OIL
LATEST HEADLINES AWARDS FILTRATION

Experts predict the printable electronics sector has the

capability of being a $7 billion dollar industry by 2010.
In the latest of our quarterly NETWorks debates, a panel
of leaders in this field lift the lid on potentially one of the
most disruptive technologies to emerge in recent years.
Mike Parker was in the audience.
05
 PROFESSOR John Anstee wobbles a sheet of plastic in Also sitting round the table in the Rivergreen Centre in
his hand, demonstrating its flexibility to the audience. At Durham City, in the heart of North East England, is Geoff
first glance it looks somewhat unspectacular - a thin, Williams of Thorn Lighting who is heading a £3m+ project
rectangular object. But, with a flick of a switch a warm investigating ways to make solid state lighting a mass-use
light courses through the film and sparks tremendous solution for the future.
enthusiasm and vigorous debate between the luminaries
The environmental benefits, including the ability to run
around the table.
lighting from low voltage DC batteries as opposed to 240v
The former Senior Pro Vice Chancellor and Sub-Warden at mains, will give the opportunity to “think of lighting in a
Durham University is graphically illustrating an early different perspective”, he points out. “Lighting from the
prototype of printable electronics, a forerunner of what is point of view of long life time, low maintenance, thin
widely predicted to be the future of lighting in our homes, products, mercury free devices with low material usage
our offices and our cars. and zero landfill contribution.
This is printable electronics in its raw infancy, a technology “The opportunities are significant for those who have the
that has scientists extremely excited by the sheer potential expertise and knowledge. Having that in County Durham
of its applications, scalability and disruptive qualities. The is a distinct benefit.”
sheet is a light source, capable of bending and flexing,
Dave Wall of DuPont Teijin Films, makers of plastic film
offering up no heat and needing only minimal energy to
whose global R & D facilities are based at Wilton on
power its glow.
Teesside, is another person passionately engaged by this
In next to no time, the debate has suggested, it could subject. DTF is developing products for use in the
replace the humble barcode, revolutionise television printable electronics supply chain and Mr Wall sees
manufacturing, provide a high-tech safety solution to growth in areas that provide the customer with a new
“THE MAIN THREAT IS LIKE prevent car accidents caused by tiredness and work as an
optical bandage for the treatment of skin cancer.
experience.
“The first types of applications will be those that allow you
MOST THREATS, THE Professor Andy Monkman of Durham University, a specialist to do something with this technology that you cannot do
in research of light-emitting organic materials, adds that with present technology,” he points out.
INCUMBENT TECHNOLOGY plastic electronics could even brighten our lives on the
darkest of days: “You will be able to use it to make an
One hot topic in the gadget world is the development of
e-readers – plastic displays capable of storing thousands
KEEPS IMPROVING ITS umbrella light up so, when it is raining and miserable, you
can have sunshine under your umbrella.”
of books at one time that simulate an invention that has
been around for many centuries.
PERFORMANCE. AS LONG Its versatility is incredible, and thus developing its
Has it the potential to replace paper, asks Dr Taylor? “No”,
commerciality is a crucial next step. And, the North East is
Professor Ifor Samuel’s light emitting
bandage, referred to in the debate.
AS THE PERFORMANCE at the forefront of efforts to investigate its full potential.
is Mr Wall’s straight-forward answer. However, the ability
to take one e-reader on a plane with a library of books
The North East Technology Park (NETPark), of which Prof
MATCHES THE Anstee is also Scientific Director, is home to the new £9.5m
rather than face lugging a bag full of books is just one
example of ways that he sees the technology will become
Printable Electronics Technology Centre (PETEC) that was
REQUIREMENTS THAT END created as the UK headquarters for the commercialisation
embedded.
of this technology. Owned and managed by the Centre for Amid the excitement, the debate moves on to consider
USERS NEED THEN WE ARE Process Innovation, the PETEC facility is an ideal platform the threats to the development of plastic electronics.
for both start-ups and larger manufacturing companies to
FINE. ULTIMATELY, THIS IS get prototype and pilot-scale production up and running,
Prof Monkman says: “The main threat is like most threats,
the incumbent technology keeps improving its
with the aim of de-risking industrial research and
THE MOST DISRUPTIVE development in printed electronics.
performance. As long as the performance matches the
requirements that end users need then we are fine.
TECHNOLOGY THERE IS” Its director, Dr Tom Taylor, is chairing the panel debate and
he is convinced that printable electronics has the capability
Ultimately, this is the most disruptive technology there is.”
Mr Wall adds a practical observation: “It must produce at
to re-industrialise the North East. He explains: “I think that
scale and in volume.” Yields would have to top 90% for
the North East has revolutionised itself in the last 20 years
manufacturers to start seriously to progress their products
from large manufacturing industries that, because of capital
on to printable electronics.”
investments, could not adapt to what was happening
globally, into a far more dynamic economy.” Two companies have already opted to base themselves at
PETEC to start work on this issue, one of which,
It is a sentiment echoed by Prof Anstee who says that
PolyPhotonix, has enlisted Dr Williams as a specialist
having one of only four centres worldwide with the
adviser.
expertise in this area is a leap forward that could see the
region revisit its past glory days when it was a world-leader As Dr Taylor explains, to have companies already up and
in ship-building and steel making. running at PETEC is a major step to keeping County
Durham at the forefront of this technology: “We have got
He says: “Having a facility of this type is a major coup and
a head start in this area and we believe we have
perhaps for the first time since the industrial revolution the
positioned ourselves to meet the challenges.”
North East has something that is no longer playing catch-up.”
The next debate will feature nanotechnology and will be at
But, it is one thing to identify a technology with great
NETPark in early November. If you wish to attend please
potential and it is something completely different to turn
email events@uknetpark.net
that potential into commercial reality.

