Interaction between humans and machines is increasingly part of our daily lives, with wearable devices that monitor our vital signs, beds that measure our sleeping patterns and car interiors that interact with the driver. TNO at Holst Centre develops the technological solutions and functionalities to allow for this future to be realized, by developing printed electronic devices that can take on any form factor and function.
Expertise at work
By combining world-class research with an extensive portfolio of technologies, TNO finds innovative solutions to technical challenges in printed and flexible electronics. We work across the entire electronics value chain and collaborate with academia, material and equipment suppliers and end-users to develop market-ready innovations.
Unobtrusively measuring your health
TNO develops medical monitoring devices and smart clothing that provide us with the data to obtain new insights to improve our health and wellbeing. Inspired by the human skin, these devices are so thin and conformable that people do not notice wearing them. A good example is the clinically validated patch for cardiovascular monitoring that can be worn for seven days without people noticing its presence.
Surfaces that can sense
TNO creates adaptable, multisensory foils that can easily be integrated into everyday objects. These printed foils are highly conformable and can be equipped with the ability to sense physical phenomena such as temperature and pressure. Combined with the relevant data-analysis algorithms they can be used to create anything from battery management systems to mattresses that monitor a baby’s heart and breathing rate as it sleeps.
Made-to-measure electronics
Industry is beginning to recognise the benefits of 3D printing: ultimate design freedom, mass customization, and just-in-time ‘local’ manufacturing. TNO is taking the next step by bringing printed electronics into the equation: 3D printing meets printed electronics.
Our 3D-printed-electronics technologies allow for electronics manufacturing with an unprecedented design freedom and integration simplicity with minimal environmental impact. It, for example, allows for highly integrated and miniaturized medical devices and instruments that cannot be made in other ways. But it also allows for many more functions to be integrated in semiconductor chips.
From everyday to cutting edge
In-mould electronics technology can turn everyday plastic objects such as a car dashboard into cutting edge, intuitive user experiences. From proximity detection to direct touch, from high-quality illumination and displays to force sensing and haptic feedback, TNO’s approach adds electronic functions to any plastic surface.
A single foil is printed with both graphics and electronics and then integrated into a plastic object through injection moulding or thermoforming. This increases design freedom, reduces costs and allows for the lightest-weight solutions.
New technologies and techniques
TNO is constantly exploring the possibilities for further innovation and new market applications. For example, TNO at Holst Centre is working on a new printing technology capable of printing high-resolution thick tracks at high throughputs, which could replace current wiring technologies in semiconductor chip packaging and displays.
We are also developing a new soldering technique – photonic soldering – in which intense flashes of light initiate the soldering process. This would allow a much higher throughput and soldering on substrates with low thermal budgets. Lastly, it is developing a laser-based mass transfer technology to enable fast and accurate placement of silicon components on flexible plastic substrates, such as for micro-LED displays.
