The methods to manufacture organic electrochemical transistors (OECT) have been improved during the most recent years. The uniqueness of our development is that screen printing is used for the deposition of every layer, which results in a very simple manufacturing approach. The technology provides reliable devices with high manufacturing yield, and further miniaturization have resulted in a number of different screen printed integrated circuits, e.g. 4-1 multiplexers, 4-7 decoders and 7-bit shift registers.

The main objective is to minimize the number of contact pads on the silicon chip often used for addressing of peripheral devices, such as a display. Only two input signals are required in a 7-bit shift register (data + clock signal) to enable addressing of a 7-segment display. In addition to this, monolithic integration of screen printed digital circuits and electrochromic displays has also been obtained on flexible plastic substrates. The most complex circuits contain more than 100 OECTs, these results were published in Nature Communications (open access) in November 2019.

Yet another successful attempt has been carried out on the topic of monolithic integration of printed OECT-based digital circuits and electrochromic displays on flexible substrates, all manufactured by screen printing. The results, which were published in March 2020 in Flexible and Printed Electronics (open access), contain evaluations of various display driver circuits and their monolithic integration with electrochromic displays. In addition to this, high current throughput is one of the unique features of the OECT technology, and this is further demonstrated in the same article by controlling the light emission in traditional light emitting diodes (LED). The printed OECTs are capable of switching the light emission on and off, despite the high currents (typically several mA) that are flowing in such LEDs. The LEDs are properly addressed by a screen printed decoder circuit, and the light emission of the addressed LED is then controlled through an additional driver OECT, also manufactured by screen printing.

Monolithically integrated OECT-based circuits and electrochromic displays, all manufactured by screen printing on flexible substrates, enable a large number of future IoT applications, for example biosensor platforms for distributed healthcare, sensor platforms for monitoring of arbitrary sensors and electronic smart labels within packaging.

Additional articles related to screen printed OECTs and OECT-based circuits have been published recently. They are covering the topic of high yield manufacturing (99.7 % yield in a sheet containing 760 OECTs), active matrix addressed electrochromic displays, logic inverter circuit designs for operation at higher frequency (30 Hz) and lower voltages (1 V), OECTs manufactured by the combination of vapor phase polymerization (VPP) and screen printing, and OECTs used in functional electrical stimulation applications, see links under 'External press'.   

All-printed OECTs have also been achieved by combining screen printing and aerosol jet printing. This results in OECT channels with much smaller area/volume, which in turn leads to improved switching performance. In one of the articles, we have now been able to demonstrate a propagation stage delay of only 1 ms when using such OECTs in inverter circuits.

OECTs can also be used as sensor devices. In this article we demonstrate heart beat monitoring by combining an OECT with a piezoelectric sensor screen printed on a tattoo paper substrate. 

In the strive towards increased sustainability we have also published an article on all-printed OECTs, in which the semiconducting polymer is dissolved in a non-toxic, cellulose-derived, and biodegradable solvent: Toward Sustainability in All-Printed Accumulation Mode Organic Electrochemical Transistors

An article on the topic of encapsulated screen printed electrolyte-based organic electronic components was published in August 2025 in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. Proper device encapsulation can mitigate the influence of the environment on the devices, thereby ensuring good switching performances for both organic electrochemical transistors and electrochromic displays. Here, screen printed adhesive layers have successfully been used in the development of a scalable encapsulation process of these electrolyte-based screen printed organic electronic components. The issue with air pockets, which occurs when laminating barrier films with precoated global adhesive layers, is avoided by instead depositing screen printed adhesive layers prior to completing the encapsulation process by lamination.

• Encapsulation of Screen-Printed Electrolyte-Based Organic Electronic Components for Long-Term Operation in Varying Environmental Conditions, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 17, 45978-45989, 2025. 

With novel materials and production methods we can create sensors and other electronic and iontronic components and systems based on soft and stretchable materials. The usage scenarios range from textiles, apparel, leather, interior design to the human body.

Remote care

Our efforts in bioelectronics constitute an enabling technology platform to monitor patients remotely, create point-of-care and selftest so that we can spend less time in hospitals and create a more efficient health care system. 

