The title of the technical committee 119 is Printed Electronics.

The scope of TC 119 is the standardization of terminology, materials, processes, equipment, products and health/safety/sustainability in the field of printed electronics.

Due to the trend towards a globalized, technical and connected society there is a rising demand for a new breed of technologies enabling flexible, stretchable and in-mold electronic products. Some conventional technologies (including silicon-based microelectronics) have reached their limits due to their high fabrication costs and sustainability issues. Armed with new printing technologies (including screen, gravure, reverse gravure, flexo, offset, ink jet, etc.) and innovative materials, printed electronics has emerged as a sustainable route to produce electronic/display/energy products at a low cost and with new possibilities of such creative technologies as flexible electronics. Currently this technology is ready to be applied to the manufacture of printed items such as photovoltaic devices, digital signage, RFID tags, batteries, patch type sensors, lighting devices, etc., where cost, flexibility and sustainability are very critical issues. Recently printing technologies in combination with other electronics technologies form hybrid systems which showed promising market potential in areas such as wearable smart devices. For successful industrialization of this technology, reliability and repeatability of materials, equipment, printing processes and product quality assessment should be provided under global standardization.

Standardization needs in printed electronics had been discussed worldwide in academic societies and industrial societies since 2008. However, a practical movement was initiated by a Korean proposal to form a new TC under the IEC in June 2011. The SMB in IEC decided to establish a new technical committee for the field of printed electronics, TC 119, and appointed the Republic of Korea as the secretariat country in October 2011. Currently the TC has 11 P-members and 9 O-members.

Since printed electronics is still evolving and expanding vigorously, the structure of the TC is preferred to be flexible so as to effectively follow the rapid change but not constrain it. Careful consideration of the results of several discussions in early Plenary Meetings made a decision that the WG structure should cover the following essential areas: terminology, materials, equipment, printability, printed products, and quality assurance.

The scopes of AG and WGs are as follows.
• AG 1 (Advisory Group)
◦ Definition of the TC 119 scope
◦ Management of the liaison strategy and conflict
◦ Maintenance of the Strategic Business Plan (SBP)
• WG 1 (Terminology and Roadmap)
◦ To produce terminology definitions and standardization roadmap for the field of printed electronics
• WG 2 (Materials)
◦ To develop measuring methods and evaluation methods for materials such as substrates, inks, composite substrates and related materials for printed electronics.
◦ To analyse the effectiveness of the existing methods specific to the materials of printed electronics
◦ To define specific terms and to determine assessments, requirements, specifications and reliability of materials for printed electronics.
◦ NOTE: Composite substrates include laminated substrates having multi-layer structure.
• WG 3 (Equipment)
◦ Standardization for printing, coating, other related equipment, tools, sub-units and parts, used for the manufacture and evaluation of printed electronics.
• WG 4 (Printability)
◦ The measurements or requirements of both the qualities of printed patterns and the reproducibility of printing designs as the result of interaction of printing media, inks, substrates, and environmental conditions. Concerning process conditions for some specific products, they would be discussed at sectional specification or blank detail specification. Printing media includes the parts involved in printing process such as plate, cliché, blanket, nozzle, etc, excluding inks and substrate.
• WG 5 (Quality assessment)
◦ The work process in this group will generate test methods and procedures for the measurement of specified product parameters, for lifetime assessment and for reliability testing and stressing of printed and/or flexible electronics components and products.
• WG 6 (Sustainability)
◦ Standardization in the field of sustainability aspects related to printed electronics within the scope of TC 119.

The 21st century global society demands that any new technology gives due consideration to sustainability as well as economic factors. This creates an incentive for alternatives to conventional silicon technology based on photolithography and creates an opportunity for printed electronics to manufacture devices with high volume capability, high efficiency, low cost and high performance. Owing to this innovative method, the commercialization of ubiquitous electronics such as photovoltaics, RFID, signage, etc. is being accelerated.

Furthermore, devices with a new concept such as flexible displays are now being introduced into the global market. Besides the efficiency from an engineering viewpoint, there is another advantage in this technology in terms of sustainability aspect. Industrialization of this field is now acknowledged by several countries including Korea, Japan, Germany, USA, UK etc. In the case of Korea, the organization for printed electronics named KoPEA was founded in 2010 in order to promote its industrialization.
The market size for printed and potentially printed electronics including organic, inorganic, and composites from IDTechEx report wasUS $41,200 million in 2020. It is expected to grow to US $74,000 million in 2030. Market segmentation is presented in the Figure 1.

As described in the previous section more than 3,000 companies are primary customers for the international standards which will be produced by TC 119. Since this technology is ready to industrialize and facilitate ubiquitous electronics, it is agreed that only standardization can reduce the initial cost for this industrialization and guide effective direction so as to stabilize and expand this market. For example, the need for standardization was expressed by academic and industrial delegates at International Conferences such as ICFPE in 2009.

