NextFlex Welcomes Dignitaries to Silicon Valley for Grand Opening of Manufacturing Innovation Institute Focused on Flexible Hybrid Electronics

Boeing, DuPont, GE, Jabil, NASA, PARC, Georgia Tech, Cal Poly, Purdue and Dozens of Other NextFlex Members Demonstrate Latest Advances in FHE Development and Commercialization

San Jose, Calif., August 31, 2016 — To commemorate the grand opening of America’s first and only Flexible Hybrid Electronics (FHE) Manufacturing Innovation Institute, NextFlex today welcomes an impressive slate of dignitaries, who will offer comments on the significance and value of the new facility with respect to technology innovation, national security and workforce development. Speakers will include Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense André Gudger, Representatives Anna Eshoo, Zoe Lofgren and Mike Honda, and San José Mayor Sam Liccardo. Also on hand to provide industry perspective will be Erick Seltmann, manager of Advanced Electromechanical Technologies for Boeing Research & Technology.

Dr. Malcolm Thompson, executive director of NextFlex, commented, “It’s a great honor, and very gratifying, to be able to welcome these respected leaders from government and industry to help us celebrate the opening of our Institute. In just a year since NextFlex was announced, we have signed on 46 members, issued two project calls totaling more than $45 million with 60% cost shared by members and various state funding. And, equally exciting, is that our flexible hybrid electronics headquarters facility and pilot manufacturing line is open. The collaborative work of NextFlex and our members at this facility will allow companies in Silicon Valley and throughout the U.S. to leap-frog the barriers of cost and integration, and create a viable ecosystem that will enable a new era.”

Known for its start-up mentality and agile business model, NextFlex serves as a catalyst for collaboration and innovation among a collection of companies, academic and nonprofit institutions and government organizations from across the U.S., all focused on creating a robust FHE manufacturing infrastructure. NextFlex’s 34,000 square foot facility located in the heart of Silicon Valley will feature a state-of-the-art class 10,000 pilot manufacturing line in addition to laboratory space dedicated to the production of this burgeoning technology.

At today’s grand opening, approximately 40 companies such as Acellent, American Semiconductor, Boeing, Brewer Science, DuPont, E Ink, GE Global Research, HP Enterprise, i3 Electronics, Jabil, NASA, PARC, Uniqarta together with academia like Georgia Tech, Berkeley, Binghamton, Cal Poly, Purdue, Univ. of Mass. (Amherst and Lowell), UofA, will showcase their advancements in bringing this exciting technology to fruition.

Background:
Once in full production, FHE will usher in a new era of “electronics on everything.” Intelligence will be taken out of the “boxes” or packages associated with traditional electronics like PCs, smartphones and tablets, and transplanted directly on to a variety of surfaces including the human body, enabling an entirely new breed of defense and commercial applications we haven’t imagined. But to develop these enabling FHEs, new manufacturing solutions are required and they come with significant integration challenges. Working alone, it would take years, perhaps decades, and unprecedented amounts of capital for a company to create the infrastructure to support mass production of FHEs. NextFlex, along with its members, are working to rapidly uncover and solve the complex manufacturing issues associated with production of flexible hybrid electronics, and ultimately create a manufacturing infrastructure that can efficiently be spun out to private industry.

NextFlex’s new facility is located at: 2244 Blach Place #150, San Jose, Calif., 95131. Information and photographs from today’s event are available by contacting Meagan Hardcastle, MCA, 559.283.2510 or via email at mhardcastle@mcapr.com.

About Flexible Hybrid Electronics
FHE combines the ability to add electronics to new and unique materials that are part of our everyday lives, 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, can be found at www.nextflex.us.