Dr. Thompson will be speaking on behalf of the FHE community and will explain how it will fundamentally shift the way electronics across industries will be manufactured — opening up to a new generation of medical devices, military applications, asset monitoring, wearables and other aspects of the IoT. He will discuss:
- Manufacturing will inevitably pivot focus from traditional printed circuit boards to FHE; impact on $70 billion industry
- First steps involve narrowing roll out to the most suitable markets applications that can benefit from leveraging FHE (lower cost, highly customizable, environmentally friendly, etc.)
- Predict shift will happen in the medical sphere first; devices such as EKG monitors
- Previous manufacturing hubs won’t be left behind as workforce development is a priority
Malcolm Thompson, Ph.D., Executive Director, NextFlex
Dr. Malcolm Thompson brings more than 30 years of executive experience in the display, semiconductor, and telecom industries to his current role as Executive Director of NextFlex. He served as the Founder and Chairman of the US Display Consortium and was CTO at Xerox PARC. Thompson was CEO of four startups during his career, raising more than $300 million: dpiX, makers of digital x-ray imaging systems; Novalux, providers of high power vertical cavity lasers; Vitex, makers of encapsulants for OLEDs; and RPO, manufacturers of touch systems for mobile products.
His recent advisory roles include advisor to the National Academy of Sciences for flexible electronics, the Pentagon, and White House Economic Advisory Council; Thompson was also appointed Technology Pioneer at the World Economic Forum in 2000 and 2001. Thompson received a Ph.D. in Applied Physics from the University of Brighton.