Speaker: Kimmo Pernu | Company: Movesense by Suunto Oy| Date: 10-11 March 2021 | Full Presentation Movesense is an open sensor platform for creating new solutions to track motion, heart rate and ECG. Movesense is used for building wearable sensor concepts and for integrating sensors with apparel. To enable smooth apparel integration and to provide context information for the sensor, Movesense team of the Finnish sports watch expert Suunto worked together with TactoTek, another Finnish tech company specialized in IME, to develop a flexible connector element that includes in-molded electronics and can be applied to clothing with typical textile industry methods. The presentation describes the project background and steps in practice. Join TechBlick on an annual pass to join all live online conference or online version of onsite conference access library of on-demand talks (600 talks + PDFs) portfolio of expert led masterclass year-round platform https://www.techblick.com/ And do NOT miss our flagship event in Berlin on 17-18 OCT 2023 focused on Reshaping the Future of Electronics. This event attracts 550-600 participants from all the world and offers a superb ambience and dynamic exhibition floor. To learn more visit https://www.techblick.com/electronicsreshaped To see feedback about previous event see https://www.techblick.com/events-agenda...

Screen printing never ceases to advance and is entering into ultrafine line printing territory. FERNANDO ZICARELLI explains in this short 5-min talks important considerations to achieve fineline printing and further push the resolution down: - Team effort: screen printing is a team effort, requiring close collaboration between paste maker, mesh and emulsion maker, printer, etc. - Black stainless steel mesh: conventional stainless steel meshes are reflective (10-15%). To achieve narrow and sharp openings in the high resolution photosensitive emulsion, random reflections from the stainless steel mesh- especially at 365nm and 405nm wavelengths- need to be minimized. This is why a black version is required
- Narrow meshes: Asada Mesh is the master of making the most advanced stainless steel meshes. To achieve sub 30um, a mesh with a diameter of 11-13um with 55%-60% opening will be required. Asada Mesh is already pushing the performance envelope, offering even 9um meshes. This is an incredible advance, considering it takes around 3 years of intense developments to shave 1um from the diameter of the mesh
Substrate selection: depending on paste, substrate selection is key to balance surface tension/energy. Here, Fernando shows the outsize impact of substrate properties on on even 50um printed lines To learn more and to meet the Asada Mesh team join us in Eindhoven (12-13 OCT) https://www.techblick.com/electronicsreshaped...

We recently came across this interesting system, developed by Masoud Mahjouri-Samani, PhD et al Auburn University. Here, as shown below, an excimer laser is focused by lens onto a target. The target is ablated, forming a plume of nanoparticles which then condense onto the substrate to form nanoparticles. The laser system can be used to in situ sinter and crystallize the structure. This dry printing process thus involves no inks and can 'print' complex multifunctional materials like TiO2 or ITO, going beyond the capability of traditional digital printing. This researchers claim that this "new method allows the in situ and on-demand formation of various nanoparticle building blocks in atmospheric pressure and at room temperature. These nanoparticle building blocks can be directed toward the substrate through a nozzle forming a stream of nanoparticles that can be laser sintered/crystallized on various substrates in real-time." Indeed, below you can see an example of the generated and sintered TiO2 nanoparticles. Furthermore, you can see examples of ITO and TiO2 circuits printed on SiO2 substrate using this process. This is a novel, promising and innovative approach to direct digital deposition of a wide range of materials on various substrates. It may overcome some key limitations of ink-based wet printing techniques, especially in terms of possible material options. This is currently a small scale lab operation and of course as the technology development advances more trade-...

In this short 5-min presentation, Dr. Martin Hedges shares his insights about the current status as well as medium term (3-5 year) and long term (5-10 year) development roadmap of the industry. Martin is the CEO of Neotech AMT GmbH, a leader in the development of 3D printed electronics machinery, for both prototyping and volume production.
Current status: you can exampleds of (1) print on already 3D surfaces and (2) fully additive 3D printed electronics. In the latter, you can see an example of a filament (FFM) 3D printer building the mechanical part. The process is interrupted to automatically do SMT PnP and Ag metal jetting for building the conductive tracks. Here, multiple layers of interconnected electronics are created within the 3D structure, integrating parts such as LED, optics, waveguides, etc
Short term (3-5 year) roadmap: the industry should complete the first completely automated processing line based on digital 3D printing of electronics. Some degree of AI/ML will also be integrated for quality inspection and perhaps even auto correction. Furthermore, a wide range of functionalities, especially power electrodes, will be integrated, perhaps using cermaic structures, and the printed area/volume will also expand to form large 3D objects. Long term (5-10year) roadmap: completely new product architectures will be enabled and the industry can start to move away from traditional etching-based PCB production techniques. Furthermore, automated recycling, repair and r...

