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30 The PCB Magazine • August 2014 automotive applications with printed pressure sensors on flexible substrates and Si chip; smart textiles combining printed conductive paths on garments with Si sensors and electronics. New Production and Assembly Technologies Needed Hybrid applications afford special demands on the assembly technique. To assemble the chip and connect it to a flexible substrate in a confined space, special know-how and high pre- cision are required. Today, several components such as sensors or displays are printed onto dif- ferent substrates in a first step. In a second step, they are assembled and interconnected on a flexible circuit board. In the future, more and more components will be printed directly on one flexible substrate in subsequent production steps. Since the substrate is flexible, the inter- connections need to withstand more extreme conditions than those found on rigid boards. New high-throughput assembly and intercon- nection technologies are under development. The OE-A is supporting and fostering the trend towards hybrid systems by setting up a working group dedicated specifically to this topic. OE-A members along the whole supply chain—from material suppliers to end-users— are working together to provide an overview on available technologies and applications. The group is also identifying gaps in the process chain. By staying in close contact with end us- ers, the working group is developing concepts to overcome these hurdles. PCB HyBRID SySTEMS FOR ORGANIC AND PRINTED ELECTRONICS continues About OE-A: the oe-a (organic and Printed electron- ics association) was founded in december 2004 and is the leading international industry association for organic and printed electronics. Members are world-class global companies and institutions, ranging from r&d institutes, component and material suppliers to produc- ers and end users. More than 220 companies from europe, north america, asia and austra- lia are working together to promote the es- tablishment of a competitive production infra- structure for organic and printed electronics. the vision of the oe-a is to build a bridge between science, technology and application. the oe-a is a working group within the german engineer- ing federation (VdMa). for more information, visit: www.oe-a.org, www.lopec.com. figure 4: this hybrid smart blister pack and an additional smartphone app support patients in taking their medicine. (source: holst centre)