The proposal to establish a standardization body for the printed electronics was presented at Printed Electronics Europe 2011 and the agreement on this proposal was made among participants from many countries. The proposal indicated the IEC as the most suitable place for the printed electronics since the technology intends to develop mainly electronic and electric devices for the global society. Also there was no objection from any country on the IEC scheme.

IEC TC 110 (Title: Electronic Display Devices) started to cover only a flexible display panel, only a small part of standardization issues which are related to the areas of the printed electronics. IEC TC 119 will cover entire fields in ubiquitous electronics where new concepts of technology including materials, equipment, parts, processes, barrier layers and encapsulation etc. are highly demanded.

As technologies mature, there are many printing techniques to be considered in fabricating electronic devices such as flexo, offset, inkjet, gravure, screen printing, including roll to roll, roll to sheet or sheet to sheet web transfer methods. Each printing technique for electronics fabrication has been developed over the previous decades. As a result, they are ready to be applied to the practical production of printed and flexible electronics.
Printed electronics (PE) requires specialized quality assurance and process control standards due to its unique manufacturing methods that involve the layer-by-layer deposition of materials on flexible substrates. The lack of regulation in this field affects yield, reliability, and wider industry adoption, necessitating focused development of standards by IEC TC 119. As such, a broader theme for standards development, which will eventually enable compatibility among products and a common industry wide manufacturing practice, is required. To facilitate the alignment of scopes of different WGs, the following theme sub-topics have been identified:

1. Adhesion and mechanical reliability: Poor adhesion can lead to delamination and cracking, especially under bending stresses in multilayer printed circuits. Standards should define adhesion strength benchmarks, fatigue testing under mechanical stresses, and reliability tests for multilayer stacking.

2. Printed encapsulation and barrier layers: Standardized water vapor and oxygen transmission rate benchmarks, accelerated aging, and mechanical stability tests of encapsulation and barrier layers will ensure device integrity and longevity.

3. Electrical performance optimization: Printed conductors have higher resistivity than copper, requiring minimum sheet resistance benchmarks and non-contact electrical measurement techniques. Dielectric ink specifications, standardized test protocols for validating post-processing methods, electrical endurance and reliability test methods for flexible/stretchable layers are also essential for leading to industrially safe and certifiable products.

4. In-line process monitoring and defect inspection: High-speed printing can cause defects such as incomplete traces and ink bleeding. The process will also introduce risks of misalignment of printed layers from ink spreading and substrate variations, causing defects like open circuits and shorts. Automated, non-destructive, real-time inspection methods and AI-based defect classification are essential for consistent quality, alongside providing real-time feedback and strategies for process control

Moreover, under the printed components category, a high level of standardization activity in (1) flexible batteries, (2) integrated antenna arrays, and (3) integrated sensors which will support the growth of the sector is needed.

Furthermore, with PE’s greatest opportunity for automotive platforms, sectoral specifications and standardized test methods are required to address several function- and safety-critical properties including performance of touch surfaces, acquisition of signals from sensors and systems, guidance, navigation, control, charging, sensing and operator interaction.

Although several horizontal standards and activities exist to address sustainability and circular economy of electrical and electronic products, TC 119 has identified some key items to be considered that are specific to PE which includes materials, process technologies and manufacturing.

From a market point of view there are lots of advantages when this technology is applied to the electronic and electrical industry. It enables us to fabricate mass-scale products with high throughput and extremely low cost. Accordingly, the current silicon technology based on photolithography should be replaced by printing technology in the field of ubiquitous electronics. The expected growth of the market is shown in Figure 1. The technology focus has now shifted to applying these techniques to fabricate real devices from developing core technologies. TC 119 will focus on supporting the strategy and road map reflecting the ubiquitous electronic market trends. Hence the international standards published by the TC 119 will open the related market and industry.

Printed electronics has emerged from conventional electronics by reshaping and empowering them with printing technologies. The success of this field hinges on how effectively the leaders of the field team up with counterparts of pre-existing electronics industries. Thus, it is critical to carry out standardization activities in close collaboration with other pre-existing TCs by using the following strategy.
Identifying all potential areas that require collaboration and prepare a systematic approach plan (as shown below) that shows how each area of TC 119 needs cooperation with other TCs or academic/industrial organization.

• Building a support network by establishing liaisons with other TCs or conjunctions with other academic or industrial organizations.

• Established liaisons with the following TCs: TC 47, TC 47/SC 47F, TC 91, TC 110, TC 111, TC 113, TC 124 and ISO/TC 20, ISO/TC 61/SC 11, ISO/TC 130

Established liaisons with the following organizations via C category: OE-A, VAMAS TWA 36

TC 119 does not currently have any publications used for IEC conformity assessment system.