Leaders in the emerging printed electronics sector will be showcasing technological advances at the 3rd Global Plastic Electronics Conference from October 29-30th in Frankfurt, Germany. Printed electronics technology enables new products or significant improvements, in applications such as hand-held devices, flexible displays, or printed sensors and batteries. Germany is a leading centre for innovations in printed electronics and its investment promotion agency, Invest in Germany, will kick off the conference with an evening reception on Sunday, October 28th.

Ed van den Kieboom, President of the Plastic Electronics Foundation, the European non-profit organization that initiated and plays host to the conference, will give a welcoming address at the reception.

Konrad Herre, Vice President for Manufacturing at Plastic Logic Limited, will speak about his company's first volume production plant in Saxony. In May 2007, Plastic Logic broke ground on a EUR100 million manufacturing facility in Dresden, Germany. The state-of-the-art plant, which is set to be in operation by the second half of 2008, will produce the world's first commercially viable polymer-based displays. This revolutionary technology will, among other applications, enable end users to read books in hand-held electronic form.

The Plastic Logic example shows that pioneering international companies trust Germany as a location for groundbreaking investments. The country is ideally suited for printed electronics investments: Germany is leading in the development of printing technologies and offers an unparalleled density of top microelectronics device manufacturers. This infrastructure, together with the strength of Germany's chemical and machinery industries, provides the ideal base for the market implementation of printed electronics technologies. Furthermore, Germany hosts strong application markets for printed electronics products such as lighting, photovoltaics, healthcare, or logistics. These industries are helping to make printed electronics applications, such as RFID, flexible displays, and organic photovoltaics commercially successful.

Printed electronics is a young but extremely promising industry. Over the past two years, Invest in Germany has assembled an expert team to support investments in this field at all stages, from development to series production. It not only advised Plastic Logic, but also guided the Scottish company MicroEmissive Displays (MED) on the company's EUR10 million investment in September of 2006, also in Dresden. "We see printed electronics as an industry with much potential for investors and therefore we expect and are prepared to accompany more projects in this area in the near future," noted Oliver Seiler, Senior Manager for Electronics at Invest in Germany.