Giants buy into Printed Electronics

More and more giant corporations are buying into printed electrics by acquiring companies partly or wholly in the field. The world’s second largest chemical company Dow bought Rohm & Haas (materials), 3M bought into Printechnologics (printed patterns read by mobile phones) and DuPont bought Innovalight (nanosilicon layers to increase photovoltaic efficiency). Now there is interest in traction batteries for electric vehicles, where the third generation technology, that with the highest energy density and little if any dependence on rare metals, increasingly involves solid state assemblies made by printing reel to reel Oxis Energy in the UK is developing polymer lithium sulphur technology for example as an independent startup. However, Sion Power in the USA has other forms of lithium sulphur battery actually driving Unmanned Aerial vehicles AUVs and military land vehicles. The press release says that Sion Power Corporation, the global leader in the development of lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries, based in Tucson, Arizona, recently announced that BASF invested $50 million to acquire an equity ownership position in the company.