Flexible & Free-form Products
From wearable medical devices to seamlessly integrated novel IoT devices to customised food and medication. Flexible and free-form products are the key to ground-breaking technology and applications that... Read moreHolst Centre: Accelerating innovation
TNO knows that innovation is the key to a healthier and more sustainable world. But addressing the global societal challenges of tomorrow requires us to connect the latest innovations to the businesses... Read moreThin-Film Electronics: Precision that Accelerates
For more than 10 years, TNO’s experts at Holst Centre have been developing thin-film technology to enable batteries, photovoltaics, OLED lighting, OLED displays, imagers and much more. By combining and... Read more- Artificial Intelligence
- Application areas
- Use cases
- Program line 1: Safe autonomous systems in an open world
- Program line 2: Responsible human-machine interaction
- Secure learning in money laundering detection
- Fair decision making in the job market
- Secure learning in diabetes-2 advice
- Diagnosing for printer maintenance
- Subsidence monitoring
- Fair decision making in justice
- Augmented worker for smart industry
- Energy balancing for smart homes
- Secure learning in oncology research
- Innovation monitoring in policy
- News
- Defence, Safety & Security
- Roadmaps
- Operations & Human Factors
- Climate Chambers for Research into Human Performance
- Desdemona: The ultimate motion simulator
- LT Lab: the TNO learning technology laboratory
- Performance and health monitoring
- Motion sickness and performance
- The neurobiology of Stress
- NetForce Command: an alternative to hierarchical command and control
- Operational military performance in a virtual world
- SUPRA
- Simulation Live Virtual and Constructive
- Concept Development & Experimentation
- IAMD: Integrated Air & Missile Defence
- JROADS
- FACSIM
- Helicopter studies
- Replacement of the F-16
- MARVEL / Comprehensive Approach
- TNO ACE: Advanced CD&E Environment
- Integrated approach to Dutch Royal Navy patrol ships
- Operational analysis during military operations
- SketchaWorld: from sketch to virtual world
- Camouflage
- Information & Sensor Systems
- Digital Resilience of The Netherlands
- LFAS - Low Frequency Active Sonar
- Tanker Remote Vision System
- Platform signatures
- TNO shapes the future of MMICs and RFICs
- CARPET: Computer-Aided Radar Performance Evaluation Tool
- Underwater Warfare and Security
- Wide Area Motion Imagery WAMI
- SAKAMATA: sonar and marine mammals
- PARANOID: rapid information processing
- Mine analysis and threat evaluation
- Ship acoustics and underwater acoustic signatures
- PERSEUS Wind Turbine Radar Interference Assessment tool
- Electromagnetic security
- Operating safely at sea
- Operations at sea
- Ocean Space
- National Security
- A new vision on modernizing the emergency reporting process
- Social media in the security sector
- Automatic Video Compilation and Analysis System (AVACS)
- The Dutch Cyber Cube Method: Improving Human Capital for SOCs and CSIRTs
- Concealed weapon detection
- FP7 Project IMPACT Europe
- Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) policies in Europe
- @MIGO: border control
- Smarter Surveillance, man, machine, synergy
- Cyber Security of Industrial Control Systems
- Privacy enhancing techniques in cyber security data sharing
- Driving Innovation in Crisis Management with DRIVER+
- Crisis management: new challenges, new opportunities
- The learning professional: resilient and deployable for the long term
- Protection, Munitions & Weapons
- Weapons systems control and analysis
- Weapon Effects & Protection Center
- Firepower
- Protection and survivability of vehicles
- Naval protection and survivability
- Infrastructure protection and survivability
- World-class ballistics research
- Countering Explosive Threats
- Materials for protection concepts
- Processing of Propellants, Explosives and Pyrotechnics
- Ammunition Safety
- Ballistic Performance and Personal Protection
- Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Protection
- Anticipating accidents, incidents and threats
- Protecting those who protect us
- Process Safety Solutions: Expertise in Handling Hazardous Conditions Safely
- Expertise groups
- Acoustics and Sonar
- Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Protection
- Electronic Defence
- Energetic Materials
- Explosions, Ballistics and Protection
- Human Behaviour and Organisational Innovation
- Human Machine Teaming
