The opening session of LOPEC 2023, organized by the OE-A, opens today at Messe Munich, with a host of presentations as well as a busy exhibit hall. New technologies will be the highlight, as speakers will focus on a range of topics, including healthcare and biomedical applications, flexible and large-area displays, lighting, energy, smart textiles, the Circular Economy and 3D structural electronics.

Meanwhile, the scientific sessions will look at applications for flexible materials, strategic devices, optical devices, thermal devices and materials for inks.

The March 1 Plenary Session will include:
• LOPEC general chair Wolfgang Mildner, founder and CEO of MSW.
• Dr. Corrado Rocca, Pirelli Tyre – “Smart Tyres: key enabler of modern mobility”
• Max Morwind, Microsoft Deutschland GmbH – “Industrial Metaverse – AI supports maintenance with the help of spot robots”
• Prof. Antonio Facchetti, Flexterra Inc. – “Unconventional materials and platforms for flexible/stretchable electronic devices”

The Technical Conference features eight sessions on two concurrent tracks.

Dr. Giorgio C. Mutinati, senior research engineer/project manager for AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH, will chair the Biomedical and Healthcare Applications session of the Technical Conference. The speakers there will be Prof. Dr. Fabiana Arduini, professor, Tor Vergata University and CEO SENSE4MED; Dr. Eva Melnik, scientist at AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH; Dr. Felix Kurth, group leader, CSEM; and Herbert Gold, senior scientist, Joanneum Research Forschungsgesellschaft mbH.

Edzer Huitema, CTO with E Ink Corporation, will lead the Flexible and Large-Area Displays session, with talks by Dr. Stella Clarke, engineer, BMW Group; Dr. Clinton Braganza, R&D manager, principal scientist, Kent Displays Inc.; Prof. Kei Hyodo, professor of industry relations, Yamagata University; and Prof. Dr. Jukka Vanhala, professor, Tampere University.

Marina Toeters, designer in fashion technology for by-wire.net, will head the Smart Textiles session, with talks by Dr. Marie O’Mahony, smart textiles consultant, O’Mahony Consultancy; Reon Smits, CTO and co-founder, Mentech Innovation B.V.; and Dr. Torsten Lund-Olesen, senior scientist, Danish Technological Institute.

Dr. Mahmoud Ameen, program manager, thin films for energy with TNO, will head up the Energy session.
The session on Energy will feature talks by Dr. Paul Poodt, CTO of SparkNano; Donia Fredj, R&D engineer, Dracula Technologies; Dr. Thomas Kraft, senior scientist, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd.; and Kevin Rodrigues, researcher, CeNTI – Centre for Nanotechnology and Smart Materials.

There will be two sessions on Circular Economy and Green Electronics, chaired by Jérôme Gavillet, EU programs manager, CEA. The first session will feature Dr. Lionel Tenchine, R&D program manager, IPC – Centre Technique Industriel de la Plasturgie et des Composites.

The second session will have talks by Dr. Kai Kriegel, senior key expert engineer, Siemens AG, and Dr. Chloé Bois, GM – NSERC industrial research chair for colleges in functional printed applications, ICI – Printability and Graphic Communications Institute.

Peter Bancken, scientist light sources and materials with Signify, will lead the Lighting session, with talks by Annika Gambke, research associate, TITV e. V.; Aliaa Hassan, R&D scientist, AIMPLAS; and Dr. Enno Henze, chief sales officer, Plasma Innovations GmbH.

3D Structural Electronics will be moderated by Prof. Dr. Jörg Franke, professor at Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, and will feature talks by Konstantin Lomakin, CTO/CEO | Golden Devices GmbH; Dr. Philippe Lombard, maître de conferences, Laboratoire Ampère; Dr. Darragh Walsh, technical lead, emerging printing technologies team, Holst Centre – TNO; Rafael Del Rey, head of application management, Nano Dimension GmbH; and Rahul Raut, global portfolio manager, flexible, formable & printed electronics, Alpha Assembly Solutions.

The Scientific Conference will feature six sessions.

Dr. Chloé Bois, GM, NSERC industrial research chair for colleges in functional printed applications,
ICI – Printability and Graphic Communications Institute, will chair the Applications for Flexible Materials session, which will include talks by Nanomatch GmbH CEO Dr. Tobias Neumann; Dr. Natália Homem, researcher, Digital Transformation CoLab – DTx; Esma Ismailova, associate professor, EMSE/CMP; and Dr. Olivier Chételat, group leader of electronics, CSEM.

Dr. Bertrand Fillon, VP of European affairs, CEA Commissariat à l’Energie atomique et énergies alternatives, will head the session on Strategic Devices: From Bioelectronics to Photovoltaics. Speakers include Prof. Fabrizio Torricelli, professor, University of Brescia; Dr. Pascal Kaienburg, postdoc fellow, University of Oxford; Dr. Sarah-Jane Potts, technology transfer fellow, Swansea University; and Dr. Maxime Wawrzyniak, innovation project manager, ADDEVMaterials.

Prof. Luisa Torsi, professor, University of Bari, will moderate the session on Optical Devices for Organic Electronics. This session includes talks by Prof. Paul Blom, director, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research; Dieter Nees, Joanneum Research Forschungsgesellschaft mbH; Dr. Karolis Virzbickas, research fellow, University of Birmingham; and Zhao Fu, doctoral researcher, Tampere University.

Flexterra Inc. CTO Antonio Facchetti will lead the session on Electronics Thermal Devices I. Presenters will include Laura Morelli, PhD student, Ecole Technology Superiure (ÉTS); Arjun Wadhwa, PhD student, Ecole Technology Superiure; and Dr. Mani Teja Vijjapu, scientist, Silicon Austria Labs.

Tampere University professor Donald Lupo will lead the session on Electronics Thermal Devices II. Presentations will be given by Hamed Pourkheirollah, PhD researcher, Tampere University; Matin Forouzmehr, PhD researcher, Tampere University; Gianvito Romano, MSc, University of Vienna [CHARISMA2020]; Fabio A. S. Leite, PhD student, Ynvisible Gmbh; and Paria Naderi, PhD candidate, York University.

Dr. Henning Richter, VP, R&D, Nano-C, Inc., will chair the session on Materials for Inks. Speakers will include Nihesh Mohan, research associate, Technische hochschule Ingolstadt; David van Impelen, PhD student, Institute of New Materials (INM); Dr. Christian Rein, product manager, Danish Technological Institute; Ezgi Inci Yesilyurt, PhD student, Leibniz-Institut für Polymerforschung Dresden; and Senentxu Lanceros-Méndez, Ikerbasque professor, BCMaterials.

Afterward, there will be a Technical Conference and Scientific Conference Poster Session and the LOPEC Dinner & Award Show.