Guest Editorial Organic/Printed Electronics: A Circuits and Systems Perspective

The impetus for Organic/Printed Electronics is both compelling and exigent – the creation of intelligent lightweight electronics based on cheap abundant materials and printed by simple ubiquitous printing processes, and integrated into new ways to exploit its mechanically flexible form-factor. The desirable attributes include Low-Cost (cost in terms of cents, hence disposable), Green (environmentally friendly and non-corrosive chemicals and low wastage), On-demand (print quickly where production time goes from months/weeks to minutes, print anywhere and print anytime), Scalable (large-area large-format printing, e.g., wallpaper, high throughput printing, etc.), ‘Intelligent’ (embodying analog, digital and mixed-signal processing), Low-Power (low voltage, low current and operable with intermittent and noisy power supplies), and Mechanical Flexibility (printable on flexible substrates such as plastic films, etc.) such that the substrate can be molded or bent to fit in odd and uneven spaces, adhered to curvilinear surfaces, conformable, bendable, rollable, etc. Ideally, it is akin to a low-cost, green, print anywhere, on-demand, and scalable graphics-based ‘printing press’ to print electronics.