Below is a basic summary of technologies that integrate electronics into next level Class A or other surfaces including inkjet electronics.

Kendy Mold Industrial Limited are providing injection molding 453products to Automotive and have progressed to molded in electronic connectors.

Holst Centre’s in-mold electronics (IME) technology functional demonstrator for intuitive human-machine interfaces, based on the in-mold electronics (IME) features a mobile phone storage454 space with integrated NFC connectivity and touch controls illuminated by flexible OLEDs. Light and conformal, IME technology integrates all this functionality directly into a 3D plastic surface just 1.5 mm thick using materials suppliers like DuPont (who provide the key enabling thermoformable electronic inks and pastes). DuPont Electronics & Communications and Holst Centre have extended (for the third time) their long-term research collaboration.

Fraunhofer IZM’s research Textile-integrated Electronics 455integrating electronic components, textiles can be enhanced with many different functions such as sensors and lighting has developed new application areas for textiles. group System-on-Flex has been developing, analyzing and qualifying textile-based electronic systems for over ten years.

Printing of 3D Electronic Circuits instant inkjet circuits’ as per Mark Tyson (Hexus) new technique developed by various research institutes enables quick and cheap printing of electrical circuits. Using conductive silver nanoparticle ink circuits could be printed upon materials such as PET film, glossy photo paper and resin coated paper.

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In related news, a Kickstarter project for a 3D circuit board printer called Cartesian EX1 3D circuit board printer allows you to 3D print circuit boards, layering silver nanoparticles onto paper or any suitable surface to rapidly create a circuit board.

Per MIT Technology Review new innovations allows you to print electronic circuits on any surface using a desktop printer as multiple conducting inks are available.

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On another note, Per Jing Liu and pals at the Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry in Beijing magic sauce is a liquid metal: an alloy of gallium and indium which is liquid at room temperature. They simply pump it through an inkjet printer to create a fine spray of liquid metal droplets that settle onto the substrate.

The droplets rapidly oxidize as the travel through the air and this oxide forms a surface layer on each drop that prevents further oxidization. That’s handy because the liquid metal itself does not easily adhere to the substrates. But the metal oxides do and this is the reason, say Jing and co, that the circuits adhere so well to a wide range of surfaces.

Touch-sensitive displays and surfaces for Automotive and other 458applications as developed by nanotechnology company Canatu. Their films are stretchable, conductive, and formable, which means they can be used to add touch sensors to areas where physical buttons or controls would be difficult to place – on wristbands, for example. The sensors can be repeatedly flexed or bent across tight curves without any 459significant effect on their electrical conductivity, and the sensors can detect up to 10 touches simultaneously. They now have CNB film in 2013, is launching a touch-responsive film that can be stretched to cover virtually any 3D shape.

Some platforms, such as http://www.printoo.pt/ have embraced flexible electronics for affordable 3D printing as shown here.

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