GLOBAL TRENDS in PRINTED ELECTRONICS – PATENT MAPPING REPORT JANUARY 2020 Titel: Global Trends in Printed Electronic - Patent Mapping Report January 2020
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GLOBAL TRENDS IN PRINTED ELECTRONICS – PATENT MAPPING REPORT JANUARY 2020 Titel: Global Trends in Printed Electronic - Patent Mapping Report January 2020 Udarbejdet af: Danish Technological Institute Gregersensvej 1 2630 Taastrup Production & Innovation CVR 5697 6116 / EAN 5790002042225 Authors: Malene Hartung Kristine Nedergaard Larsen Leif H. Jakobsen January 2020 ISBN-nummer: 978-87-91461-53-8 The report is supported by the Danish Agency for Institutions and Educational Grants under the Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science under Performance Contract D5: Printed Electronics. This project has also received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 814485. Pictures: Teknologisk Institut www.pixabay.com Teknologisk Institut er en selvejende og almennyttig Instituti- Teknologisk Instituts samarbejde med erhvervslivet bygger on, der blev etableret i 1906 og er godkendt som GTS-institut på fortrolighed, tavshedspligt og vores brandpromise. af Uddannelses- og Forskningsministeriet. Læs mere på teknologisk.dk og dti.dk Hendes Majestæt Dronning Margrethe 2. er protektor for Teknologisk Institut. Content INTO THE FUTURE WITH PRINTED ELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGIES 4 GLOBAL HOTSPOTS WITHIN PRINTED ELECTRONICS 7 GLOBAL TECHNOLOGICAL HOTSPOTS 8 GEOGRAPHICALLY HOTSPOTS 11 THE GLOBAL COMPANY HOTSPOTS 14 EUROPEAN HOTSPOTS 15 THE EUROPEAN SHARE OF THE PATENTS RELATED TO PRINTED ELECTRONICS 15 HIGHLY INDUSTRIALISED COUNTRIES MORE ACTIVE WITHIN PRINTED ELECTRONICS 16 TOP EUROPEAN PATENTING COMPANIES WITH PRINTED ELECTRONICS 18 METHOD 19 3 PRINTED ELECTRONICS Into the future with printed electronics technologies Printed electronics is an emerging technology of- This report presents an overall review of technology fering technological opportunities to produce em- developments within printed electronics described bedded electronics that are typically integrated in by patent data. Our strategy in the search for re- flexible materials, see Textbox 1. TEXTBOX 1: WHAT IS PRINTED ELECTRONICS? ‘Printed electronics’ is an all-encompassing term Printed electronics has become secure, flexible, for the printing method used to create electronic and cost-effective, all of which make the techno- devices by printing on a variety of substrates. Ori- logy appealing to a broad range of industries. Prin- ginally, printed electronics related to organic or pla- ted electronics has the potential to reduce costs stic electronics that use one or more inks made of and technical constraints typically associated with carbon-based compounds. As demand for wearable mass producing electronics. devices and thinner electronics expands, printed electronics is used to form flexible keyboards, an- tennas, electronic skin patches and more. Source: https://www.pannam.com/blog/what-is-printed-electronics/ 4 PRINTED ELECTRONICS levant patents is to identify a core set of patents In 2015, approx. 80% of all assignees, e.g., patenting that are highly relevant to printed electronics. Such companies, were based in three countries with Ja- a broad scan of patents indicates to which extent pan topping the list followed by the US and South the industry should pay attention to printed ele- Korea meaning that Japanese, US, and South Korean ctronics. Thus, we have identified 16,537 patent companies are the main technological developers of families related to printed electronics which can printed electronics. However, in 2015, China entered be used as a point of departure for more detailed the printed electronics stage and the numbers of searches such as searches for specific technological patents granted to assignees in China rose drama- solutions or applications. If your company wants to tically. In 2018, Chinese assignees stood for most develop new products incorporating printed elec- printed electronics patents. Europe is lacking be- tronics, we recommend a detailed search that pro- hind with Germany as the exception. vides you with strategic business intelligence about current technological solutions and potential com- Since 2000, most of the patents within printed ele- petitors/partners1. ctronics have been granted in the US. Thus, the US dominated the field in 2018 by number of published In the last decades, printed electronics has under- patents and will presumably continue to do so in gone significant technological developments, and the future. especially in the last few years the numbers of pa- tents mentioning printed electronics has increased This report is divided into two sections, i.e., a glo- significantly. In the period 2015-2018, 32% of all bal and a European perspective. The first section