Speaker: Casper Peeters | Company: E-Magy | Date: 9-10 Feb 2022 | Full Presentation A major improvement for the next generation of Li-ion batteries is the introduction of silicon as material for the anode, bringing capacity and fast charging to the next level. The biggest challenge of applying silicon-dominant anodes in Li-ion batteries, is silicon's tendency to expand during cycling. E-magy has invented and manufactures micron-sized silicon particles with nanopores that overcome this challenge by containing that expansion within the nanopores themselves. Li-ion batteries with anodes made of E-magy silicon hold 40% more energy than those made of graphite. It's the low-cost, drop-in solution compatible with existing production lines that the EV industry needs – as currently verified by R&D managers of more than a dozen leading automotive and battery manufacturer brands. Join TechBlick on an annual pass to join all live online conference or online version of onsite conference access library of on-demand talks (600 talks + PDFs) portfolio of expert led masterclass year-round platform https://www.techblick.com/ Our next battery-related event will take place on 15-16 FEB 2023, covering 1) Solid-State Batteries: Innovations, Promising Start-Ups, & Future Roadmap 2) Battery Materials: Next-Generation & Beyond Lithium Ion The speakers include: General Motors, Graphenix Development, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Fraunhofer IKTS, RWTH Aachen University, Law...

It is incredible to see the progress that organic semiconductors (OSC) have made over the past 15-20 years. Ian Jenks, CEO of SmartKem, Inc.- a leader in the field- explains in this short 5-min presentation how they are removing the long-existing barriers to adoption of OTFT technology. These are hard-won crucial and essential development steps to ensure commercial success, as technical progress alone in terms of mobility or stability will never suffice. 1- EDA tools: They have designed EDA tools enabling design and simulation of circuits using their OTFT circuits. This is an essential prerequisite for adoption which had been previously missing 2- Full portfolio of TFT materials: TFT is not just the semiconducting layer. All materials in a TFT stack must work together in an optimized way. Some 50M and ten years have been spent to develop a full portfolio of materials required to make an OTFT together with processing parameters including passivation layers, sputter resistant layer, base layer gate insulator, etc. This is incredibly important because all materials must work together and ensure compatibility with existing production processes. 3- Compatibility with existing processes: One can not expect display makers to reinvent the wheel and to adopt not just a new material but also a new process. Thus compatibility with existing processes is an absolute must-have. Smartkem has ensured that one can make OTFT backplane using its material set based on existing LCD equipment 4- ...

New HTL materials enable bridging the gap between the latest lab-level and production-level printed OPV performance: In this concise 5-min presentation, Nicolas Bouchard first shows the historical rise of OPV efficiencies from 2.5% in 2000 to >18% now, showing how evolution in materials has driven this rise (P3HT: PCBM --> emergence of push-pull polymers (PPP) --> rise of non-fullerene acceptors (NFAs)---> novel PPP and NFA).
He then reveals the large gap between the best lab results and the best production level results with the highest industry-scale results being <8% !!
One key factor holding back the efficiency of production-level OPVs is the unavailablity of a hole transport layer (HTL) compatible with the latest OPV donor and acceptor materials. This is because the latest novel donor and acceptor materials have wider bandgaps, thereby creating a large energy barrier with the common traditional HTL materials: PEDOT. This acts against charge injection and lowers efficiency. Thus, to get the best from the latest PPPs and NFAs in industry-scale processes, one requires an HTL material in a non halogenated solvent with a deep work function which can be printed in ambient conditions and which yields uniform thick (>100nm) layers. Brilliant Matters has developed such a material. Here, it is shown how this novel printable deep HTL achieves results equivalent to MoO3 (best evaporated material) when used with PTQ10 and NFA.
This is an important step in further development and...

Dr. Eric Macdonald is one of the pioneering developers of 3D printed electronics and he also happens to ba great storyteller. In this short presentation, you can learn about the evolution of 3D printed electronics at their lab from 2009 until now. First, you will see an example of 3D printed motors from 2009. Here, the 3D printing process would be interrupted to manually insert wires and magnetics into the stator, making a functional motor able to run at 4000 rpm. In the next example, you can see an automatic multi-station system, combining multiple 3D print and gantry/worktop stations all connected and orchestrated by an industrial robotic arm. Here, the plastic parts would be printed using Stratasys printers. The 3D printing process would be interrupted and the robotic arm would take the part to other gantries where wire placement, milling, machining, dispensing, IC and PCB placement etc could automatically take place, before the robotic arm would take the part back to the 3D printer to continue the build up. This was thus a fully automated system for building 3D printed electronics. In general, Eric's group did not focus on conductive inks and pastes given the low conductivity levels. However, as they look to form 3D printed electronics based on alumina and zirconia sintered at high temperature, they may re-use high temperature sintered conductive plates, perhaps borrowed from the LTCC world. Given the high sintering temperatures, very high conductivity levels can be achie...