Printable functional materials whose optical, electronic and mechanical properties can be tailored by chemical approaches provide unparalleled opportunities to advance emerging technologies in sensing, energy harvesting and storage, robotics, wearables, personalized healthcare and the Internet-of-Things. Furthermore, the large palette of digital and conventional printing techniques (e.g. inkjet, aerosoljet, screen or gravure printing) present cost- and material efficient fabrication tools capable of manufacturing large-area optoelectronic devices as well as integrated and personalized systems onto flexible, stretchable and soft substrates. Representative examples of printed optoelectronic and sensing elements currently attracting increased attention extend from transistors, photodetectors, triboelectric, thermoelectric, light-emitting and photovoltaic devices, all the way to supercapacitors, actuators, tactile (including pressure, strain, temperature, humidity) or magnetic sensors. Printing processing of such devices requires precise control of the film quality and micromorphology to yield not only a printed pattern but an assembly of materials with an specific functionality. Simultaneously, the selected materials and printing techniques should produce high-quality interfaces that promote efficient optical/electronic processes. Addressing these multifaceted challenges requires a multidisciplinary approach at the crossroads between chemistry, physics, material science and engineering.

This symposium aims to bring together scientists and engineers across different disciplines to discuss the common challenges and the recent advances in the field of advanced soft materials and printing processing of (opto-)electronic and sensing devices. The symposium will address the design of printable advanced soft materials (including conductors, semiconductors, dielectrics, substrates, and barrier layers), their processing and the correlation to device performance and functionality. Furthermore, it will discuss the recent developments on the multidevice integration of flexible, foldable, and soft electronic systems with higher complexity (e.g. integrated circuits, displays, interactive sensors, energy harvesting, etc). The symposium will contribute to a better understanding of materials and device properties as well as highlight emerging applications in the field of next-generation thin film (opto)electronic devices.

2D materials additive manufacturing electronic material ink-jet printing inorganic optoelectronic organic sensor thin film