07
HLBBshaw IS HERE TO
PROTECT YOU
“An incredibly knowledgeable patent attorney with the
scientific expertise to help us make the most of the new
Intellectual Property being developed in printable
electronics.” That comment, made at the recent
Printable Electronics Technology Expert Panel debate,
came totally unprompted from one of the panel
members. HLBBshaw, as represented by Dr Alex
Turnbull, was the recipient of such high praise. Alex
spoke to NETWorks about the company’s new presence
at NETPark.
Although a comparative newcomer to the North East,
HLBBshaw is an internationally respected firm of patent
attorneys. One look at the technologies they have dealt
with tells you the depth of knowledge they possess –
neural networks, ink jet in hyperthermogelling agents,
wireless communications, plastic moulding, fuel cells and
(my own personal favourite) crystalline hydrate forms of
paclitaxel are just six of the hundreds of technologies that
HLBBshaw has helped its clients to protect.
Alex’s own personal technology experience is in
commercialization of research from physics which makes
him ideal to have as “the man on the ground” at NETPark.
Alex is a senior patent attorney and joined HLBBshaw
from Cambridge Display Technology (CDT) Ltd, where he
was involved in the management of the company’s patent
and trade mark portfolio. CDT was an early pioneer in the
commercialization of polymer light emitting diodes and
formed a joint venture with the Japanese chemical giants
Sumitomo Chemical to create Sumation. CDT was
recently bought out by Sumitomo Chemical, but that’s a
whole other story.
Alex subsequently project managed a three million pound
joint development legal agreement between Durham
University, Thorn Lighting and Sumation: Project Topless.
This was the catalyst for deciding to have a presence in
the North East.
“HLBBshaw is a national company – we have offices all
over the UK from London to Leeds. However, the
explosion of new technologies coming from the North
East drew our attention – we all know that the North of
the country is innovative but the pace of innovation has
accelerated during recent years.
“We also knew that One NorthEast, the Regional
Development Agency, had a very highly focused
economic strategy which would mean significant
investment in our sectors of expertise: process industries,
healthcare, and energy. And that NETPark was going to
be the location of the UK national flagship (PETEC) for a
whole new technology platform, printable electronics, out
of which would come new products in these sectors. So it
was an obvious decision to come to the North East and
NETPark and it’s been great to see the construction of
PETEC progressing. Now there are companies in there
and projects with multinationals, it’s even more exciting.
There are also well established network groups – our
favourite is the Bridge Club run by Caroline Theobald, and
she has helped in making connections.”
And what about the competition?
“It’s always something you deal with when entering a region
for the first time, but I was already known for my work with
Durham University and Thorn and, to be honest, I’ve been
delighted with the welcome I’ve received. There is more
than enough work for all of us, believe me!”
(The editor of this magazine can vouch for this – every
patent attorney she has met in the North East has been
more than willing to co-operate with the new firm on the
block. In fact, they may even do a workshop together in the
future at NETPark on all aspects of IP protection – to keep
informed, please email events@uknetpark.net)
There was a high level of investment in the Thorn Lighting
project but this is business as usual for HLBBshaw. And
quite possibly the reason the firm is so successful.
“People still underestimate the value of Intellectual Property.
An interesting trend recently is that new companies,
especially university spin out companies, are usually
incredibly savvy about their IP because they get so much
more support now. They know that the future of their
company depends on proper IP protection. That future
could be creating a product that creates hundreds of jobs
in manufacturing therefore hundreds of jobs depend on that
product being properly protected. Another version of that
future could be that the IP is sold to a large multinational, in
which case their bank balance relies on the IP being
properly protected. Either way, they are certainly motivated.
“And the converse is true – companies which have been
around for years forget that their IP is valuable and needs
constant monitoring to see who is operating in their field,
what patents are being filed and, potentially, how
technologies could be married together to create even
more new products. Interestingly, the current economic
situation has made many companies scurry back to this
issue as IP tends to be the heart of a company’s value.”
This is where HLBBshaw shines – patent prosecution is the
mainstay of the firm and it has significant experience in
dealing with difficult cases and successfully defending and
enforcing its clients' IP rights. Being a UK and European
patent attorney, Alex can advise on the drafting of patent
specifications, patent prosecution, portfolio management,
and opposition practice.
What’s next for Alex in the North East?
“In the short term, we are supporting the Durham University
proposal for a Doctoral Training Centre in Plastic
Electronics. This is being led by Professor Andy Monkman
and if successful would mean around 50 PhD students
Project Topless stands for Thin Organic
providing the necessary energy and capacity to establish
Polymeric Light Emitting Semiconductor
Durham and the North East as the leaders in plastic
Surfaces and is headed up by Dr Geoff
electronics. Many students go on to become entrepreneurs
and HLBBshaw will be contributing to educating the Williams of Thorn Lighting. It’s a three year
students about the basics of innovation, IP protection and £3.3M project with an aim to produce a
commercialization.” white light emitter from a single polymer.
For further information, please visit www.hlbbshaw.com or Alex is pictured here with John White,
email Alex at durham@hlbbshaw.com Knowledge Exploitation Manager of Durham
Univeristy and one of the parties to Topless.
09
TALKING ABOUT A
REVOLUTION
Professor Andy Monkman, Director of the Photonic Materials
Institute at Durham University, explains the science behind the
revolution of printable electronics and why your mobile phone
battery will soon last weeks instead of days.
A new generation of electronics is starting to make its presence
felt – electronics that can be embedded in a credit card as
opposed to a computer, using organic semiconductors instead
of silicon based transistors and memory.
Organic molecules and polymers can be used to make simple
devices such as displays to be used in mobile phones and
PDAs. MP3 and personal video players are now starting to be
made from organic semiconductors which emit light when
current is passed through them. Very quickly, these Organic Light
Emitting Displays are displacing liquid crystal displays at the
smaller end of the market.
Why this sudden revolution? These organic devices are simpler
and cheaper to manufacture and, in the case of OLED displays,
give much higher quality and rapid refresh rates, ideal for high
definition TV.
The benefits of using organic molecules and polymers stems
from their ease of fabrication into thin film devices and the simple
architecture of the devices. In the case of polymer materials,
these can be dissolved in simple solvents and printed down,
using ink jet printing to define the required pattern. The use of
digital printing also makes the process infinitely reconfigurable
and so very cheap for small niche runs and a wide range of
product designs. Printing of semiconductors also is a low
temperature low energy process and so manufacturing costs
can greatly be reduced.
For more complex devices, such as active matrix OLED displays
for phones etc, small organic molecules are used, deposited by
vacuum sublimation. This fabrication technique allows multiple
layer structures to be built up very quickly, with each layer being
on average only a few nanometers thick. For a 2 inch TV screen,
the total screen thickness is dominated by the glass substrate on
which the OLED is fabricated but still can be thin. As recently
demonstrated by Sony, an 11 inch XEL-1 HDTV has a screen
only 2mm thick.
Organic electronics offers totally new design and fabrication
methods, low energy, low waste manufacture, and incredible
new opportunities to both SMEs and large scale multinationals.
OLEDs are a fairly new discovery, dating back to work at Kodak
in the early 1980s. Although there are many earlier reports of
obtaining light from organic molecules by passing 1000s of volts
through them, Tang and Van Slyke were the first to realise a
proper ‘diode’ architect for their organic molecules such that
they achieve light generation from only a few volts applied, using
very thin vacuum deposited films. Their initial work was slowly
picked up, mainly in Japan, but major advances came as Korea
took up the technology.
As with much of organic-based materials technology, specialist
spin-out companies from universities have had the major impact:
Universal Display Corporation in the USA discovered that the use
of phosphorescent emitting molecules in displays increased their
efficiencies from a few percent to over 20%, far higher than can
be achieved with inorganic LEDs. Another company, Novaled in
Germany, developed high mobility charge transport layers to
efficiently channel current from device electrodes to the organic
emitting layer, such that they have achieved record power
efficiencies of more than 150 Lum/W. To put this in context, the
most efficient light source we currently have is the small diameter
T8 fluorescent tube which can only manage 70-90 Lum/W.
In the UK a complementary technology based on
semiconducting polymers was developed, first at Cambridge
University in the group of Professor Sir Richard Friend, before
being taken up by a spin-out company Cambridge Display
Technology (CDT). Unlike the OLED technology which uses
vacuum deposition to fabricate the required thin films, the
polymers are soluble and so can be deposited by a range of
techniques to yield high quality ca. 50 nm thick films, such as
spin coating, ink jet printing and gravure printing. CDT dominates
PLED technology making major strides forward both in materials
development and fabrication as well as device design.
Last year the company was bought by Sumitomo Chemicals of
Japan which is now developing the first products based on this
polymer solution processing technology. Because of the great
push in materials synthesis and purification, along with far better
understanding of the photophysics of these emissive materials,
device lifetimes now surpass a million hours for red emitters and
more than 25,000 hours for blue. For display applications, power
efficiency is vital. In the case of LCDs (which are of course a form
of organic electronics in their own right) only some 5-10% of the
light from the backlight emerges out of the front of the display,
the rest is lost within the display as heat. This is why your mobile
phones battery lasts such a short time. OLED based mobile
phones will have far longer battery lifetime because they are
much more power efficient, as well as lighter and thinner. As only
low temperatures are required during fabrication, plastic
substrates can also be used. This is an exciting development
especially coupled with printing fabrication.
Major research projects throughout the world are currently
underway to develop this. In the North East DuPont Teijin and the
Printable Electronics Technology Centre (PETEC) are leading the
way. Finally, with such high power efficiencies the use of OLEDs
and PLEDs as white solid state lighting is very enticing.
Combining PLED technology with printing onto large area plastic
substrates is the holy grail and in the North East we lead the UK
with project TOPLESS, led by Thorn Lighting in Spennymoor in a
Government funded collaboration with Sumation CDT and
Durham University. In America GE Corp is also very active in
organic solid state lighting and has been the first to demonstrate
large area lighting panels and more recently the world’s first reel to
reel production of printed organic lighting elements, using
Sumation CDT materials. Panasonic Matsushita and Konica
Minolta in Japan are also very active in lighting applications.
A step further back from production is the use of organic
materials in thin film transistor applications. The main
applications here are in back plane drivers for displays. For
displays with greater than about 64,000 pixels, each display pixel
has to have its own drive circuit buried beneath the pixel to
actively switch the pixel on or off. At present, these back planes
are made from thin film silicon deposited onto the substrate
which is expensive and requires high temperatures, incompatible
with plastic substrates. This is where organic materials step in.
Several companies are currently ramping up production of first
generation organic backplanes for E-paper device. These will be
used as electronic books and newspapers. Plastic Logic and
Polymer Vision (Philips) are busy setting up new factories to
produce E-books using these back planes and electrophoretic
E-ink displays. Many others in Korea, Japan and the US are also
PROFILE: PROFESSOR ANDY MONKMAN, DIRECTOR,
PHOTONIC MATERIALS INSTITUTE, DURHAM UNIVERSITY
Andy completed his degree and PhD at Queen Mary College University of London and then moved to a
Lectureship in Durham in 1988. He is now a senior member of staff in the Physics Department at Durham
University and Director of the Photonic Materials Institute. His research interests include organic light emitting
displays, ultrafast laser spectroscopy materials characterisation, optical spectroscopy, and development of new
spectroscopic techniques. He has published over 300 academic papers and is currently engaged in a
collaborative research project with Thorn Lighting and Sumation CDT around the potential of organic light
emitting diodes.
Blue PLEDs fabricated
on a reel to reel
process (GE
Corporation)
First ever reel to reel
production of polymeric
solid state lighting, ‘the
printed light bulb’ (GE Corp)
developing similar products. In the North East, research and replace their reliance on fossil fuels. Two technologies are being
development of new production techniques using printing and actively pursued at present. Gretzel Cells, named after their Swiss
novel deposition is headed at PETEC at NETPark where inventor, combines organic dyes with titanium oxide particles into
companies and research groups will be able to test design thin film solar cells. This mixture is printable and so again
concepts and novel materials for a variety of products including compatible with roll to roll fabrication onto plastic. Efficiencies as
oTFTs for flexible displays along with Solid State Lighting high as 10% have been reported in the laboratory, however
applications and Organic Photovoltaic cells (OPVs). current mass production techniques reduce the efficiency. G24I in
Cardiff is the first to successfully commercialise this technology,
In Germany, the Fraunhofer Institute in Dresden has made great
offering an alternative approach to Gretzel, based on the
strides on the mass production of simple organic circuits,
polymeric semiconductors, very similar to those used in PLED
lithographically printed onto plastic substrates in a continuous roll
technology. Konarka in the US is very active in bringing flexible
to roll process, much like printing newspapers. Christened
polymer OPV to the market place along with Gretzel cell and
‘sloppy electronic’ by Dago de’Leew in Philips, these circuits are
hybrid approaches. In the North East, Durham University and
aimed at very simple applications such as RFID tags, credit card
PETEC aim to bring research and development of OPV to the
chips etc., where many millions of units need to be produced
region next year, as in the longer term this technology will play a
rapidly at cost levels of less than a cent per unit. Roll to roll
major role in any high technology-based economy.
printing of organic electronics is ideal for this requirement. Much
of the polymeric material development and supply comes from ‘Plastic Electronics’ or more properly organic electronics is
Merck, based in Southampton. booming. Given the innovative production possibilities along with
low energy and flexible manufacture, organic electronics will enable
The final area of major interest which is just breaking into
countries like ours to compete on a manufacturing footing with the
production is organic photovoltaic cells. Here again the roll to roll
likes of Korea and China because we can concentrate on lower
printing of very large areas of OPV on plastic at low cost is the
volumes with more rapid response times and combine the UK’s
main driver. They would also be much lighter and cheaper than
design and innovation flair into our manufactured products.
silicon PV cells so ideal for roof installation and third world
applications where cost is vital if they are to be persuaded to www.durham.ac.uk
Sony demonstrated a 2.5
inch VGA TV screen made
on plastic, the world’s first
flexible television
Plastic Logics early
electronic paper reader
11
TRANSFORMING Professor Zulf Ali of the University of Teesside examines how printable electronics
will speed up diagnostics in healthcare and the food sectors.
There is a considerable demand for the creation of embed a variety of components including conductors,