We connect technology with the human body's skin and nervous system. On the skin there are many markers such as conductance, humidity and temperature, and in saliva, urine and blood we can gather further data such as cortisol and amylas, to indicate our health status.

Medtech and care will drastically change from a reactive mode to a proactive discipline in the coming years, with help of new technology, no approaches and analytics. The efforts are collectively called P4: Predictive - Preventive -  Personalized -  Participatory.

Iontronics

In biological signalling systems such as the human body and in plants, charge is carried by ions as opposed to electrons in conventional electronics.

Iontronics is a new field in electronics -  the possibility to control ion charges and their movement. Research in conducting organic polymers has led to extensive knowledge and new possibilities now exist to create components and systems in iontronics. In the human brain, for example, the communication signals occur in synapses between two neurons with neurotransmittors.

Undoped, conjugated, organic molecules and polymers possess properties of semiconductors, including the electronic structure and charge transport, which can be readily tuned by chemical design. Moreover, organic semiconductors (OSs) can be n-doped or p-doped to become organic conductors and can exhibit mixed electronic and ionic conductivity. Since the 2000s, increased attention has been paid to interfaces in organic electronics that involve dielectrics, electrolytes, ferroelectrics and even biological organisms.

The Ion Pump

The Ion Pump is a breakthrough in medical technology, allowing very precise delivery of transmittor substances (ions, molecules) without the injection of any fluid other than the active substance. The delivery is extremely fast, almost at a par with the speed of the human body's synapses. 

Neurotransmitters are chemicals that enable neurotransmission. It is a type of chemical messenger which transmits signals across a chemical synapse, such as a neuromuscular junction, from one neuron (nerve cell) to another "target" neuron, muscle cell, or gland cell.^[1] Neurotransmitters are released from synaptic vesicles in synapses into the synaptic cleft, where they are received by neurotransmitter receptors on the target cells. Neurotransmitters play a major role in shaping everyday life and functions. Their exact numbers are unknown, but more than 200 chemical messengers have been uniquely identified.^[2][3][4]  (Wikipedia) 

The third nervous system

In the project Smart Intrabody Network we combine several components and flexible electronics to create a network of sensors inside and on the outside of the human body. With the ion pump we can also actively address a specific area in the body and regulate levels of tranmittor substances to, for example, modulate pain.

Displays - RISE ECD

With printing technology and environmentally sound materials we can create displays which are thin, flexible and require little energy. The RISE ECD ("Acreo Display") is a simple reflective display manufactured with printing technology and organic materials. It may be the first fully functional electrochromic display in the world, possible to mass produce at a reasonable cost.

Our expertise encompasses printing, display stack build-up, curing, contacting, driving and fundamental chemistry such as electrolytes and inks to create miniaturised systems and displays.

What's unique with electrochromic displays?

• Screen printed
• Flexible
• Thin
• Environment friendly
• Mass-producible roll-to-roll with conventional high-speed printing processes
• Super low energy consumption (as low as 1.2V)
• Robust
• Reflective
• Bi-stabile (retains colour without being connected)
• Free form

The RISE ECD is ideal as a "Visual Alert", a simple indicator, but may also be used as more sophisticated displays such as 7-segment displays driven by active/passive matrixes, much like an LCD. Since it's all printed, it may be take on many shapes, and further integrated in smart packaging, labels or even mould-in in smart cards or automotive interiors.

Application areas- examples

• Smart labels (logitstics, temperature monitoring, anti-counterfeit etc)
• Cheap displays with short lifetime
• Medtech: pregnancy tests, blood tests, fast indicators in Point-of-Care applications from blood, saliva etc
• Counter and visual alerts (did I take my pill? How many units are left? Is the device on/off?)
• Smart cards: OneTimePassword
• Substituting LCD
• Substituting e-ink and other "Paper displays"

Electrochromism opens a realm of opportunities in fields such as dimmable glass, colourshifting surfaces (camouflage, design) and textiles and paper. Get in touch if you want to know more!

We develop our own materials and material combinations such as inks and electrolytes, with focus on environmentally sound organic materials and realistic, conventional, production processes. The electrolyte inks, for example E001 and E003, are protected by patents, but please get in touch with us in case you are interested in evaluating or licensing this type of ink formulations. 

