Introducing the Program – Breaking Barriers in Digital Deposition & Inkjet
- 8 hours ago
- 5 min read
Why Should You Join TechBlick's The Future of Electronics RESHAPED?
The Future of Electronics RESHAPED conference and exhibition (21 & 22 OCT 2026, Estrel Congress Centre, Berlin) is set to be the most important event of the year focused on additive, hybrid, 3D, sustainable, wearable, soft and textile electronics. The event is co-located with Electronic Textiles RESHAPED, Sustainable Electronics RESHAPED, and Perovskite Connect, bringing the entire ecosystem together under one roof.
In this article, we highlight a series of superb talks around the theme of digital deposition and inkjet printing — from printheads that finally break the viscosity barrier, to complete digital manufacturing platforms, to technologies that push additive precision down to the sub-micron level. In future articles, we will cover further themes including material, ink and paste innovations; manufacturing and hybrid integration; and printed electronics applications.
Explore the full agenda now and register to join the event — one pass gives you access to all four co-located shows, the exhibition, and the TechBlick on-demand library.
Breaking the Viscosity Barrier: Next-Generation Inkjet Printheads
For decades, inkjet in electronics has been confined to low-viscosity, near-Newtonian fluids, leaving most functional pastes to analogue screen printing. In Berlin, four leading printhead makers will show how this decades-old limit is finally falling.
XAAR (United Kingdom) – Karl Forbes examines how recent advances in inkjet technology are overcoming the low-viscosity constraint that has limited inkjet's role in production electronics manufacturing. The talk shows how innovations in printhead design and fluid management enable reliable deposition of high-viscosity functional materials such as polymer thick films, adhesives, and protective coatings, addressing the engineering challenges of scale-up including fluid handling, jetting stability, layer uniformity, and process repeatability — a step change positioning inkjet as a viable production platform.
Seiko Instruments (Japan) – Fabio Tallarico presents results from a modified RC1536 piezoelectric printhead achieving stable, high-frequency jetting of an undiluted pseudoplastic fluid with rheological properties far beyond the traditional inkjet operating window. The talk explores how shear-thinning behavior influences droplet formation and jet stability, demonstrating that tailored printhead architectures can unlock reliable deposition of high-viscosity complex fluids for printed electronics and advanced material processing.
KYOCERA Europe (Japan) – Daisuke Hozumi introduces a piezoelectric bend-mode inkjet printhead architecture developed for stable ejection of high-viscosity, non-Newtonian functional inks while retaining high resolution and high nozzle density. Combining a high-output piezoceramic actuator with an optimized internal flow-path design, the printhead has demonstrated stable jetting of a non-Newtonian ink exceeding 50 mPa·s (at 1000 s⁻¹) at room temperature — opening a wider operating window for conductive, insulating, and structural inks.
Konica Minolta (Japan) – Kenji Mawatari shares new printhead driving technology for jetting higher-viscosity fluids using commercially available Konica Minolta printheads. Testing fluids between 10 and 50 mPa·s, the team confirmed that improved jetting efficiency using bi-polar waveforms and meniscus refilling control are key to ejecting higher viscosity fluids — extending the reach of proven industrial printheads without hardware redesign.
Digital Deposition Platforms & Process Reliability
Beyond the printhead itself, industrial adoption demands complete systems: material handling, process monitoring, and production-grade reliability.
Quantica (Germany) – Ben Hartkopp makes the case for digital functional material deposition based on direct volumetric displacement and mechanical actuation, overcoming legacy acoustic limitations to enable stable jetting of rheologically complex fluids up to 250 mPa·s. A key focus is processing heavily loaded conductive pastes and dielectrics with particle sizes up to 9 μm (D95) using continuous material recirculation — providing the engineered headroom for a fully flexible, scalable digital workflow.
iPrint Institute (Switzerland) – Gioele Balestra addresses the practical "how-to" of high-viscosity jetting: formulating and characterizing highly concentrated non-Newtonian fluids where standard rheology fails, redesigning degassers, filters, and high-pressure ink delivery systems, and — critically — deploying real-time nozzle status sensing. In printed electronics, a single failing nozzle can compromise an entire part; this talk shows how nozzle-level monitoring delivers the process stability required to make inkjet truly fit for Industry 4.0.
EPSON (Japan) – Enrico Sowade presents EPSON's "Printing Beyond the Color" activity and roadmap. As a printhead supplier, EPSON has established Inkjet Labs in Japan and Europe as hubs where companies with unique functional fluids can go far beyond drop-watching: comprehensive testing to integrate the fluid into a specific print process under controlled cleanroom conditions, running together as a co-pilot in the "Lab to Fab" concept. The talk covers the labs, typical activities, success stories, and the printhead roadmap for functional fluid applications.
Notion Systems (Germany) – Notion Systems will present its digital additive electronic manufacturing platforms, spanning from industrial inkjet to EHD (electrohydrodynamic) printing. Notion Systems' n.jet platforms are already established in production environments for display, PCB, and semiconductor applications, and this talk will outline how the portfolio is expanding towards ultra-fine-feature EHD printing. Speaker and final talk details to be confirmed — watch the agenda for updates.
Ultra-High Precision: From Microns to Nanometers
A third group of talks pushes additive deposition into territory once reserved for photolithography.
Hummink (France) – Amr Maaroufi presents High Precision Capillary Printing (HPCaP), an advanced additive manufacturing technology achieving micron and sub-micron resolutions (50 µm down to 100 nm). Inspired by Atomic Force Microscopy, HPCaP operates via capillary forces, ensuring precise, splash-free deposition with minimal waste, and its macro-resonator system enables fine control over line width and thickness. HPCaP supports a wide range of conductive, dielectric, and functional inks on diverse substrates — including flexible and recyclable ones — and beyond high-resolution 2D printing, it enables microbump formation for advanced packaging and interconnect applications, reinforcing its role as a key technology in semiconductor fabrication.
XTPL (Poland) – Witold Nawrot outlines recent progress in Ultra-Precise Dispensing (UPD), forming robust high-performance interconnections with feature sizes as small as 1 μm. Bridging the gap between standard inkjet and complex photolithography, this maskless technology dispenses highly concentrated nanoparticle inks — silver, gold, copper — as well as dielectrics, across demanding 3D substrate topographies. The talk demonstrates a transformative approach to Open Defect Repair (ODR) in ultra-fine RDLs for advanced packaging, UHDI PCBs, and next-generation high-resolution displays — maximizing yields and drastically reducing electronic waste.
ImageXpert (USA) – ImageXpert will share practical guidance on selecting the right inkjet printhead based on paste properties and application requirements. Drawing on the company's extensive jetting analysis and drop-watching expertise — used across the industry to characterize jetting behavior of functional fluids — the talk will help attendees match fluid rheology and particle loading to printhead capabilities before committing to a platform. The full abstract will follow closer to the event.
Join Us in Berlin
These twelve talks are only one slice of the program. At the co-located exhibition you will meet equipment makers, printhead suppliers, ink formulators, and integrators across the entire digital manufacturing value chain.
Explore the full agenda and register now to secure the best rates.
Your pass also includes the co-located Perovskite Connect, Electronic Textiles RESHAPED, and Sustainable Electronics RESHAPED — four world-class events, one venue, one ticket.
Comments