HEALTHCARE intelligent diagnostic systems that can provide, in a low

cost and easy manner, chemical, biological and physical
information about our environment. Such products will
have use in a variety of areas including health,
resistors, transistors, light sources, photodetectors,
optical elements and bioactive molecules. The integration
of a variety of different processes is key to achieving
reliable functional modules and devices.

WITH
environment, security, and food. Work at the University of
As an example of the work that is being carried out at
Teesside involves the development of intelligent
Teesside, we lead the EU FP6 DVT-IMP project that is
diagnostic devices on common low cost media such as
developing a point-of-care device to contribute to the
plastics using fabrication approaches that are amenable
diagnosis of Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) and Pulmonary
to large scale volume manufacture.
Embolism (PE) (www.diagnosingdvt.com). Deep Vein

INTELLIGENT In healthcare, simpler and faster diagnostics close to the

patient, i.e. at the point-of-care, will improve patients’
quality of life as well as reducing the financial load on
healthcare systems which are under increasing pressure
Thrombosis (DVT) is a condition where blood clots in one
of the body’s deep veins, typically in the leg. DVT and the
associated condition of pulmonary embolism, where the
clot lodges in the lung, are the most common causes of

DIAGNOSTICS
PROFILE: PROFESSOR ALI
Professor Ali obtained a BSc in Chemistry and subsequently a PhD in Instrumentation
and Analytical Science from the University of Manchester. After a short spell as a
Research Fellow at the University of Warwick he gained an academic position in the
Department of Pharmacy at the University of Brighton. He Joined the School of Science
and Technology at the University of Teesside in 1996 and is now Assistant Dean in the
School with responsibility for Research and Innovation. Prof. Ali is the Project Coordinator for DVT-IMP
and has interests in nano-microfabricated systems.
due to the ageing population. Intelligent diagnostic
systems will also aid the process of drug discovery to
allow individualised treatments of patients rather than one
size fits all.
Food represents a further sector in which intelligent
diagnostics can play an important role since food safety
from the farm to the table is a critical issue for
consumers. Food-borne infections remain a major public
health problem. Food contamination can occur in many
different parts of the food chain and can happen,
amongst many other reasons, because of improper
storage and poor cleaning regimes of processing
equipment. There is, therefore, a need for an intelligent
approach to monitor food contamination. Other
opportunities include monitoring of food freshness and
safety indicators as part of the food packaging.
The development of intelligent diagnostic systems that
have high functionality, are reliable and low cost, requires
new volume-scale manufacturing techniques and/or the
adaptation of existing approaches. These manufacturing
techniques can be developed as part of batch and sheet-
based processes or alternatively, for very high volumes,
as part of roll-to-roll continuous processing. The
manufacturing approaches include adaptation of clean
room microfabrication technologies such as
photolithography, wet and dry etching and sputtering.
Other technologies that can be employed, in combination
or independently, are laser microstructuring, embossing
and additive printing approaches such as flexography,
gravure, screen printing and inkjet printing to create the
functional components. Such techniques are required to
unexpected death in developed countries.
The DVT/PE point-of-care device is based on measuring
the concentration of the d-dimer molecule found in the
patient’s blood. High levels of d-dimer indicate a high
level of blood clotting. The device itself comprises a metal
electrochemical transducer on a polymer substrate onto
which is immobilised a bioactive component to recognise
the d-dimer. The electrochemical transducer is integrated
as part of a microfluidic cartridge device that is used to
process the blood. The microfluidic cartridge device is
itself inserted in a reader device to carry out the test. The
electrochemical transducers have been implemented
using photolithography, etching and sputtering processes.
The top layer of the microfluidic cartridge, which is used to
handle the fluids, has been created using hot embossing
and micro-injection moulding. In the case of hot
embossing, the fluidic architecture is created by pressing,
in a highly controlled manner, a metal mould onto a
heated polymer substrate. The mould itself can be created
using a variety of methods including micro-milling. The
University of Teesside is able to create high precision metal
moulds using a photo electroforming approach.
The device will transform diagnosis of DVT - currently
diagnosis is confirmed by an ultrasound test but this is
expensive and can result in long time delays. The device
being developed by the project will be able to indicate
whether the patient is suffering unusually high blood clotting
activity and so predict whether they may be suffering from
DVT and speed him or her on their way for treatment.
www.tees.ac.uk

