Current trends in the development of electronic systems show that the provision of thin flexible and semiconductor components plays a decisive role in the progressive development of highly integrated systems. A new generation of thin flexible electronic systems emerges. At Fraunhofer IZM, the online manufacturing processes for polymer electronic systems are developed in production type equipment. A low cost process for the manufacture of polymer electronics has been developed completely in continuous flexible sheet substrates with a typical thickness of 50 / spl mu / m, allowing the fabrication of low-performance electronic circuits with IC complexity of up to 30 devices at present (2005). This process opens other possibilities for integrating thin silicon circuits and microelectromechanical plastic (MEMS) systems in the same manufacturing and process environment. Microsystems incorporating fluid, mechanical, optical and electrical components are under current research and development. Major application scenarios for polymer electronics predict fully applicable displays, embedded MEMS, labels for wireless broadband communications, polymer batteries and photovoltaic cells.