- Human Performance
- Intelligent Autonomous Systems
- Intelligent Imaging
- Military Operations
- Modelling, Simulation and Gaming
- Networked Organisations
- Radar Technology
- Weapon Systems
- Energy Transition
- Roadmaps
- Renewable electricity
- Towards large-scale generation of wind energy
- The important of support structures
- Wind turbines, fully in motion
- Innovation towards 10-20 MW offshore wind turbines
- Modeling 10MW+ turbines aerodynamically
- Design for Reliable Power Performance (D4REL)
- Optimised wind blade tip design
- Vortex-wake models in wind turbine design
- Modelling improvement wind turbine blades
- Converters for Clean, Low Cost Electricity
- Haliade X: largest wind turbine ever
- New research on blade tip improvements
- Less production per wind turbine, still higher yield
- Logistics innovative strength at home and abroad
- Wind turbine management and maintenance
- Wind farms in synergy with the environment
- Innovative methods for wind measurements
- Keeping the electricity grid stable when there’s a surplus of wind and solar
- Innovation and the rise of solar energy
- Solar farms respecting landscape and nature
- Solar panels on farmland
- Research innovative solar parks
- Better design of solar parks
- Savings on solar farm operations and maintenance
- Floating solar panels on inland waterbodies
- Offshore solar energy
- National Consortium Solar in Landscape
- National Consortium Solar on Water
- Field lab floating solar
- Research into environmental effects of solar, wind energy
- Solar energy on buildings and infrastructure
- Solar panels in façades
- Solar windows
- More focus on safety of solar systems
- Solar heat and PV-T
- Roofs for solar energy
- Noise barriers producing solar energy
- Solar energy in road surfaces and crash barriers
- Solar panel energy generated on dikes
- Solar and infrastructure
- Outdoor test facility for BIPV(T)
- Solar Highways
- Solar-powered cars
- Mass customization
- Solar panel efficiency
- New technologies make PV more versatile
- Webinar: Innovations in solar energy technologies
- Putting Europe back in the lead in solar panel production
- System transition
- The social aspects of the energy transition
- TNO facilities for research into environmental effects of solar and wind energy
- Effective interventions to increase energy efficiency and reduce energy poverty
- Green and Ease under one roof
- Capacity building programme for energy efficiency in industry
- Zooming in on the future to make the right choices
- Scenarios for a climate-neutral energy system
- A fair system without energy poverty
- Financing the energy transition
- LAUNCH
- Successful neighbourhood approach: motivate residents
- Towards a reliable, affordable and fair energy system
- Towards CO2 neutral industry
- Reducing CO2 emissions through capture, use and storage
- SEWGS: revolutionary CO2-reduction technology and blue hydrogen production
- STEPWISE and FReSMe: CO2 reduction solutions for the steel industry
- 3D-printing for CO2 capture productivity increase
- Multi-partner ALIGN-CCUS project
- CEMCAP
- Reduce emissions steel industry
- CO₂ capture with AVR
- On-site CO₂ Capture Services: reducing emissions cost effectively
- SEDMES: Efficient technology to convert CO2 to useful product
- Hydrogen for a sustainable energy supply
- Optimising production hydrogen
- Hydrogen storage and transport
- Hydrogen, fuel and feedstock
- H-vision: blue hydrogen to accelerate carbon-low industry
- 15 things you need to know about hydrogen
- World first: Green hydrogen production in the North Sea
- New research centre for hydrogen production
- Identifying the future international chain of green hydrogen
- Opportunities for green hydrogen for the manufacturing industry investigated
- Hydrogen from offshore wind: optimising the electricity grid
- Faraday lab: optimising and scaling up electrolysis
- Blue hydrogen paves the way for green hydrogen
- Biomass to fuels and feedstock
- ARBAHEAT - Sustainable future for coal-fired power stations possible through conversion to biomass
- AMBITION Advanced biofuel production from lignin rich residues
- BECOOL EU Brazilian cooperation on advanced biofuels
- Horti-BlueC - a new EU cooperation on reducing Bio-waste and CO2-footprint in horticulture
- UNRAVEL - valorization of lignocellulosic biomass
- MacroFuels advanced biofuels from seaweed
- BRISK2 Biofuel Research Infrastructure for Sharing Knowledge
- New facility for seaweed processing
- TORWASH technology successful for waste water treatment and recycling plastics
