Interim report and financial statements for the first quarter 2010: During the quarter, Thinfilm has further increased its market activities. At present, Thinfilm Memory™ production is now ready to move from pilot to commercial volumes. Furthermore, the Company is designing an inexpensive Thinfilm Memory Controller, and has started development of the next generation of higher density printed memories.

• Q1 2010 Interim Report

Thinfilm has increased its market activities in 2010. These additional efforts have mainly targeted inventors and manufacturers of toys and games, where Thinfilm sees significant near-term commercial prospects. “We experience a high degree of interest from this audience, and we have now reached a point where several new toys and game concepts which use Thinfilm Memory are under development,” says Rolf Åberg, CEO of Thinfilm.

Last year, Thinfilm was the first in the world to produce polymer memories at large scale using roll-to-roll printing. Over the last months, Thinfilm has made further progress together with its partners in moving from pilot to regular production.

Thinfilm is designing a new low-cost memory reader and writer. “The Thinfilm Memory Controller will open new markets and enable a broader range of applications for our technology,” Åberg continues, and explains that the memory controller will further increase the cost leadership of Thinfilm’s printed memory compared to alternatives, such as magnetic cards and flash, on a per-chip/per-device basis. It will also smooth the integration of the Thinfilm Memory into game designs, and hence ensure shorter time-to-market for memory-enhanced games. Furthermore, it enables new stand-alone hand-held toy designs, and also provides a low-cost and small-footprint reader/writer technology platform for applications in other industries.

Thinfilm has started the work on higher density printed memories. The next generation of memories currently under development will increase memory capacity with small changes in layout. Higher-density printed memories are expected to be coupled with printed primary batteries, sensors and displays, creating disposable packaging and status indicator elements.

Very promising research and development is carried out in the field of printed electronics, and many types of electronic components can today be printed. “To integrate them in fully printed electronic systems still needs some breakthroughs, not least on printed transistors,” says Åberg.

About Thinfilm and printed electronics: Thin Film Electronics ASA (“Thinfilm”) is focused on providing low-power, non-volatile, rewritable polymer memory technology and products in the rapidly growing market of Printed Electronics. Thinfilm’s current main product offering is a 20-bit non-volatile rewriteable memory printed in a high-volume roll-to-roll process.

Printed electronics is still in its early stages, and according to industry analyst group IDTechEx, is expected to grow to more than USD 50 billion in market value over the next ten years. IDTechEx predicts that logic (i.e., memory and transistors) will be the largest segment in this market, representing more than 30 per cent of the total. Using printing to manufacture electronic memory makes it possible to reduce the number of process steps, dramatically reduce manufacturing costs, as well as the environmental impact as compared to traditional semiconductor processes. Commercial applications of printed electronics include e-paper electronic readers and organic light emitting (OLED) displays. Sensors, batteries, and photovoltaic energy sources are also in development, and together with Thinfilm’s memory technology they will open the door to new products and applications. Memory is an essential part of most electronics. Memory is required for identification, tracking status and history, and is used whenever information is stored. Thinfilm’s non-volatile ferroelectric polymer memory technology is well suited for application with other printed electronics devices because the power consumption during read and write is negligible, and during stand-by, no connection to external power is required. Data is retained without power consumption and the electric current required to write information is so small that operation using a standard battery would last years, and likely be limited by the battery’s lifetime and not its original amount of power.

Interim report and financial statements for the first quarter 2010