On-Site Masterclasses
Berlin 2026
The Future of Electronics RESHAPED
+ Perovskite Connect
+ Electronic Textiles RESHAPED
+ Sustainable Electronics RESHAPED
There will be multiple parallel tracks of industry-led masterclasses on 20 October 2026, the day before the conference.
Each 45-minute masterclass will cover a technology or application in detail, offering an insightful blend of practical, technological and application knowledge. These masterclasses will be delivered by industry experts & may involve live demonstrations.
Attendees will be able to move between tracks at the end of each class. The numbers in each class are limited to 50, and will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. All masterclass presentations will be recorded and available along with the PDF slides for all attendees on demand one week after the event.
Contact venessa@techblick.com if you have any queries.
Masterclasses | Track 1
9:00AM
Electrically Conductive Inks - Formulation, Printing and Applications
10:00AM
Liquid Metal Inks for Highly Reliable Printed Stretchable Electronics: Formulation, Rheology, and Wetting Control
Lukas Werft
Fraunhofer IZM
This masterclass provides a materials-science perspective on gallium-based liquid metal inks as a route toward highly conductive, mechanically compliant, and printable soft electronics. The session focuses on how ink formulation governs viscosity, wetting behavior, substrate interaction, line formation, and electrical continuity. Particular emphasis is placed on polymer–solvent systems, liquid metal droplet morphology, oxide-mediated stabilization, and the process window for dispensing and screen printing. Prototype examples will illustrate how formulation and printing parameters translate into stretchable interconnects, soft sensors, textile-integrated interfaces, and interactive demonstrators. The masterclass concludes with a forward-looking discussion on how liquid metal inks could enable future soft human–machine interfaces, wearable systems, robotic skins, and adaptive electronic surfaces.
11:00 AM
Slot‑Die Coating Essentials: Principles, Process Windows, and Practical Insights
Thomas Exlager
TNO
This masterclass provides a concise introduction to slot‑die coating as an industrially relevant thin‑film deposition technique. It focuses on the fundamental working principles of slot‑die coating, key process parameters, and the concept of the coating window. Emphasis is placed on understanding how material properties, flow behavior, and operating conditions influence coating stability, thickness control, and uniformity.
12:00 PM
Screen printing in battery production - New Opportunities
Mario Kohl
Fraunhofer IFAM
This masterclass shows new opportunities for battery production by the use of screen printing. Topics will be:
-Whole process chain from paste preparation, printing up to drying and cell testings
-Different active material systems IFAM is working on
-Comparison with State of the art coating processes
-Fully printed Sodium-Ion All-Solid-State-Batteries
-IFAM Printing plattform for printed electrodes
Masterclasses | Track 2
9:00AM
Redefining digital production: high-viscosity inkjet and real-time nozzle status sensing
Gioele Balestra
iPrint Institute
In an era defined by global supply chain vulnerabilities and an urgent need for environmental sustainability, the manufacturing sector is at a crossroads. Traditional production methods—often rigid, wasteful, and resource-intensive—are being challenged by the demand for "Mass Customization" and rapid prototyping. Digital printing, specifically inkjet technology, has already revolutionized industries like ceramic decoration. Today, its potential spans from watchmaking and medical diagnostics to photovoltaics and aerospace. By enabling precise, nozzle-level control over liquid deposition, inkjet serves as a cornerstone for Industry 4.0, offering a path toward flexible, automated, and waste-minimized production.
Despite this promise, standard inkjet has been restricted by two primary factors: the physical limitations of conventional printheads—specifically fluid viscosity—and low process reliability. Standard piezo-inkjet systems typically require "water-like" viscosities, which limits the use of high-molecular-weight polymers and high-solid-content functional inks necessary for high-performance electronics. Furthermore, the risk of missing or misfiring nozzles remains a critical barrier; in printed electronics, a single failing nozzle can compromise the entire part, leading to prohibitive costs and industrial downtime.
We are entering a new paradigm with the advent of high-viscosity inkjet printheads and advanced sensing technology. Together, these represent a quantum leap in digital deposition.
However, the transition to high-viscosity printing introduces significant technical hurdles. This presentation moves beyond the hype to address the practical "how-to" of high-viscous jetting, including the complexities of formulating and characterizing highly concentrated, non-Newtonian fluids where standard rheology often fails. Additionally, we will address the systemic requirements for high-pressure ink handling—specifically the redesign of degassers, filters, and delivery systems. Finally, we will examine how real-time nozzle status sensing provides the process stability required to make inkjet truly fit for Industry 4.0.
By overcoming these hurdles, we can realize a future where high-performance materials are deposited with the flexibility of digital data, driving a more resilient and sustainable electronics industry.
9:00 AM
Eco-Design for Printed Electronics: Utilizing LCA to Drive Circular Business Models
Max Marwede & David Sánchez
Fraunhofer IZM
The masterclass will present the key insights of developing sustainable (printed) electronics of the European research project Sustronics. It will focus on how life-cycle-assessments influenced the development of sustainable materials, processes, circular prototypes and business models. You will learn:
- How the process went in reality and what we learned to improve it.
