A COUNTY Durham electronics firm has bagged a £9,762 grant for further development of its flexible circuit boards.

Sedgefield PragmatIC has propelled itself into world leadership with its ultra low cost and thin flexible integrated circuits (FlexICs), supported by a grant from Digital Drive County Durham.

FlexICs are thinner than a human hair and ideal for bringing intelligence and interactivity into a wide range of everyday products, such as consumer goods and pharmaceuticals.

For example, the technology can used in hospitals to track pathology samples like blood and saliva.

The grant, from Digital Drive County Durham and delivered by UMi, enables PragmatIC to further develop its unique technology platform for flexible integrated circuits.

Digital Drive County Durham provides events, one to one business support and grants on behalf of Business Durham, while UMi also facilitates information flow to ensure access to expertise and funding opportunities.

While PragmatIC is based in Cambridge, more than half of the company’s 80 members of staff are based at the manufacturing plant, based at the North East Technology Park (NETPark). The grant has supported the firm's data capture and analytics efforts at the manufacturing site.

Gillian Ewers, vice president of marketing at PragmatIC, said: “Having an inlay with a PragmatIC FlexIC embedded into the packaging of a product means that it can be assigned a unique identity.

“With a simple tap of an NFC-enabled smartphone, consumers can gain access to additional information, such as legible advice for medicines or allergy information for food.

“The rapid design and implementation of robust data capture and analytic processes is critical for us to reach our challenging goals of having a trillion FlexICs manufactured close to where they will be required around the world to meet local demand and shorten supply chains.

“In the future, we will add sensors, which will enable more applications, for example making sure a product is being stored at the right temperature, or even checking if it is still okay to use.

“It would be a real step forward if we could use this technology to do things like reducing food waste.”

Mr Ewers described the The Digital Drive County Durham programme as simple and smooth, enabling PragmatIC to "quickly advance".

"The grant meant we could bring in additional resources, and as a result we reduced the time to complete this phase of development by six months," he added.

Andrea McGuigan from Business Durham, the economic arm of Durham Council which runs NETPark, said: “We delighted that PragmatIC has taken advantage of the Digital Drive grant to develop this leading edge technology.

"The programme was developed to support SMEs in County Durham to make better use of technology in their business and PragmatIC is a prime example of what the project can help businesses to achieve.

“I wish PragmatIC every success with its new and innovative technology and hope that their story convinces other businesses to take advantage of the support."