UK government invests £7m in printed NFC device initiative

The project has secured £7m from the Government’s Advanced Manufacturing Supply Chain Initiative (AMSCI). The consortium partners are also investing £3m.

The project will build manufacturing capacity, develop manufacturing skills and demonstrate application deployment. The project highlights the UK’s growing capability in print, electronics and design in a collaborative consortium to create a

CPI is the process element of the UK government’s national manufacturing strategy, dubbed the High Value Manufacturing Catapult. The initiative is tasked with stimulating growth within manufacturing sectors throughout the UK. CPI is focused on the development, scale-up and commercialisation of a number of key enabling technologies including printable electronics.

CPI’s National Printable Electronics Centre, based at NETPark in Co. Durham is equipped with an extensive range of assets specifically chosen and developed to allow clients to understand how their products and processes perform under industrial scale manufacturing conditions.

“The project will enable the UK to be competitive in this high growth global industry,” said Nigel Perry, CEO of CPI.

The programme will develop and integrate materials, printing, electronics, design, and manufacturing technology to create a UK supply chain that can make printed NFC devices at an industrial scale for market testing.

Scott White, CEO of consortium partner PragmatIC Printing said: “This programme will support the development of a complete manufacturing supply chain able to deliver our printed NFC solutions at a scale and cost suitable for widespread adoption.”

NFC is a wireless technology being used for contactless transactions and data exchange between smartphones and terminals. It can also be used in an unpowered NFC chip, called a “tag” opening up a wide range of uses in advertising, packaging and other printed mediums.