Plextronics

Infobox Company
company_
foundation = 2002
company_type = Private
location_city = Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
location_country = USA
key_people = Andrew W. Hannah, President and Chief Executive Officer; Richard D. McCullough, Ph.D., Chief Scientist; James Dietz, Vice President of Business Development; Troy D. Hammond, Ph.D., Vice President of Products; Sean Rollman, Chief Financial Officer; Glenn Thompson, Chief Operating Officer; Shawn P. Williams, Ph.D., Vice President of Technology; Glenn Gengel, Vice President of Operations
industry = Solar energy, printed electronics
products = Organic solar cells, OLED lighting, conductive inks, organic semiconductive polymers
num_employees = 52 (2008)
homepage = [http://www.plextronics.com www.plextronics.com]

Plextronics, Inc. is an international technology company [cite news
publisher=Pop City
date=2008-08-13
url=http://www.popcitymedia.com/features/globalpgh0808.aspx
format=
title=Pittsburgh Goes Global
accessdate=2008-08-18 ] that specializes in printed solar, lighting and other electronics. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the company's focus is on organic solar cell and OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) lighting, specifically the conductive inks and process technologies that enable those and other similar applications. It is an R&D spin-off from Carnegie Mellon University. [cite news
publisher=Renewable Energy World.com
date=2008-07-24
url=http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/story?id=53133
format=
title=Next Generation Dye Sensitive & Organic PV, Part 1
accessdate=2008-08-18 ]

Particularly relevant as the worldwide search for renewable energy becomes more urgent, the company's technology will enable the mass production of printed devices, such as low-cost organic solar cells and high-efficiency lighting.

Printed electronics comprise next-generation light, power and circuitry products, including flexible displays, plastic solar cells, organic field effect transistors and organic RFID tags. Plextronics' vision is to enable 15 billion printed electronic devices by 2015. [cite web
url = http://www.plextronics.com/aboutus.aspx
title=Plextronics, Inc.: About Us
accessdate = 2008-08-18]

On August 21, 2008, Plextronics was honored by the "Pittsburgh Business Times" as one of the region's 100 fastest-growing companies, and the fastest-growing in the Manufacturing/Transportation category. [cite news
publisher=Pittsburgh Business Times
date=2008-08-21
url=http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2008/08/18/daily31.html
format=
title=Business Times honors Pittsburgh's 100 fastest-growing companies
accessdate=2008-08-26 ]

Funding

In 2007, Plextronics completed a $20.6 million Series B financing,. [cite news
publisher=Pittsburgh Business Times
url = http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2007/09/03/story2.html
date=2007-08-21
title=Plextronics lands $20.6M in new venture funding
accessdate = 2008-08-18] led by Solvay North America Investments, LLC, a member of the Solvay Group, an international chemical and pharmaceutical group headquartered in Brussels. Significant investments were also received from Applied Ventures, Firelake Capital Management, Birchmere Ventures, Draper Triangle Ventures and Newlin Investment Company.

Plextronics has raised a total of $41 million in equity capital since 2002. [cite web
url = http://www.plextronics.com/press_media.aspx
title=Plextronics, Inc.: Media Relations
accessdate = 2008-08-18]

Technology

Printed electronics takes advantage of printing technology to manufacture electronic devices, including printed organic solar cells, radio frequency identification tags and flexible displays. Plextronics creates materials that enable the commercialization and manufacturing scale of this emerging technology. [cite news
publisher=Renewable Energy World.com
date=2008-07-24
url=http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/story?id=53133
format=
title=Next Generation Dye Sensitive & Organic PV, Part 1
accessdate=2008-08-18 ]

The company's Plexcore® technology is solution-processable inks for printed electronics, either conductive, photoactive, or semi-conductive. The inks are tunable to provide customized solutions.

Plextronics focuses on polymer design and ink formulation, as well as device physics and analysis.

References

External links

[http://www.plextronics.com/ Official website] of Plextronics, Inc.