In continuously updating our new trilogy of reports on respectively printed electronics in Europe, East Asia and the USA, certain lessons jump out of the page.Europe has far more organisations active in the subject of printed and potentially printed electronics than any other continent. So far we have profiled 267 organisations in Europe with plenty more in the queue. That compares with North America 207 studied and East Asia about 171 studied. Our view that the total number for Europe being 50 more than North America at about 550 is now looking conservative. More people attend conferences on organic/ plastic/ printed electronics in Europe than in the USA in total. In printed and thin film photovoltaics beyond silicon, Europe has powerful structure from R&D to production and subsidized installation, with some examples of CIGS and DSSC versions being fully printed reel to reel already.
In Europe, the big numbers are in R&D. Only 54% of participants are likely to make anything and most of those are on the fringe of the subject.