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The field of organic photovoltaics (OPVs) is moving rapidly and is, in many ways, advancing quickly in the wake of the OLED and PLED technologies, which have experienced a strong commercial push. OPVs share many of the technological challenges and design advantages with the aforementioned technologies. Since the device geometry in many aspects is identical and all three technologies employ a thin active layer sandwiched between two electrodes, the available modes of preparation for all three technologies are similar. Many solutions have been developed for OLEDs and PLEDs that are directly transferable to OPVs, and most notably the device structure is in many ways very similar. The desire to have a flexible device that is of low cost and that can be tailored to meet the needs of demanding designers and consumers have also driven the vision of ubiquitous plastic solar cells. Globally, the market for consumer products has seen a change and as the cost of consumer products have decreased during the past two decades, there has also been a shift in the attitude of the consumer, which is projected directly to the producers and developers of technology. The low-cost and ready availability has induced a state in the consumers where the technology is expected to be cheap, reliable, and easily replaceable. During the microelectronics era, from the 1960s through the 1980s, electronics were expensive and the rigid conditions of production led the consumers and designers to accept the size, shape, feel, color, etc. of the technology. In a sense, the technology dictated the available products. From the 1990s and until today, this has changed and consumers and designers now dictate what the technology has to look like and how it has to perform. This leaves researchers under a lot more pressure, and the high pedestal that technologists used to enjoy has now been reduced to a somewhat more balanced and service-oriented one.
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