- Biofuels lab: Making transport more sustainable with biofuels
- Take-Off: Sustainable aviation fuels from CO2, water and green energy
- HEREWEAR: Circular textiles from locally-sourced bio-based materials
- Transition to e-fuels: a strategy for HIC Rotterdam
- Re-use of existing infrastructure to accelerate the energy transition
- Sustainable Industrial Heat System
- 4 pioneering routes to a CO2 neutral industry
- Research facility Industrial Electrification accelerates greening of Rotterdam port
- Mollier facility: innovating in industrial drying technology
- Research facility for negative CO2 emissions
- Carnot lab accelerates sustainable industrial heat management
- Using energy and raw materials efficiently in industry
- e-Missi0n MOOI: TNO supports Dow and Shell in electric cracking
- CO2 reduction requires improvement of industrial processes
- Making the industrial energy transition feasible and affordable
- Sustainable subsurface
- Geological Survey of the Netherlands
- Geological Survey of the Netherlands
- 100 years of geological mapping
- GeoTOP
- Sand, gravel and clay extraction
- GIS and other tools for interactive planning
- DINO, Data and Information of the Dutch Subsurface
- BRO: the Dutch Key Register of the Subsurface
- Sustainable use and management Flemish-Dutch subsurface
- Petroleum Geological Atlas of the Southern Permian Basin
- 3D Subsurface mapping of the Dutch offshore
- Geological Survey of the Netherlands across borders
- Towards an energy-producing environment
- Expertise
- Industry
- Roadmaps
- Flexible & Free-form Products
- Space & Scientific Instrumentation
- Semiconductor Equipment
- Smart Industry
- Expertise groups
- Buildings, Infrastructure & Maritime
- Roadmaps
- Safe and Sustainable Living Environment
- Infrastructure
- Sustainable buildings: towards an energy-producing built environment
- Building innovation
- Greenhouse design
- Digitisation in construction
- Smart megastructures
- Expertise groups
- Circular Economy & Environment
- Roadmaps
- Circular economy
- Environment & Climate
- Sustainable Chemical Industry
- Expertise groups
- Healthy Living
- Roadmaps
- Health Technology & Digital Health
- Biomedical Health
- Work
- Youth
- Expertise groups
- Traffic & Transport
- Roadmaps
- SMART and Safe Traffic and Transport
- Societal impact for accessibility and liveability
- Decision-making information based on facts for municipalities
- Making disruptive technologies practicable
- Accessible, healthy and vibrant cities
- CITYkeys – Performance evaluation framework for smart cities and projects
- Big data ecosystems: collaborating on data-controlled cities
- Knowledge mediator puts an end to bickering
- Intact – Climate resilient critical infrastructure
- Organising mobility
- Smart mobility and logistics
- Smart vehicles
- Smart Mobility Research Centre SMRC
- Sustainable Traffic and Transport
- Sustainable Mobility and Logistics
- Improving air quality by monitoring real-world emissions
- Emission factors for road traffic
- Measuring the emissions of powered two wheelers
- Emissions of particulate matter from diesel cars
- Random Cycle Generator
- EnViVer: model traffic flow and emissions
- Measuring real-world emissions with TNO’s Smart Emissions Measurement System (SEMS)
- Measuring the emissions of trucks and buses
- Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Commercial Road Transport
- Measuring the emissions of non-road mobile machinery
- Emission measures in practice
- The transition to CO2-neutral mobility in 2050
- Sustainable Vehicles
- Innovative technologies for zero-emission vehicles
- CO2 reduction by high-efficiency Flex Fuel technology with extremely low emissions
- Actual energy consumption and emissions
- Automotive Battery Research
- Making transport more sustainable by means of electric vehicles
- Energy Efficient Electric Bus E3Bus
- eCoMove
- How hydrogen can accelerate energy transition in the transport sector
- Green performance of ships
- Expertise groups
- Information & Communication Technology
- Roadmaps
- Fast open infrastructures
- Data sharing
- Trusted ICT
- Efficiency, effectiveness, quality and the costs of systems
- Expertise groups
- Strategic Analysis & Policy
- Expertise groups
- Strategic Business Analysis
- Strategy & Policy
- Orchestrating Innovation
- Tech Transfer
Dr. ir. Jeroen van den Brand
- Printed electronics
- wearables
- sensors
- interconnection technology
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