In the last year, the burgeoning printed and thin film electronics industry has greatly enhanced its repertoire and changed its priorities, encompassing such things as rapid commercialisation of disposable and invisible electronics.

IDTechEx finds that the market for printed and potentially printed electronics, including organics, inorganics and composites, will rise from $1.92 billion in 2009 to $57.16 billion in 2019.

At a time of financial uncertainty, companies know they must accelerate their move into the future. That is why there is a huge interest in printed electronics, a subject that pushes all the right buttons - environmental, affordable and leading to a new market of $300 billion that is just there for the taking. That is why the giant corporations are attending Printed Electronics USA, December 3-4 in San Jose, California.

Third Generation Active RFID is the Ubiquitous Sensor Network (USN) sometimes known as the Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) and characterized by the tag doubling as a reader and a so-called mesh network being used with a choice of sensors on each tag.

By value, we forecast that in 2009 the value of the RFID market will grow by 23% over 2008, and in 2010 it will grow by 25% over 2009 - not exponential, but still very strong growth.

One million transistors is not enough for the RFID chip in the new e-passports because, increasingly, they have to double as driver's licenses, multipurpose cards and other media.

A new range of transistors using thin films of organic or inorganic compounds as the semiconductors and gate dielectrics are being pursued by organizations in over 30 countries. The new IDTechEx report

The eighth IDTechEx RFID Europe event broke all previous records with over 350 delegates from 19 countries who heard major corporations sharing their RFID success and needs.

This year, for the first time, China has become the world's largest market for RFID by value. A new report

The future $300 billion market for printed electronics is emerging via thin film electronics. The contribution of organic materials to this is greatly publicized but the best devices being developed usually rely on inorganic or combined inorganic/organic technology. The more select groups developing these inorganic materials and devices have a great future. IDTechEx has published the first study on Inorganic Printed and Thin Film Electronics. Here Dr Peter Harrop summarises some of the findings.

With about $5 billion being spent on RFID in 2007, of which about $2.24 billion is for tags, what are the favourite RFID specifications?

Working Group for IEEE Rubee™ Network Standard meeting in Boston on Feb 20

Extreme fragmentation of RFID supply is not what the users want, and IDTechEx believe that appropriate international acquisitions could gain massive competitive advantage.

The fifth - and largest - IDTechEx event RFID Smart Labels USA event

IDTechEx recently visited Japan to learn about the latest RFID developments there. Read highlights from our full report on the country's RFID progress published in the March issue of Smart Labels Analyst.

Learn about RFID progress from East Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Americas and network with delegates from 30 countries. Now only days from the Boston show which kicks off on March 28, we examine the key uniques of the fifth annual RFID Smart Labels USA event.

Globally the printing industry is in decline. Are the centuries of sophisticated development of the science and production technology for printing declining in a whimper? The answer is probably not. Certainly there is a fascinating escape route opening up for some. It is the printing of electronics.

Active RFID is little reported, but its use is growing rapidly. New IDTechEx research

Printing Electronics - prepare for a step change in the printing and electronics industries. Here we introduce the technology and explore new opportunities as the printing and electronics industry converge.

New advances in RFID technology benefit food, pharmaceutical and other key markets