NextFlex News – October 2019 Newsletter

It’s always nice to be able to share good news and the folks at Auburn University recently shared that their paper, “Flexure and Twist Test Reliability Assurance of Flexible Electronics,” was awarded the Outstanding Paper of Conference at the ASME INTERPACK Conference last week in Anaheim, CA. The paper focused on results from the NextFlex project call project, “Mechanical Test Methods for FHE Materials and Devices,” on which Auburn University collaborated with Boeing, Optomec and others.

L to R Benjamin Leever, AFRL, Jinesh Narangaparambil, Auburn University Grad Student, Dr. Pradeep Lall, Auburn University. Not pictured, Scott Miller, NextFlex.

It is gratifying to see hard work recognized and we congratulate the team that presented the paper and collaborated on the project. Well done, all.

In other good news, NextFlex is looking to the future and the possibility of proposing a second Cooperative Agreement. Critical consortium activities such as technical working group roadmapping, project calls, manufacturing ecosystem and workforce development are planned to be a part of the next chapter in NextFlex’s story. However, there may be new requirements and expectations that we haven’t yet considered, so if you have inputs, please send them our way. It’s important that our next steps meet the evolving needs of the community.

The next opportunity to convene the community will be at our workshop at Purdue University. Focused on, “FHE Applications for Structural Health and Asset Monitoring Systems,” this workshop includes a stellar lineup of subject matter experts who will help us dive in to this important and growing application space. At the end of the workshop, members will have the opportunity to prioritize areas of opportunity on how flexible hybrid electronics can have a meaningful impact for both military and consumer applications. We thank the outstanding team at Purdue University who has been so welcoming, and the workshop promises to be memorable. Join us!

As always, thank you for your support and keep the good ideas coming.

Sincerely,

Malcolm J. Thompson, PhD