Research in conducting polymers was rewarded with the Nobel Prize in year 2000 and the area keeps growing into new exiting fields such as interfaces with the human body, organic electrochemical transistors (OECT) and other printed components for future electronics and iontronics.

This research field is fast growing, as an example we are currently working with novel shapes and colour systems. Do see more facts and video clips here: RISE ECD..

In recent years, we have published a number of scientific articles on the topic of printed electrochromic displays, they are all available via Open Access:

Monolithic integration of OECT-based circuits and electrochromic displays:

• All-printed large-scale integrated circuits based on organic electrochemical transistors, Nature Communications, 10, 5053, 2019.
• Monolithic integration of display driver circuits and displays manufactured by screen printing, Flexible and Printed Electronics, 5, 024001, 2020.
• Flexible Active Matrix Addressed Displays Manufactured by Screen Printing, Advanced Engineering Materials, 23, 2000771, 2021.

Electrochromic displays screen printed on various substrates:

• Batteryless Electronic System Printed on Glass Substrate, Electronic Materials, 2, 527-535, 2021.
• Fully Screen Printed Stretchable Electrochromic Displays, Flexible and Printed Electronics, 6, 045014, 2021.
• Electrochromic Displays Screen Printed on Transparent Nanocellulose-based Substrates, Advanced Photonics Research, 4, 2200012, 2022.
• Screen printed reflective electrochromic displays for paper and other opaque substrates, ACS Applied Optical Materials, 1, 578-586, 2023.
• All-printed electrochromic stickers, 308, 2300044, 2023. 

Electrochromic displays manufactured by the combination of vapor phase polymerization and screen printing: 

• Electrochromic displays manufactured by a combination of vapor phase polymerization and screen printing, Advanced Materials Technologies, 7, 2200054, 2022.
• All-printed multilayers and blends of poly(dioxythiophene) derivatives patterned into flexible electrochromic displays, Macromolecular Materials and Engineering, 308, 2200453, 2022.
• Paper electronics utilizing screen printing and vapor phase polymerization, Advanced Sustainable Systems, 7, 2300058, 2023.

Printing/integration of electrochromic displays for see-through displays and smart multifunctional windows:

• Integration of screen printed piezoelectric sensors for force impact sensing in smart multifunctional glass applications, Advanced Engineering Materials, 24, 2200399, 2022.
• Reflective and complementary transmissive all-printed electrochromic displays based on Prussian blue, Advanced Engineering Materials, 25, 2201299, 2022.

An article in Scientific Reports (July 2022) advanced the frontiers of electrochromics. The article describes the concept of screen printed passive matrix addressed electrochromic displays, demonstrated by dynamic QR codes and images with grayscale effects. The main advantage is the unique pixel addressability, which allows utilization of the passive matrix addressing protocol, hence, these displays enable a variety of IoT applications within packaging, authentication and distributed healthcare:      

• The rise of electrochromics: Dynamic QR codes and grayscaling in printed passive-matrix displays, Scientific Reports, 12, 10959, 2022.

An article published in August 2025 in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, on the topic of encapsulated screen printed electrolyte-based organic electronic components. Proper device encapsulation can mitigate the influence of the environment on the devices, thereby ensuring good switching performances for both organic electrochemical transistors and electrochromic displays. Here, screen printed adhesive layers have successfully been used in the development of a scalable encapsulation process of these electrolyte-based screen printed organic electronic components. The issue with air pockets, which occurs when laminating barrier films with precoated global adhesive layers, is avoided by instead depositing screen printed adhesive layers prior to completing the encapsulation process by lamination.

• Encapsulation of Screen-Printed Electrolyte-Based Organic Electronic Components for Long-Term Operation in Varying Environmental Conditions, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 17, 45978-45989, 2025. 

Digital cellulose is cellulose combined with electro-active materials to create functionality and which can communicate in a digital world yet remain sustainable and eco-friendly. Application areas could be active packaging which can sense and adapt to the surroundings or the creation of large scales rolls with paper that holds charge.

What if the pack could tell you that it's been exposed to humidity? Or if we could minimize food waste. Perhaps we can create novel products or produce textiles with cellulose as a basis?

