NextFlex, America’s first, and only, Flexible Hybrid Electronics (FHE) Manufacturing Innovation Institute, announced the first four recipients out of eight contracts awarded from the institute’s inaugural project call. Each project was selected for its potential to contribute to the goal of the industry-led, collaboration-based NextFlex: advancing the manufacturing ecosystem for FHE in the United States. The value of all eight contracts is $14.8 million, with $8.6 million of that being cost-shared by the recipients.  This is part of $75 million in funding over the next five years that was from the DoD’s initial award last Fall. NextFlex will officially open its San Jose headquarters and manufacturing pilot line on Wednesday, August 31. Further details regarding the event will be disclosed shortly.

FHE gives everyday products the power of silicon ICs by combining them with new and unique printing processes and new materials. The result is lightweight, low-cost, flexible, comfortable, stretchable and highly efficient smart products. The projects reflect a range of unique and creative ways to implement FHE technology for consumer, commercial and military applications.  The first four contracts among this initial wave of eight PC 1.0 awards go to the following:

1. Purdue University with industrial partner Integra Life Sciences, along with Western Michigan University and Indiana University School of Medicine;
2. California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) together with its industry partners, Jabil Circuit, DuPont and NovaCentrix;
3. Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) and their partner University of California at San Diego;
4. And, Binghamton University (BU), who is partnering with GE Global Research, i3 Electronics, Infinite Corridor Technologies, Rochester Institute of Technology, Analog Devices and Corning Inc.

  The Purdue project looks at the potentially significant health care burden posed by chronic oxygen-deprived wounds as the U.S. population ages. Its goal is to create a printed FHE smart wound dressing that can sense oxygen levels in a wound bed and deliver topical oxygen to arrest further deterioration of the wound. The Purdue team will work to bring the dressing to fruition as a manufacturable solution that can be easily adopted and produced in high volumes.

Commenting on the initial contract awards, Dr. Malcolm Thompson, executive director of NextFlex, noted, “Selecting the first projects to be funded by the Institute was no easy task. The response to our initial project call was overwhelming, offering further proof that there is vast potential for leveraging flexible hybrid electronics in U.S. industry. Helping to see these and forthcoming projects through to fruition and, eventually, commercialization, is an exciting prospect for NextFlex and our corporate, academic, nonprofit and government partners.”

Further recipients of Project Call 1.0 contract awards will be announced soon. Review of proposals received for Project Call 2.0, announced May 5, 2016, is currently in process. PC 2.0 is anticipated to fund up to $10 million, with total project value, including cost-sharing, expected to exceed $20 million. NextFlex plans to announce PC 3.0 later this year.

About Flexible Hybrid Electronics

FHE combines the ability to add electronics to new and unique materials that are part of our everyday lives along with the power of silicon ICs to create lightweight, low-cost, flexible, conformable and stretchable smart products to solve new problems and advance the efficiency of our world.

About NextFlex

NextFlex was founded on August 28, 2015, through the execution of a Cooperative Agreement between the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and FlexTech Alliance. A public-private partnership, NextFlex is the seventh Manufacturing Innovation Institute funded through the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation to create, showcase, and deploy new capabilities and new manufacturing processes. More information about NextFlex, including how to apply for membership, can be found at www.nextflex.us.