Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/357479
24 SMT Magazine • August 2014 what might be next for the printed electronics industry. With hopes of forgiveness for a quick digres- sion and for those who might be unfamiliar with the ancient story, the phoenix is a mythi- cal bird having a multi-century lifecycle. As it nears the end of its expected life, the phoenix builds itself a nest that it then causes to ignite and the bird is reduced to ashes, from which a newborn phoenix arises to live again and repeat the cycle. It is like world history, which is, for better or worse (and too often for the worse), also cyclic. In fact, George Santayana warned that those who will not learn from history are PRINtED ELECtRONICs IN PERsPECtIVE continues FEaTuRE of a printed transistor in roll-to-roll fashion by Westinghouse as evidenced by Figure 1. This does not in any way impugn or dimin- ish the important improvements that have been made in recent years in the field now called "printed electronics." The advancements are impressive, but there are limits to where and how printed electronics can be used, which will be discussed in more detail shortly. But to con- clude the thought relative to how printed elec- tronics might be better viewed one that is resur- gent rather than new, one might consider the myth of The Phoenix. That myth came to mind while the author was pondering the origins and Figure 1: The november 1968 issue of popular Science predicted the rise of printed electronics. The article opens with the following paragraph: "Someday soon you may be able to buy a pad of operating electronic circuits the way you now buy a pad of paper. On the pages will be printed amplifiers, radio receiv- ers, computer circuitry, oscillators—anything you can name. They will be so inexpensive, you will be able to tear them out, use them and junk them."