Power Paper - By combining cellulose or nanocellulose with conducting polymers we've created a black paper with astonishing properties. The paper is rubbery to touch and possible to manufacture in large quantities, with low input costs. It holds four world records, making it suitable to act as a battery or supercap. For more info, please see article at the LiU webpage.

• Highest charge and capacitance in organic electronics, 1 C and 2 F (Coulomb and Farad).
• Highest measured current in an organic conductor, 1 A (Ampere).
• Highest capacity to simultaneously conduct ions and electrons.
• Highest transconductance in a transistor, 1 S (Siemens)

The academic publication in Advanced Science y 2015 with scientists from LiU och RISE: An Organic Mixed Ion-Electron Conductor for Power Electronics

Supercaps, or capacitances with specific properties, can be charged and then quickly release charge. At the Printed Electronics Arena in Norrköping, Sweden, we've created small series of supercaps based on the learnings around the Power Paper and in several projects demonstrated the possibilities for upscaling and reproducibility.

Optoelektronic paper is a paper modified with zinc oxide which creates paper with built-in functionality. We've created a tonne to show it's possible to produce industrially! With printing technology the paper can then be further modified to create sensory functions - one example is printed UV sensors and in the future we might use this concept to clean water through photo-catalysis. Curious? Get in touch!

Within RISE and in Sweden there are massive efforts in cellulose research as cellulose exists naturally and is a fundamental building block in nature, in trees and other plants. It's the most abundant polymer in the world. Did you know that we can 3D-print canoes and furniture in wood? RISE has also recently developed the world's strongest biomaterial from nanocellulose and a new competence center has been created together with Swedish industry with specific focus on Digital Cellulose, the DCC.

We help industrial clients and work with applied research in organic materials for printed electronics, bioelectrical systems and hybrid electronics.

In our innovation cluster we can thanks to state-of-the art labs (cleanrooms, printlabs) move from molecule to prototypes and small series production.

• Synthes, chemical: development of materials, inks, electrolytes
• Characterisation- testing, evaluation, printing, combinatory effects
• Curing and printing - how does the material work in a production environment?
• Material- and substrate combinations - adhesion, robustness, toxicity

Within the Innovation Cluster PEA we develop materials used to create electrically and ionically charged and conducting for circuits and systems. PEA is one of RISE's 100 test and demonstration facilities within there is a tight collaboration between RISE and LiU (University of Linköping), the Laboratory of Organic Electronics. This is a fast growing research area. Printed Electronics Arena, is based in Norrköping, Sweden

We often interact with inventors and Small & Medium Entreprises, sometimes lacking the financial muscles to engage in technical product development.

Examples of FAQs are:

• Can this be done?
• How much will it cost to develop a prototype?
• What materials could be used instead?
• Who should we collaborate with?
• Where can we find financing?
• Is it wise to attempt to get R&D financing from Vinnova, EU or similar?
• Should we keep it secret or reach out?
• How can we find the right competence?

We have hands-on experience of all phases from idea to commercialisation, both technically and commercially.

The Printed Electronics Arena in Norrköping is an innovation cluster and one of RISE' many Test- and Demonstration facilities - a state of the art pilot line for hybrid electronics. Through a close collaboration between The Laboratory of Organic Electronics (Linköping University) and RISE, and in addition the Region Östergötland, Norrköping municipality and the incubator LEAD we get lots of requests to support and guide inventors, SME's and also from larger industrial clients where ideas spring to life.

In our toolbox you'll find innovation management, open innovation, immaterial rights (IP) handling, tech transfer, spin-offs, financing and in short guidance and answers to the same question: How do we move forward with our invention and company?

We have access to all expertise within RISE in SME-development including among other EEN ((Entreprise European Network, SME financing and networking).

Example 1 - electronics design and prototyping

We create a network inside the body with advanced sensors and ion pumps.

Example 2 - Industrial projects with full confidentiality

You get access to world class labs, competence and support in your development work, from exploratory to prototyping.

We can help you address questions such as:

• Could this be done?
• Has it been done before?

Example 3 - R&D collaborations financed by Vinnova (the Swedish Innovation Agency) or EU