13
POLYPHOTONIX: LIGHTING
TECHNOLOGY RETURNS
TO ITS BIRTHPLACE
And who thinks manufacturing in the UK is dead when
new manufacturing companies like PolyPhotonix are
starting up?
Richard Kirk, the previous MD of Elumin8, has founded
an exciting high technology lighting company in North
East England.
PolyPhotonix will be located in the Printable Electronics
Technology Centre (PETEC) at NETPark. He has been
supported, on a technical consultancy basis, by Geoff
Willliams (Project Topless) to establish the company, a
manufacturing business aimed at producing lighting product
based on ultra thin films of plastics (polymeric organic light
emitting diodes - POLED) which emit high quality white light.
These films are thin, 1/2000 the thickness of a human hair
and a 1kg bag (less than an average bag of sugar) will coat
a massive 10,000 square metres.
POLED technology is the first really big advancement in
general lighting technology since the introduction of
fluorescent tubes in the 1940s, and a return to the
birthplace of the first electric incandescent light bulb, by
the North East’s Joseph Swan in 1878.
Timing is everything – and PolyPhotonix seems to be
with the zeitgeist.
The plastic electronics industry is at a tipping point. The
Printed Electronics used in the
interior of a Jaguar C-XF 200
transition from laboratory investigation and research is
moving to real applications and meeting real needs.
PolyPhotonix has recently been created to demonstrate
to the wider industry how to manufacture POLED
devices in large volumes and with very high yields.
This is a crucially important step and, without it, the
industry will take far longer to come to market.
POLED is effectively a flat printed light source. It can be
printed to glass or plastic and is very energy efficient. A
major advantage of the technology is the fact that being
low voltage DC driven it is the perfect solution to light
with renewable energy sources (PV, OPV, wind etc) that
all deliver DC power.
PolyPhotonix will be manufacturing devices for the
automotive, architectural lighting and medical industries.
These markets are attracted to the physicality of POLED
being flat and eventually flexible. This means that it is
extremely easy and cost-effective to update a number of
applications – from displays within a car dashboard to
the whole interior of the car itself. Designers will
ultimately decide this as they start to use the new
materials that PolyPhotonix is manufacturing.
For further information, please contact PETEC on 01642
455340
PLED type printed electronics in use
at Heathrow Airport, Terminal 5, 2008
RADICALLY REDUCE
THE COST OF SOLAR
ENERGY
Northumbria University is part of a consortium that has been awarded a major grant
of £6.2m to radically reduce the cost of solar energy.
The consortium is currently researching the materials
that will help to make solar generated – or photovoltaic –
electricity competitive with retail electricity prices by the
year 2020. The £6.2m grant from the Engineering and
Physical Sciences Research Council is the second round
of funding for the PV21 SUPERGEN consortium, which
received £4.5m in 2004.
The money will be distributed between the eight members
of the consortium to fund a four-year cycle of research.
The £850,000 funding to Northumbria’s Photovoltaics
Applications Centre (NPAC) is to continue its
investigations into introducing low-cost materials to the
production of thin-film photovoltaic cells to reduce their
thickness and help bring down their manufacturing costs.
Copper indium gallium diselenide is the highest
performance photovoltaic material currently used in thin-
film cells. However, over the last four years indium and
gallium costs have reached up to $1,000 per kilogram.
The costs of these materials make up over 30% of the
price of the cells, posing a possible barrier to the
competitiveness of this technology.
The Northumbria researchers are working on reducing
and replacing gallium and indium with materials that cost
less than $10 per kilogram, such as aluminium, giving a
massive saving in cost which could eventually reduce the
price of photovoltaic materials energy by a staggering
93%.
Dr Ian Forbes, the Principal Investigator for the project,
from the Northumbria Photovoltaics Applications Centre,
said: “The announcement of this new round of funding is
fantastic news for both NPAC and the School of
Computing, Engineering and Information Sciences.
“It enables us to continue with our research and build upon
the achievements we have made over the last four years to
reduce the costs of thin-film inorganic solar cells.
“These thin film devices are less than 100th of the
thickness of crystalline silicon, which is currently the
dominant photovoltaic material used in the production of
solar cells.
“Crystalline silicon currently makes up around 90% or more
of the current photovoltaic industry. However it is now
recognised by many in the field that the thin-film
technology is the best route to bringing photovoltaic
generated electricity to the commercial market, making it
competitive with retail electricity prices in the next 10-15
years.
“Simply by reducing the thickness of materials, we have
produced cells that deliver 70% of the performance of
gallium free devices whilst using less than 40% of the
material.
“And using aluminium as an alternative to gallium, we
have already been able to make the thin-film device
using a scalable processing route.
“We believe we are only the fourth group in the world to
produce devices from this material and the first to do so
using this technique.
“In the renewed project, we aim to introduce the aluminium
into the ultra-thin films to improve performance as well as
investigating completely indium and gallium free materials.”
Professor Peter Strike, Deputy Vice-Chancellor
(Research & Enterprise), said: “The announcement of
such a substantial grant is fantastic news for the
Photovoltaic Applications Centre and the University.
“The £6.2m award to SUPERGEN from EPSRC is
recognition of the success of this hugely important
project in developing sustainable energy production.
“The large proportion of the grant held by Northumbria
reflects the high academic standing of the team here at
the University, and the real contribution they make to this
project, alongside colleagues from some of the best
research-intensive Universities in the UK.
“The success of this project, and the continuation of
funding, is a tribute to the quality of Dr Forbes and his
team and a matter of considerable pride for the University.”
The SUPERGEN initiative aims to help the UK meet its
environmental emissions targets through a radical
improvement in the sustainability of power generation
and supply.
The other universities in the consortium are Bath,
Cranfield, Durham, Edinburgh, Imperial College, NEWI
and Southampton.
Northumbria University has been a leading name in
European photovoltaic research for almost 25 years,
providing expert research and consultancy services for
industrial and commercial projects.
www.northumbria.ac.uk
17
KEEPING OUR
ENERGY
SUPPLY SAFE
AND SECURE
GAS. It’s always there. At the flick of a switch, at the new ones,” said Basil Scarsella. He’s the Chief Executive
turn of a control. It’s there. Available to heat our Officer of Northern Gas Networks.
homes, provide hot water, cook our food. To provide
“We replace them before they start to cause any
the energy which fuels our businesses.
problems, before there’s any risk, to ensure that
But how does it get to us; what journey does it have to everyone can continue to take gas for granted,” he said.
make before it makes our lives so comfortable?
The company works closely with local highways
Well, in northern England that’s all down to Northern Gas authorities to carefully plan mains replacement works –
Networks, the company which distributes gas to 2.5 they don’t like to disrupt people’s lives by carrying out
million users across the North East, northern Cumbria the replacement work.
and most of Yorkshire. They have 36,000 km of pipes
“The next time you’re stuck in traffic, just think that the
and mains, seamlessly delivering gas to where it’s
new plastic pipes going into the ground are to ensure
needed. Homes and businesses rely on it for warmth,
you’re kept warm – and safe – in your home and at
water and manufacturing capacity.
work. We don’t plan to cause any inconvenience, but it
Northern Gas Networks is a relatively new name on the is inevitable that there will be some as we work to keep
industrial landscape. It was created in June 2005, taking your gas supply safe and secure.”
ownership of the pipeline assets and associated
Northern Gas Networks has outsourced all operational
equipment delivering the essential fuel of 21st century
activities to United Utilities, which works closely with a
life.
range of operating partners to replace the region’s
We all take gas for granted. It’s there 24 hours every day, population of metal gas pipes.
keeping us warm and clean. And that’s the way Northern
“It’s not easy planning the replacement of more than
Gas Networks wants it to be. Their services are largely
500km of pipes each year,” said Mr Scarsella. “But by
invisible – the pipes and equipment are usually buried
working closely with local people, the councils and other
safely underground. The only visible signs are the large
representatives, we plan the work carefully and
gasholders at the edges of our towns and cities, which
considerately. We put ourselves in your shoes, and that
provide additional gas at times of peak demand – when
way get the replacement work completed quickly and
you get up in the morning and when you’re returning
safely.”
home from work at teatime.
And the company is responsible for delivering the 24/7
You may occasionally see them blocking our roads,
gas emergency service. “Our engineers are on call
when they’re investing in our future replacing old metal
around the clock, every day, responding to gas
pipes with the new yellow plastic ones. The
emergency calls from wherever they are made in our
inconvenience they cause can be painful, causing delays
region. Our engineers are highly trained and their role in
and frustration. But think what might happen if the old
life, like that of Northern Gas Networks itself, is to ensure
metal pipes were left in the ground, deteriorating over
that the safety of gas users is always safeguarded,” said
time until they were unfit for purpose.
Mr Scarsella.
“Every year we replace around 500km of old pipes with

