$3bn bid for bendy circuits.

Byline: By Howard Walker 

Acutting-edge hi-tech facility which could open the door to a $3bn industry for the North-East has received a pounds 2m boost.

The region's centre of excellence for Process Innovation (CPI) has secured the money from regional development agency One NorthEast to help build an open access Flexible Electronics Facility on Teesside.

The development, to be built at Wilton, will be used to produce what are called flexible substrates; the building blocks for the flexible electronics industry.

Once developed, these can be used in a host of ways, from "smart" tags which can track consumer goods to display units which can be rolled and unrolled like a newspaper and could replace conventional laptops.

The market for the display sector alone is estimated to be worth at least $20bn (pounds 10.6bn) with the smart tag market expected to be worth $10bn (pounds 5.3bn) by 2015.

Tom Taylor, CPI director of functional materials, believes the Wilton facility could garner as much as $3bn (pounds 1.58bn) of the market by 2010, as well as attracting other companies in the fledgling industry to set up in the North-East.

Mr Taylor said: "I think there is a real window of opportunity for the region here, that is why we are involved and that is how we have persuaded One NorthEast to invest in this area.

"The UK has a world lead in this science at the moment, but it is not connected into a supply chain yet and there is a race on ( with the Japanese and the Americans both keen to set up one.

"As well as establishing the facility, we are aiming to encourage the display manufacturers to make their products in this region."

The Flexible Electronics Facility will cost a total of pounds 4.5m, with the remaining balance financed by commercial partners including Teesside-based DuPont Teijin Films, a world leader in flexible films.

As well as making flexible substrates, the development, due to be commissioned in September, will also be an open access resource to companies in the industry who will pay daily rates to use its facilities and expertise.

Nigel Perry, chief executive officer of CPI, said: "The open access facility will enable industry to explore new technologies without the capital outlay of building a state-of-the-art clean facility, scale manufacturing and test hall. This is an opportunity for CPI to grow a plastic electronics industry cluster that will bring with it huge benefits for the North-East."

The region is also bidding to establish another facility which would use the substrates made at Wilton to manufacture finished products.

The Plastic Electronics Manufacturing (PEM) centre has been earmarked for Tyneside and a consortium of leading players in the industry, together with the North-East's centre of excellence for nanotechnology, micro and photonic systems (CENAMPS), is bidding for pounds 9m of Government cash to set it up.