of patents from 2000-2018 have been published. Cur- the report presents global hotspots with the most rently, significant technological developments are frequent keywords in the identified patents and it taking place within printed electronics, and market presents a landscape for printed electronics-rela- forecasts expect a marked increase in turnover in ted technologies. Furthermore, the global hotspots the printed electronics market in the future. The present the intensity of patent publications across industry has increasingly focused on the many new time, by countries and across patenting companies. possible printed electronics applications and com- The second section focuses on patents granted to panies, and research organisations have developed European companies as we want to examine the an increasing number of unique printed electronics global position of European companies as well as solutions. geographical differences within Europe. Even though printed electronics represents many different groups of technologies, about one in four patents is classified as printed circuits on flexible materials and a little under a fourth of the patents is characterised by the use of flexible or folded printed circuits. 1 For a detailed presented of our applied method, see Danish Technological Institute (2019): Patent mapping your idea (www.teknologisk.dk/40890) 5 GLOBAL HOTSPOTS 6 GLOBAL HOTSPOTS Global hotspots within printed electronics For the period 2000 to 2018, we have identified electronics patents from 2017 and 2018 is expected 16,537 patent families related to printed electro- to rise even more. nics. Over this period, the number of printed ele- ctronics patent publications developed incremen- Market studies estimate that the market for prin- tally until 2015 when the number of patents took ted electronics will grow significantly in the future off with 32% of printed electronics patents being as the total market is expected to grow from USD published in the period 2015-2018, see Figure 1. 41.2 billion in 2020 to USD 74 billion in 20302. Thus, Since the processing time for patents to be pub- the number of patents will presumably continue to lished can last a few years the number of printed grow in the future. 2 IDTechEx: Flexible, Printed and Organic Electronics 2020-2030: Forecasts, Players and Opportunities (https://www.idte- chex.com/en/research-report/printed-organic-and-flexible-electronics-2020-2030-forecasts-technologies-markets/687). FIGURE 1: PUBLISHED PATENTS WITHIN PRINTED ELECTRONICS, 2000-2018 32% 2.000 1.852 1.800 1.600 1.391 1.400 1.200 1.106 1.038 949 935 933 933 914 1.000 890 829 814 803 800 758 644 634 592 564 600 473 418 400 200 - 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Note: Extract 10. oct. 2019. N: 16,537 patent families. Source: PatSnap, processed by Danish Technological Institute 7 GLOBAL HOTSPOTS Global technological hotspots We have identified a group of approx. 16,000 prin- Patents usually feature more than one CPC-code. ted electronic-related patents using the technolo- Hence the total numbers of patents distributed gical classification system Cooperative Patent Clas- by CPC-codes will exceed 16,537 in Figure 2. In the sification (CPC), see Textbox 23. group of printed electronics related patents, the 3 See page 19 for an introduction to the applied method TEXTBOX 2: SHORT INTRODUCTION TO THE SYSTEM USED TO CLASSIFY TECHNOLOGY The Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC-codes) Office (EPO) and the US Patent and Trademark Offi- is an internationally compatible classification sy- ce (USPTO). The two patent offices have agreed to stem for technical documents, especially patent harmonise their existing classification systems and publications. The CPC-classification system is an migrate towards a common classification scheme. extension of the IPC (International Patent Clas- sification), which is administrated by the World The CPC-codes are divided into nine sections, i.e., Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The A-H and Y, which in turn are subdivided into clas- CPC-classification system is more detailed than the ses, sub-classes, groups, and subgroups. There are IPC-system. CPC is managed by the European Patent approx. 250,000 classification entries. Source: Website of Cooperative Patent Classification: www.cooperativepatentclassification.org 8 GLOBAL HOTSPOTS two most applied codes may be of particularly in- used CPC-code is printed circuits on dispersed ma- terest. About one in four patents is classified as terials such as inks and conductive pastes and the printed circuits on flexible materials and a little un- fourth most frequently used code is printed circuits der a fourth of the patents is characterised by the with use of materials for the substrate, multilayers use of flexible or folded printed circuits. The two reinforced