LEFT: Basil Scarsella, Chief Executive

Officer of Northern Gas Networks

MAIN PIC: This year Northern Gas

Networks will replace 528km of old metal
pipes with new polyethylene pipes across
the North of England

19
AN EYE FOR
SUCCESS
IRIS Engineering and Technology is a company expert the development of associated policies of use of the
in project managing specialist facilities for high facilities, and manage the entire facility on an ongoing
technology companies. Based at NETPark in the basis.”
Printable Electronics Technology Centre (PETEC), IRIS
This focus has led IRIS to expand rapidly. IRIS had
is a new breed of technology consultants. Robert
previously worked for the owners of PETEC (then
Preston, Managing Director of IRIS, spoke to
Cenamps, now merged with CPI) on a clean room project
NETWorks about how customer focus has been the
at Newcastle University. The work included Concept
key to the company’s success.
Design, Project Management, Planning Co-ordinator and
Although a young company, IRIS has already amassed an Specialist Detailed Design. This package of works
impressive array of clients including Caterpillar, Newcastle encompassed the whole ethos of IRIS in that the
University, Teesside University, Plastic Logic, Sanofi company employs a team of professionals who can cover
Avensis, Veolia, National Semiconductor and the Atmel many differing aspects of a project under one contract
building. and as such offers the client significant cost and
communication benefit within a project scope. IRIS was
“It’s our specialism – high-tech facilities for electronics
successful in securing the contract after competitive
include a myriad of often conflicting demands. The clean
tender, and the works were completed successfully in co-
rooms at PETEC for example are essential to developing
operation with the University Estates Team. This was the
the new technology of printable electronics but they place
first contract of this nature undertaken with the University
a whole different set of demands on a building than
and surpassed the expectations of all concerned.
ordinary laboratory space.
To complete the set of services on offer to clients, IRIS
“It may sound obvious but clean rooms require a totally
also offers environmental services which include energy
“clean” environment: for example the amount of
management to reduce costs, and specialist waste
particulates such as dust in our living rooms is between 1
management which takes care of potentially hazardous
& 5 million per m3 @ 0.5 micron. In a class 100 clean
waste.
room that drops to 3520 per m3 @ 0.5 micron. So
mechanical and electrical engineering systems to support While customer focus has always been a cornerstone of
clean rooms are complex, with factors such as high level the company, IRIS has kept up with the times. IRIS also
of extraction to take into consideration.” offers climate change, carbon footprint and emission
trading audits to help clients become more sustainable
It doesn’t stop there of course – there’s the human factor
and more aware of their impact on the environment.
to consider. Humans going back and forth between clean
rooms and laboratories could potentially take with them What else does the future hold for IRIS?
huge amounts of particulates in the form of dust, skin
IRIS is a company that is already benefiting from the
cells, and exhaled particles. Hence the pictures of
Printable Electronics Technology Centre. Having worked
scientists all wrapped in white suits. IRIS takes care of
on a number of such flagship projects, the company is
that aspect too.
planning to take on another eight members of staff by the
“Yes, humans can contaminate the clean room end of the year.
environment and destroy valuable experiments and
“Now we’ve worked on projects like PETEC and the
development work if entrance and exit is not strictly
Atmel building, we are further developing our client base
controlled. But it’s also about protection. Clean rooms are
in this area. We would wish to be partner of choice for
often used for developing such technologies as
any regional business that is looking for a company that
nanotechnology and so health and safety policies that are
can add value to its business, be it in the construction or
strictly enforced are essential.
expansion of a facility to the introduction of an
“When we first started, we decided that we would make environmental\energy policy to enable focused energy
it easy for clients and manage the whole process for awareness with bottom line savings.”
them if they wished. Yes, we can design high tech
For further information, please visit www.iriset.co.uk
facilities but we can also manage the installation, oversee
ABOUT NETPARK... NETPark is North East England’s science, engineering
and technology park for the commercialisation of
cutting edge R&D. Companies thrive at NETPark
because of:
■ State of the art facilities and room to grow on a
prestige site
■ Low operating costs
■ Excellent transport links
■ A skilled workforce

Companies at NETPark have access to cutting edge

The first building, the NETPark Research
Institute was opened in 2004. 2200 sq m
specifically designed for R&D and low
volume complex equipment prototyping
and manufacture. Leased to Durham
University for two world-class research
groups: the Centre for Advanced
From green fields to dynamic
Instrumentation and the Semiconductor
science park in next to no time
Crystal Growth and Ceramics Group.
Phase 1 of the NETPark
Incubator followed a year later.
1600 sq m of office, work and
laboratory space and meeting
rooms. Already 100% full.
research from five universities within 30 minutes drive
and tailored business support that enables them to
achieve their potential. They are part of a like-minded
community that enables each company to flourish,
grow and compete with the best in the world.
NETPark’s focus is on the physical sciences,
particularly printable electronics, microelectronics,
photonics, nanotechnology, and their application in the
fields of energy, defence, and medical-related
technologies.
13 hectares (Phase 1) are already fully serviced and
another 3 hectare area is in the process of being made
available.
NETPark is developed by a partnership led by Durham
County Council including Sedgefield Borough Council,
One NorthEast and all 5 regional universities.
Management and promotion of NETPark is in the hands
of County Durham Development Company, Durham
County Council’s inward investment arm. Helios City
is the preferred developer for Phase 1.
For more information, visit www.uknetpark.net or
email netpark@wherebusinessgrows.com

