In the second part of his interview with Print Matters, Michael L. Kleper, Paul and Louise Miller Distinguished Professor, Rochester Institute of Technology, N.Y., discusses how printed electronics will impact the industry.

1. Do printed electronics have the potential to redefine the printing industry?

Yes, I believe so. I tell my students that Gutenberg was the man of the millennium in the year 2000, for the impact that printing had on the spread of literacy. I predict that Gutenberg will be named the man of the next millennium for the impact that printing will have in the production of inexpensive electronics that will enable the addition of intelligence to everyday objects.

2. When will printed electronics become widely accepted?

It will likely be 10 or more years before the process is mainstream. Of course, your assumption is that the printing industry will be a major participant in this technology. The electronics industry has a vested interest, and will very likely develop and utilize methods of printing electronics.

3. What will be the roles of the printing and the electronics industries?

Right now the printing industry is mainly unaware of the opportunity. The electronics industry is aggressively pursuing it.

4. What processes can be applied to the printing of electronics?

Flexo, gravure, offset and rotary screen have all been used to some extent.

5. What's driving the demand for printed electronics?

The major driver has been the need for inexpensive RFID tags. Wal-Mart and other large retailers, the Department of Defense and Homeland Security, airlines and other industries have been pushing for tags that sell for five cents or less.

6. How can companies be prepared for changes that printed electronics may bring?

No one knows what changes printed electronics will bring. They will reduce the cost of producing many items that are manufactured using traditional methods. Printers have certainly lost business due to the volume of information that is displayed on computer screens. Once it becomes possible to print displays, who will want static paper?

7. What are the benefits of printed electronics?

Printed electronics will make it possible to produce conventional products such as cell phones and flexible displays quite cheaply. It will also enable the application of computer processing to virtually any item.

8. What are some of the challenges that are unique to printed electronics?

Printing presses weren't designed to print the detail that printed electronics demands, nor were press operators trained to hold register to the stringent tolerances of electronic circuits. I am confident that these challenges will be overcome since the cost of building a new computer chip factory is in the billions of dollars, and the cost of building a state-of-the-art printing plant is in the millions. The economics of the process will push it forward.

9. What's the future of printed electronics?

There is considerable work being done worldwide to apply printing methods to produce electronic components and devices. Printed electronics are definitely a part of our future.

I would encourage the printing industry to follow this technology closely. Printed electronics represents both an opportunity and a threat. It's an opportunity to utilize excess press capacity and develop an expertise that is likely to grow in value. It's a threat in the respect that printed displays, with dynamic text and images, will compete for eyeballs that printers want to read from static ink-on-paper materials.

Read Kleper's interview on applications and markets for printing electronics, and more.