- Key LCA findings leading to eco-design measures for the prototypes
- How the LCA results influence circular business modelling and which key value creation and capture strategies emerged.
10:00AM
TBC
Notion Systems
Masterclasses | Track 3
Company Tours
All our tours are open to attendees of the morning masterclasses. Places on the tours will be allocated on a 'first come, first served' basis.
The tours will leave at 1.30pm and attendees should meet at the registration desk. Transportation will be provided and the tours are expected to return to the Estrel by 6.00pm.
Tours at our past events: Berlin 2024, Berlin 2025
Helmholz Zentrum 2026
Fabrication, development, and characterization of metal halide perovskite materials and solar cell devices.
The Helmholtz Innovation Lab HySPRINT offers a unique infrastructure for fabrication, development, and characterization of metal halide perovskite materials and solar cell devices in the high-tech campus Berlin Adlershof. This infrastructure is used to develop world leading perovskite single junctions, mini modules and perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells. It includes several wet chemical and vacuum based deposition methods integrated into inert condition operating glove-boxes. The tour will be guided through these laboratories and specific fabrication methods will be presented together with highlighting how these solar cells are characterized in terms of performance.
This tour is limited to 40 people, and places will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. Helmholtz Innovation Lab is a 20 minute drive from Estrel Congress Center, transportation will be provided.
www.helmholtz-berlin.de/projects/hysprint/
Fraunhofer IZM 2026
Substrate Integration. Textile Integration Lab. Cleanroom. Material Characterization.
Fraunhofer IZM’s focus is on packaging technology and the integration of multifunctional electronics into systems. As part of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, the institute specializes in applied and industrial contract research. Fraunhofer IZM was founded in 1993 and is today one of the global leaders in microelectronics and microsystems packaging. The focus lies mainly on material, process and substrate development, characterization and simulation, advanced system engineering, assembly and interconnection technologies, and environmental engineering. Fraunhofer IZM employs more than 450 employees and graduate students, with its main branch in Berlin. Together with its partner institute at the TU Berlin, it is running a ~1000 m² clean room with full thin-film and packaging capabilities from 4” to 12” wafers.
During the guided tour at Fraunhofer IZM, you will get a deep insight into the hottest electronics research topics.
Substrate Integration
See what’s new in chip-on-board technologies, for precision mounting or the embedding of microelectronics into rigid and flexible printed circuit boards. Fraunhofer IZM’s lab opportunities go even further: hot embossing, micro-optical assembly, component and system characterization, encapsulations (conformal coating, potting, flip-chip and CoB molding, needle and jet dispensing, transfer and liquid molding, wafer-level encapsulation) or state-of-the-art SMD & flip-chip assembly!
Textile Integration Lab
With the Textile Integration Lab, the Fraunhofer IZM offers outstanding resources, highly qualified staff, years of experience and a multitude of tools to advance and support the development of innovative e-textile applications. Several state-of-the-art lamination presses allow for the seamless integration of electronic modules into textiles. With an industrial embroidery machine including TFP capability, a variety of conductive yarns and wires can be directly sewn onto textiles to realize complex electronic circuitry. Thermoplastic materials can be joined using our ultrasonic spot and rotary welding machines. The e-textile bonder – developed at the Fraunhofer IZM – makes resource-efficient and reliable interconnections between electronic modules and textile-integrated circuits fast and easy. This innovative process enables us to achieve a mechanical and electrical interconnection in one step. Electronic modules of up to 50 x 50 mm² can be interconnected with conductive structures integrated into textiles of up to 100 x 100 cm².
Cleanroom
Fraunhofer IZM runs cleanrooms and laboratories with production-compatible equipment. Besides the flexibility regarding the processing of different wafer sizes, the process lines are also characterized by a high adaptability of the individual processes. Take a breathtaking look into the 800 m² clean room (classes 10 to 1000) + 800 m² gray room, 4’’, 6’’ and 8’’ prototyping equipment, for some applications also on 300 mm. This is where high-density electronics integration technologies are being developed: thin-film deposition, photolithography (including photo varnishes, polymers and spray coating), galvanic bumping, circuit tracks and through-via filling (Cu, Ni, Au, AuSn, SnAg, PbSn), wet-chemical processes (etching, cleaning), wafer bonding and silicon plasma etching.
Material Characterization
For the successful optimisation of the reliability of complex systems in the micro/nano range, it is necessary to have knowledge about the failure behaviour of materials and of damage development. In order to be able to precisely describe deformation, damage and crack behaviour of materials and composites, investigations are provided on stresses under the relevant operating conditions. These include static/dynamic testing, microload equipment, material analysis, nano-hardness testing, atomic force microscopy, thermal analysis, component assessment and mechanical spectroscopy.