The Innovation Village will also commence
this year. 5 bespoke R&D pods for growing
and/or investing companies, developed by
Helios City. The total size will be 2500 sq m -
units in multiples of 250 sq m
This year NETPark will be the fastest-growing science park in the UK.
Construction of the Printable Electronics Technology Centre (PETEC) is now complete.
A 3,000 sq m national flagship facility for the development and exploitation of direct write
technologies and flexible functional materials (FFM); revolutionary technology that
Phase 2 of the NETPark
independent forecasts predict will be a $16 billion industry by 2015. Managed by CPI, the
Incubator is on schedule. Total
centre is 1 of only 4 currently being built in the world.
projected size 2252 sq m, funded
by Durham County Council, One
NorthEast and ERDF.
23
25
REVOLUTIONISING
THE LIGHTING
INDUSTRY
Eighteen months ago, Dr Geoff Williams and his team
embarked on a major project to revolutionise the
lighting industry. Mike Parker discovers that halfway
through the three-year investigation, things are hotting
up.
THE scientific world is littered with the debris of great
races to plant the first flag in a particular technological
revolution. For every VHS, there is a Betamax. The
successors have lived on in our daily lives, the losers
become but a distant memory.
In the lighting industry, just such a technological battle is
shaping up that will have a profound impact on the way
we illuminate our lives. Two giants of the market, Philips
and Zumtobel, are battling head-to-head to produce next
generation light sources – and they are using very
different methods to meet that end goal.
Dr Geoff Williams of Thorn Lighting, a subsidiary of
Zumtobel, is the creator and leader of Project Topless
(Thin Organic Polymeric Light Emitting Semiconductor
Surfaces) which is producing a single polymeric material
that will emit white light.
In layman’s terms, it is an ultra-thin sheet of plastic
topped with a conductive layer that is 1/2000th the width
of a human hair which, when electricity is passed through
it, is capable of producing light similar to sunlight.
Thorn, based in Spennymoor, County Durham, is the
UK’s largest lighting manufacturer and Dr Williams has
teamed up with photonics research experts from Durham
University and Sumation, a joint venture between
Cambridge Design Technologies and Japanese company
Sumitomo.
The competition, led by Philips, is a 20-strong
collaborative group working on the OLLA (Organic LED
technology for Lighting Applications) project.
Where Topless aims to produce a single layer solution,
OLLA is more complicated and uses small molecules in
multi-layer structures. The former uses relatively simple
printing technology, whilst the Philips version requires
molecules be deposited under high vacuum.
Topless started behind OLLA but has since eclipsed it in
quality of light produced. Dr Williams says: “Topless is
performing extremely well. We didn’t have a single white
light-emitting polymer when we started and over the last
18 months we have developed a high-quality single light-
emitting polymer with an output efficiency of 15-16
lumens/watt and that is without outcoupling (optimising
the efficient extraction of light from the device).
“Our materials are eminently exploitable and can
compete on a like-for-like basis with any other product at
this time. Nothing in the OLLA project has given us
cause for concern.”
As with all emerging technologies, the ability to turn
exciting laboratory developments in to commercially-
viable products is the key. It has to be reliable, scalable
and produced at a price consumers are prepared to pay.
Topless is now at the stage where it is ready to start
stepping out of the lab and into the manufacturing plant,
but this may take a little while to happen. Dr Williams
explains: “Unfortunately, we do not yet have the
capability to do small volume manufacturing production
at this time. But, this will soon change – watch this
space!
“It really is an exciting time in this technology platform
and it is equally exciting for County Durham. There is
nothing like this in the northern hemisphere and you
would be hard pushed to see it in the Far East either. It is
a unique technology business opportunity.”
Efforts to begin small-scale manufacturing have been
greatly helped by the completion of the Printable
Electronics Technology Centre (PETEC) at the North East
Technology Park (NETPark). The £9.5M facility is one of
only four centres worldwide with the capability to provide
prototype manufacturing for printable electronics. It is also
a significant reason for Zumtobel investing in the Thorn
and Topless project in County Durham, having previously
considered moving operations to Eastern Europe.
One of the first tenants at PETEC is a company called
PolyPhotonix which has already enlisted Dr Williams as a
scientific adviser. Once established, it will be in a position
to start the prototyping process.
Dr Williams explains: “PolyPhotonix will effectively build a
25cm light emitting panel
pilot manufacturing line to demonstrate the scale-up
capability of Topless out of the research laboratory and in
to a manufacturing environment. It won’t have the ability
to produce high volume but it will have the ability to de-
risk the technology for the next stage which will be high
volume manufacturing.”
In terms of volume, PolyPhotonix will be looking to
produce between 3,000 to 6,000 square metres of solid
state lighting a year. This production is expected to
multiply exponentially to three to six million square metres
a year in high volume production. Dr Williams anticipates
production will start within the next 12 months and
expects high-volume manufacturing to be a possibility by
the start of 2011.
In addition to plans to begin small-scale manufacturing,
Dr Williams’s team is also looking at alternative metals
that it can use to replace indium tin oxide, a transparent
conductive coating used in displays and other
applications that is becoming an increasingly scarce
resource. Project Topless is working with glass
manufacturer Pilkington to discover alternative metals
that will give enhanced performance.
For a man that is North East born and bred, the
technological innovation that is occurring 30 miles from
the place where Joseph Swan first demonstrated his
electric lightbulb is deeply satisfying for Dr Williams.
He says: “We are bringing a high-tech manufacturing
base into a region which has a strong heritage in this
area. We are basically turning the wheel. Instead of
manufacturing going offshore to low wage countries
there is an opportunity to set up successful new
manufacturing technologies here in the UK.”
Despite Project Topless being only halfway through its
three-year lifespan, Dr Williams is already having to
consider the next phase and where to secure funding.
Fifty per cent of the funding for the current progamme
was secured under the Department of Trade and
Industry (DTI) Technology Programme which invests
directly in new and emerging technologies and has been
designed to help businesses work collaboratively with
academic partners. He is hopeful that the board can be
persuaded to invest further in taking the technology the
extra step necessary to make it truly commercially viable.
Dr Williams is also working closely with the likes of the
County Durham Development Company (CDDC) – which
manages NETPark on behalf of Durham County Council
- and CPI.
2
Durham’s laser laboratory
There is a strong argument for such investment.
The environment has become a main staple of the political
agenda rather than the fringe issue it once was. Artificial
lighting accounts for between 20-25% of all electricity
consumption and the work Topless is doing on
conduction has the ability to reduce that consumption by
tenfold – dropping the amount of energy consumed by
lighting to a mere 2% working off a simple DC battery.
Furthermore, it is incredibly long-lasting and a single
kilogram of active material is capable of coating ten million
square metres of device.
The overall environmental impact of this is clear. Not only will
it reduce energy consumption, it will also reduce waste, cut
packaging and shrink the carbon footprint of companies.
Running alongside Topless is another significant research
project. A coalition between Thorn, DuPont Teijin Films
and the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) is working on
a near £1m experiment to develop polyester film with a
protective cover capable of commercialisation. ENTALS –
or Encapsulated Technologies for Advanced Lighting
Systems – is another three-year project that will
compliment work carried out under Project Topless.
All told, the technological advances being made in County
Durham are setting pulses racing for experts in the field.
The added frisson of competition only heightens that
excitement.
It is too early yet to tell which technology will be the
winner - or, for that matter, if only one will win out.
However, it is fair to say that Project Topless is in
incredible shape and, with the regional support and world-
leading developments such as PETEC, it is on course to
transform the way we light our lives in the future.
27
USING INTELLECTUAL
PROPERTY TO HELP
YOU SURVIVE
DIFFICULT TIMES
Scarcely a day passes without another press report
containing bad news about the state of the economy.
The current difficult situation presents challenges for
companies developing new technological products, in
addition to those faced by any business.
Regardless of the level of confidence in the economy,
companies developing new technology are subject to the
cost of raw materials and labour, and must often face
competition from companies based in countries where
labour costs are significantly less than in the UK. In
addition, significant managerial and financial resources
need to be committed to research and development. The
recent increases in the cost of raw materials and energy,
and the increased difficulty of obtaining finance will have
made it more difficult for many such companies to
compete. On top of this, reduced consumer confidence
can have the effect of reducing the number of available
customers, who may also be targeted by competitors.
What can such companies do to help get through the
present economic difficulties? One way is to develop new
and innovative technology and to use the intellectual
property system to protect that technology from
competition.
This is all fine in theory, but obtaining the necessary
intellectual property rights to enforce against a competitor
inevitably involves cost, and any additional cost is
unwelcome in the present climate. Worse still, failure to
protect new products could have serious consequences
when customer confidence recovers. Here we present
some tips on how to use the patent system more cost
effectively to try to avoid this.
The following relates to patents, since these offer the most
valuable form of intellectual property protection for
companies developing technical products, because they
