Printing Drugs

Printed electronics firm Soligie, Minneapolis, a unit of print giant Taylor Corp., says it won contracts to develop a drug-delivery patch and a smart-packaging product that uses its high-speed, roll-to-roll, printed electronics production line. Prototype versions have been delivered and are in testing, says the company.

The products use numerous conductive silver and silver/silver-chloride inks, as well as carbon-based resistors, dielectric materials and vias, manufactured in a single pass.

A key objective in printed electronics is to produce complex products with multiple materials on a continuous web at speeds that delivery high-volume production. Soligie says it has moved this goal closer to commercial reality by developing proprietary processes on its roll-to-roll production line.

“In the future, we will offer manufacturing and design services for products that contain displays, memory, sensors, batteries and ultimately printed transistors and logic,” says Matt Timm, Soligie's president.