PETEC is a UK national flagship centre at NETPark for the development of printable electronics technologies. These are revolutionary technologies that independent forecasts predict will be a £16 billion industry by 2015, and a field in which the UK is one of the internationally pre-eminent innovators.

The application of printable electronics include the next generation of thin flexible display monitors and televisions, the development of low energy organic lighting, low cost flexible solar cells and even disposable small-scale technology for children's toys and medical devices.

The PETEC Centre provides 3,000 m² of cleanroom and laboratory space that will house an impressive range of equipment and staff. The Centre has access to capabilities around substrate preparation, materials formulation, device modelling, process development and process integration using advanced printing techniques such as inkjet, screen printing or web-based printing. These skills can be used to enable companies to reduce the risks around developing production ready processes through prototyping and scale-up to low volume manufacture. The result will be to allow the creation of cost-effective electronic devices of far greater sizes and at lower cost than has been feasible to date.

The range of applications for these technologies is extremely broad, but PETEC, in response to industry interest, is initially focusing on displays, photovoltaics, lighting and medical sensors.

The Centre provides the printable electronics community with the physical, intellectual and commercial infrastructure required to take new ideas and concepts for products, that will have flexible functional materials at their heart, and accelerate the move from the lab to production. There is currently no such equivalent facility in the world.

Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) manages PETEC at NETPark.  Partners include Durham County Council, County Durham Development Company, County Durham Economic Partnership, One North East, The Northern Way, DBERR and the European Commission.

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