protect inventions which consist of technical improvements
over the prior art. Other intellectual property rights such as
copyright, unregistered design right, trade marks,
registered designs and know-how may also be useful to
companies developing technical products, but these are
generally of most use in addition to, rather than instead of,
patents, and therefore are not discussed in detail here.
It is fair to say that in the process of instructing a patent
attorney to prepare an application for a patent, most of the
cost is represented by the patent attorney’s time in drafting
the patent application. It follows that if some of the
attorney’s time can be saved, then cost savings should
follow. Here are some cost-free steps you can take before
instructing a patent attorney which should result in
significant cost savings when applying for patents.
1. Do your own prior art search
In order to be patentable, an invention must be new
compared with anything made available to the public,
anywhere in the world, before the date of applying for a
patent. Information made available to the public in this way
is known as prior art. Often, companies apply for patents
before carrying out a search to determine whether their
inventions are new, mainly in order to prevent the time
taken to do a search from delaying the filing of the patent
application. The UK Intellectual Property Office or the
European Patent Office will carry out a prior art search after
the patent application has been filed. If the invention is then
shown not to be new, the cost of preparing and filing the
patent application has been wasted.
The risk of wasting resources in this way can be reduced,
by carrying out your own prior art search on one of the
excellent free databases available, such as Espacenet
provided by the European Patent Office
(http://ep.espacenet.com), or the search database of the
US Patent and Trademark Office (http://patft.uspto.gov/). A
search carried out in this way is less likely to find relevant
prior art than one carried out by a firm of full time
searchers, but you may find the piece of prior art which will
prevent you obtaining a patent before you have spent
valuable resources on applying.
In practice, a prior art search will show that an invention is
not new if it produces a single document disclosing all of
the features of your invention. If no single document
showing all of the features of your invention is located, then
the invention is, as far as you are aware, new.
2. Consider whether your invention is inventive
As well as being new, an invention must involve an
inventive step in order to be patentable. This means that
the invention must not be obvious to a person skilled in the
art, when compared with the single most relevant item of
prior art. Let us suppose that you carry out a prior art
search using one of the free databases mentioned above
and find one or more documents which describe some,
but not all, of the features of your invention, and which are
more relevant than the prior art of which you were aware
before you did the search. Your invention must not be
obvious to the skilled person, when compared to the single
most relevant of these documents.
PROFILE: MARTIN VINSOME
Martin Vinsome is a Chartered Patent Attorney and European Patent Attorney. UDL is one
of the UK’s largest firms of patent attorneys with offices in Newcastle, Leeds,
Peterborough, Milton Keynes, Cardiff and London, with 3 qualified UK and European
patent attorneys, together with technical support staff, permanently based in our
Newcastle office. We are happy to provide an initial consultation in intellectual property
matters free of charge.
By considering whether your invention involves an inventive
step, using the same method used by the European Patent
Office when it examines patent applications, you can better
decide whether it is worth committing funds to applying for
a patent. The method works as follows.
Compare your invention with the most relevant single item
of prior art of which you are aware, and identify what
advantages the new features of your invention provide over
that single most relevant piece of prior art. These
advantages can be thought of as solutions to a technical
problem in the closest prior art. This problem may be
completely different from the problem you actually solved in
devising the invention, since you may have been unaware
of the closest prior art identified in the search.
If a person skilled in your technical field were to try to solve
this technical problem with the closest prior art, would it be
obvious to that person to solve the problem in the same
way as your invention? If you are unable to think of a
plausible reason why not, then this may prevent you from
obtaining patent protection. Bear in mind whether the
potentially inventive features will be present in the product
you intend to sell, otherwise you may be spending valuable
resources on protection which might not be enforceable
against your competitors. By considering this problem
before a patent application is filed, unnecessary costs can
be avoided. Although you should not base a decision
whether a patent application is to be filed entirely on this
analysis, it will give you a useful basis to seek advice from a
patent attorney, and will save considerable amounts of time
and money. It should also provide you with a useful tool in
identifying potentially patentable inventions as soon as
possible as they are developed.
You should bear in mind that it is possible that the
examiner in the UK Intellectual Property Office or the
European Patent Office may find more relevant prior art
than that on which your analysis of inventiveness is based
– after all, the examiner does searches like this all day,
every day. However, doing your own search in step 1 and
inventive step analysis in step 2 may prevent you from
wasting money.
3. Prepare a detailed description of the invention to
assist the patent attorney
A patent application must contain a description of at least
one example of the invention in sufficient detail to enable a
person skilled in the art to put the invention into effect.
Nobody is in a better position than you to prepare this,
since you invented the product and know it better than
anyone else.
If it appears that your invention may be new and inventive,
and you decide to apply for a patent, prepare a detailed
description of your invention or prototype, explaining what
the advantages of the various features are. By way of
illustration, the drafting paper of the qualifying examinations
of the UK Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys tests
whether candidates can draft claims to protect an invention
by providing an idealised detailed description of a product,
usually with a letter from a fictitious client containing various
traps for the unwary. In other words, it is assumed that
steps 1, 2 and 3 have already been carried out, and the
examination candidate is provided with the task of drafting
claims, and completing the application based on your
detailed description.
As is to be expected, real life is usually very different! Often,
step 1 is not carried out at all before the patent application
is filed, and step 2 (on the basis of the available
information) is carried out at an initial meeting with the
patent attorney, who then asks for step 3 in order to
prepare the patent application. By carrying out steps 1 to 3
yourself, you can assist the patent attorney enormously
and save considerable costs.
4. Do not try to write the claims
Let the patent attorney do this. Your time is more valuably
spent preparing the detailed description of the invention.
Carrying out steps 1 to 3 above before you consult a
patent attorney will almost certainly save costs by enabling
you to identify which inventions are more likely to be
protectable, and is generally a good practice to help you
keep track of technical developments within your company.
This will enable you to either reduce your patent budget or
use it to maximum effect.
This information is provided for guidance only and does not
deal with specific problems. For more information, please
contact:
UDL, Cale Cross House, Pilgrim Street,
Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 6SU
Tel: 0191 261 8573
Fax: 0191 222 1604
newcastle@udl.co.uk
www.udl.co.uk
29
LATEST
HEADLINES
■ The UK Parliament Select Committee for Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills for plastic electronics
engineering has been advised by Sir David King, the government's former chief scientific advisor, that the
government must "back to the hilt" British investment in plastic electronics engineering.
■ The Joint Submission to the Committee from the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills and the Department for
Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform observes:
“The Plastic Electronics Technology Centre (PETEC) is being established at Sedgefield as a national prototyping
operation, providing world class facilities and services to a UK-wide network in plastic electronics. PETEC will be
developing manufacturing processes compatible with preproduction volumes, when fully functional later in 2008, and,
as such, be able to help bridge the gap between the small scale laboratory demonstrators and high-volume
production runs required for marketable products. The Centre should be very beneficial to small companies looking to
develop products based on plastic electronics.”
■ NanoMarkets, an industry analyst firm, estimates the market for printable electronics will be worth over $7 billion in
2010 driven by demand for printable displays, RFID, photovoltaics, computer memory and other printable products.
■ A research group in Europe has taken a major step towards the goal of developing printable electronics that can be
used for creating RFID tags. Researchers in the EU-funded CONTACT project have demonstrated that with suitable
inks and printers, organic liquid crystal displays and other optical electronic devices can be printed out precisely.
■ In July, Science Daily reported that market analysts are predicting a 10 fold increase in the value of the organic light
emitting display industry, from £1.5 billion to £15.5 billion, by 2014. Scientists and governments alike are keen to
advance research into "plastic electronics" breakthrough materials that have potential applications such as electronic
billboards, flexible laptops, and high-definition television screens only one centimetre thick. Other exciting
developments are likely to be in the field of bionics, including the development of materials sensitive but flexible
enough to replicate skin, which could be used by robots in situations where a sense of touch is crucial.
■ Also in July, Gizmag reported that the addition of new printers to the PE industry's installed base will boost its
manufacturing capacity from negligible amounts today to around 400 million square metres by the end of 2013,
sufficient to produce almost $40 billion in printed electronics products.

