Newest Spin-Off PST Sensors Inks Joint Development Deal

PST Sensors (Pty) Ltd, although established in 2010, was officially recognized as a UCT spin-off in 2011 with the conclusion negotiations around a Shareholders Agreement and assignment of intellectual property to the company.

PST Sensors is rapidly gaining traction in the market place having been awarded the Printed Electronics USA Best in Show Award at the recent 2011 Printed Electronics USA Conference in Silicon Valley (the second award for the technology). The company announced in a press release that they have entered into a Joint Development Agreement with a Norwegian technology company, Thin Film Electronics ASA, to develop printed temperature tags to monitor food and other perishable goods.

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This is one of the most significant IP portfolios that has been developed at UCT, by Profs Margit Harting and David Britton (Physics). It spans an entire value chain, with novelty and inventiveness at every stage - basically standalone companies could be built around each stage in the future. It is all focused on the production of printed silicon electronics, which will become a disruptive new technology to enter the global electronics industry.

A key challenge has been how to bring this powerhouse on-line and to approach the commercialisation. Technology demonstrators are the key and the focus of current work - initial devices provide the identical function to know devices that are based on existing technology (e.g. thermistors for temperature sensing) permitting industry to test the innovative technology side-by-side. Devices have performed well indicating their potential to achieve higher performance and radically lower cost.

UCT will be assigning the IP portfolio which comprises some 13 patent families to PST Sensors (Pty) Ltd. PST Sensors is already negotiating deals with other global players in the electronics industry to develop components that will be integrated into their products.

Other inventors associated with the IP portfolio are Ayodele Odo, Manfred Scriba and Ulrich Männl.