STOP PRESS!! DURHAM OUTPERFORMS NASA AND HARVARD

THE TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION

RECENTLY LOOKED AT THE 'HEAVY
HITTERS' IN SPACE SCIENCE OVER THE
LAST 10 YEARS AND RATED DURHAM
UNIVERSITY NUMBER 1 IN EUROPE AND
NUMBER 4 IN THE WORLD.
 Ceremony & Dinner
The North East’s premier healthcare business awards
Hilton Newcastle Gateshead
Thursday 4th December 2008

CELEBRATING THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF NORTH

EAST ENGLAND’S HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY
Nominations are now open for this year’s awards, which promise to
be another entertaining celebration of the region’s success.

At last year’s inaugural awards ceremony,
300 of the region’s healthcare leaders
gathered to witness and celebrate the
success of regional healthcare companies.
Wendy Gibson, a familiar face in the
North East who has presented BBC Look North
for a number of years, led the evening’s proceedings as she
will again at this year’s awards ceremony, and Alan Hinkes
OBE entertained and inspired with stories of his expeditions
scaling the world’s highest peaks.
Chris Ryan is confirmed as after dinner speaker!
Native Geordie Chris is now a leading best
selling author. An SAS hero, Chris holds the
British Military record for a solo escape from
behind enemy lines, when in 1991 he
travelled 200 miles from Iraq to Syria. His
journey took eight days with no food and practically no water,
after the infamous Bravo Two Zero mission was compromised.
Chris featured in his own TV series on the BBC, "Hunting
Chris Ryan," and is an inspirational and entertaining speaker

The Business for Life Awards 2008 consists of five different categories:

■ Innovation Award, sponsored by NHS ■ Start-up Award, sponsored by

Innovations North
For the development of an innovative technology,
design and/or process that has produced a major
improvement in business performance, end user
and/or patient benefit
■ Export Achievement Award, sponsored by
UKTI
For maximising opportunities to exploit and
develop new market and/or outstanding
performance in other areas of international trade
Murgitroyd & Co
For newly established companies in the healthcare
sector that show a promising future
■ Outstanding Growth Award, sponsored by
Sintons Solicitors
For consistent, sustainable and profitable growth
in the sector
■ Partnership with the NHS Award, sponsored
by the North East Strategic Health Authority
For the development of a partnership in
collaboration with the NHS that has/will have
major impact/benefit.

Closing date for nominations is Friday 17th October 2008. Winners will be revealed at a high profile awards
ceremony on Thursday 4th December 2008 at the prestigious Hilton Newcastle Gateshead.

Book your tickets now or book a table of 10 for £500 + VAT, or book a table of 10 at the reduced rate of £500 + VAT
To nominate your company and book your place at the awards ceremony visit
www.celsatlife.com/awards
SOLUTIONS IN OIL
FILTRATION
Established in the UK in May 1990, C.C. Jensen Ltd is
dedicated to maintaining clean oil in hydraulic,
lubrication, fuel, thermal and quench oil systems to
minimise plant maintenance costs and maximise plant
life and performance.
C.C. Jensen Ltd specialises in the sale and distribution
to the UK market place of products manufactured by
their parent company. The parent company C.C. Jensen
A/S manufactures oil purification and oil management
systems at their head office in Svedborg, Denmark.
To complement their range of CJC Filtration Equipment,
C.C. Jensen Ltd can provide a comprehensive support
service in oil maintenance to ensure that all of their
customers can achieve optimum benefits from
maintaining clean oil systems. The service provides a free
initial survey, can include oil analysis, interpretation and
recommendations for oil maintenance solutions.
C.C. Jensen A/S, which was established 54 years ago,
is dedicated to the protection of the environment, with all
of the CJC Filter Inserts manufactured being
environmentally friendly. General UK Sales and Services
Manager, Bryan Holden, said “We offer environmental
benefits. We maintain the fluid in the customer’s oil
system so they don’t have to dispose of it. An additional
very important benefit is prolonged component life. The
filters that we manufacture are all made from earthborn
products, for example cellulose and cotton. There is no
plastic or steel in the filter inserts. We have a really
environmentally friendly product.”
The CJC Filters can simultaneously remove all
contaminants from the oil, whether it is water, particles,
oxidation, acidity or any other component that is not
wanted in oil. By removing these contaminants, C.C.
Jensen’s customers are able to operate their systems
more efficiently. Bryan Holden said “Our competitors will
often remove only one contaminant with one piece of
equipment, then another contaminant with another piece
of equipment, where we can do it all simultaneously.”
C.C. Jensen Ltd offers a range of CJC Filters, which are
designed for off-line filtration, each with its own
circulating pump and motor. All the CJC Filters provide
ultra fine 3 µm filtration with very high dirt holding
capacity and water absorption or separation. All CJC
Filter units can be supplied as fixed installations or as
mobile units.
C.C. Jensen Ltd has 4 main product lines:
CJC Fine Filters
Remove particles, absorb oxidation and absorb water.
CJC Filter Separators
Remove particles, absorb water and separate water
(continuously)
CJC Desorbers
Remove water from emulsified oils (can be combined
with filtration)
CJC Vacuum Filters
Remove oxygen, moisture acids and particles from
transformer fluids
C.C. Jensen Ltd is also a member of the Institute of
Diesel and Gas Turbine Engineers, a professional body
that serves the interests of members and promotes the
sharing of knowledge of diesel engine and gas turbine
technology, with special emphasis on users.
Bryan Holden said “We are currently concentrating on a
couple of new areas, which include oxidation removal
from gas turbines and also landfill gas filtration. These
are two areas where we have decided that some of our
staff should focus, which is also why we became a part
of this association. We also have a dedicated person
focusing on heat treatment quench oil systems and
thermal oil systems.”
For the past five years, C.C. Jensen Ltd has been
actively involved in the Wind Turbine Industry and very
forward-thinking with regards to renewable energy and
power generation. The company supplies the CJC
Filtration systems for the wind turbine gear boxes and
also the pitch hydraulics.
At the moment, C.C. Jensen Ltd, whose UK head office
is in County Durham, is currently going through an
expansion, with new staff being brought in to cover all of
the company’s operations in Scotland. Also, some time
in the future, more staff will be introduced to expand
operations in the South of England. It is this continuous
expansion that has made CJC one of the leading
companies in the industry.
For more information on CJC or any of its products visit
www.ccjensen.co.uk, email filtration@cjcuk.co.uk,
telephone 01388 420721 or fax 01388 420718.
Final word
LEARNING TO BE FLEXIBLE FRIENDLY

Thinking about printable electronics calls to mind the television advert

for a certain credit card that ran a number of years back.

The strap line that accompanied a cute cartoon graphic was that the
card was your ‘flexible friend’.

Standing on the brink of the revolutionary flexible functional materials

that printable electronics has the potential to create – a potential fully
explored in this issue of NETWorks – it’s easy to see that new materials
and new products can be our new ‘flexible friends’.

We need to embrace these friends and make the mental leap from
thinking about plastic as the material of garden furniture, children’s toys
and plumbing accessories to the world of "smart" electronic devices
such as electronic newspapers, flexible laptops, high-definition television
screens only one centimetre thick, identification tags, programmable
credit cards ...

This month’s editor’s letter has already referred to the ‘spirit of

innovation’ that is alive in our region and the national and international
significance of PETEC has been made abundantly clear by Bob Coxon.
With innovation, design flair and infrastructure in place, the region can
develop new materials and products that will have a huge impact on the
way we live.

And that will also have huge implications for the world we inhabit.
Lighter, thinner, more efficient materials that can actually bring down
manufacturing costs and save energy – helping the UK meet its
challenging environmental emissions targets.

And then there are the healthcare benefits. Simpler, faster diagnostics
and clothes that monitor your health. It brings a whole new meaning to
the phrase ‘you are what you wear’.

Smart technology. And the smartest thing of all is the fact that the North
East is leading the world in this new technology.

Stewart Watkins
Managing Director
County Durham Development Company