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UJIWARA REI | Panasonic Electronic Materials Business Division | fujiwara.rei@jp.panasonic.com High-frequency devices, such as those used in beyond 5G and 6G technologies, require precise and reliable signal transmission for optimal performance. High-frequency signals are more susceptible to noise interference, which can degrade the quality and integrity of the transmitted data. Noise mitigation is crucial to ensure that the intended signal is accurately received and interpreted. Traditionally, noise-absorbing materials have been used as an effective method of making noise. Noise absorbing materials are generally sheet or sponge type. However, these types are difficult to apply beyond5G/6G devices which become smaller and more complicated. We are speaking in Boston on 12-13 June 2024 at The Future of Electronics RESHAPED USA Register now and come to hear our talk To solve this problem, we propose a noise-absorbing paste. Dispensable material can be easily installed in narrow spaces, suppressing noise inside electronic devices used in beyond 5G/6G, and contributing to improved quality and performance. Features: Dispensable Good conformability High frequencies over 100GHz Figure 1 Paste Noise Absorber Table 1 Properties Figure 2 Absorption vs frequency Case 1: For solving cavity resonance. Figure 3 MMIC on antenna module. The radiation noise of MMIC resonating in the cavity affects the antenna characteristics. (Figure.3) Noise absorbing paste can be installed on small space, and attenuating cavity resonance. Case 2: For solving noise radiation from board patterns. Figure 4 Noise radiation from board patterns Noise radiation from board patterns contaminates the antenna circuit and affects antenna characteristics. Noise-absorbing paste, which has insulation properties, can be installed on the circuit to solve noise radiation. Author:  OHARA TAKASHI | Panasonic Electronic Materials Business Division | ohara.tk@jp.panasonic.com We are Exhibiting in Boston on 12-13 June 2024 at The Future of Electronics RESHAPED USA Register now and visit our booth

Authors: Daan de Kubber, Jurgen Westerhoff, Ben Robesin SPGPrints b.v., Raamstraat 1-3, 5831 AT, Boxmeer, the Netherlands Printed electronics have gained significant attention for their potential to revolutionize various industries through cost-effective and scalable manufacturing processes. However, a critical challenge within this domain lies in the transition from lab-scale and pilot equipment to industrial-scale production. We want to shed light on the implications of this transition, emphasizing its impact on cost reduction, repeatability, and time to market. The initial stages of printed electronics development predominantly occur on lab and pilot equipment, where researchers and innovators prototype new applications. As these applications progress towards commercialization, the shift to industrial-scale equipment becomes inevitable. Rotary screen printing emerges as a prominent technique, providing high-throughput capabilities essential for large-scale production. We are Speaking at the Free-To-Attend On-Line Innovations Festival on 25 April 2024. Register to hear our talk, and meet us during the virtual networking. We have looked critically at this transition. Investments in Industrial-scale equipment, though substantial, ultimately leads to significant cost reductions in large-scale production. This is essential if manufacturers want to achieve sustainable, cost-effective printed electronics. Moreover, the transition to industrial-scale equipment like Rotary Screen Printing enhances repeatability and quality control. Lab-scale equipment often lacks the precision, required consistency and capacity for mass production. In contrast, industrial-scale tools offer robust control mechanisms, ensuring consistent output across large volumes. This shift results in higher product quality consistency, reducing defects and improving overall yield rates. A great example of a printed electronics application that is moving into high-volume industrialized scale are the printed e-paper displays by our partner Ynvisible. Their products are used on smart labels, IoT devices, retail signage and many more markets. Ynvisible even shares their know-how in scaling up printed electronics with other companies in the flexible solar and printable battery space. Printed ultra-low-power display for use in retail If we take the e-paper example and run it through our cost-per-print calculator you see that for a yearly production of 3.5 million e-paper displays the Rotary Screen Printing solution starts to become more profitable within 3 years of production. This shows that you need relatively high volumes to justify the investment in a full SPGPrints Rotary screen printing line, but it will pay off and will ensure steady profitable business in the long run. Of course SPGPrints also offers screen printing units that can be integrated into an existing or custom built line, changing the business case significantly. Next to owning the equipment SPGPrints (and our network of print service providers) offers Production-as-a-Service including application development consultancy. This is a calculation showing the cost per printed unit comparison between typical flat-bed screen printing and a full SPGPrints rotary screen printing line. It is imperative to acknowledge that transitioning equipment mid-development cycle extends the time to market. This delay arises from the need to recalibrate processes, optimize formulations, and adapt to the unique characteristics of industrial-scale equipment. This delay represents a critical trade-off, where time saved in large-scale production is weighed against the extended development phase. In conclusion, the transition from lab-scale and pilot equipment to industrial-scale production, like Rotary Screen Printing, plays a pivotal role in advancing printed electronics. While the cost reductions and enhanced repeatability are substantial benefits, it is important to recognize the inherent time-to-market trade-off associated with this transition. In this paper we will show some examples of how choosing for industrial-scale equipment at an early stage in development, saves time and money in the long run. Additionally, we will provide a calculation method to evaluate the most suitable production equipment for a specific application. Read more about our offerings online: SPGPrints | Applications | Printed Electronics We are exhibiting in Boston at the Future of Electronics RESHAPED on 12-13 June 2024. Register now and visit our booth.

Authors: Mike Simmons, Matthew Kleyn, Joseph Vlach, Liz Josephson; Intellivation LLC ljosephson@intellivation.com | Intellivation The demand for high-performance devices with enhanced functionalities continues to grow. Materials, such as graphene and MoS2, exhibit unique electrical and mechanical properties making them ideal for flexible electronic applications. To meet the rising demand and requirements for flexible 2D microelectronics devices manufactured using Roll to Roll technology, we use innovative manufacturing techniques including vacuum coatings in combination with laser technology. Laser patterning of sputtered coatings provides the ability to achieve high-volume production with precision, functionality and efficiency for a wide range of flexible applications. Sputter deposition is a widely used technique for depositing thin films onto substrates. For flexible 2D microelectronics, sputtered coatings serve as the foundation for building functional devices. Sputtering involves bombarding a target material with ions to eject atoms or molecules, which then deposit onto a substrate to form a thin film. This process allows for precise control over the thickness and composition of the deposited film, making it a preferred method for creating uniform and reproducible coatings. Sputtered layers were deposited using Intellivation’s R2R Lab system. Sputtering provides an excellent method for depositing coatings uniformly over large areas, while laser patterning can create discrete devices, circuits, and other types of discontinuous features required for manufacturing. Using these two techniques in combination provides unique capabilities, particular during product development. Photolithography requires multiple steps and is time consuming, it also requires geometric commitment of features at early stage of design. Laser patterning offers a direct and efficient way to create and define patterns on sputtered coatings including changes in geometry while providing consistent feature size and edge quality. Laser patterning uses a laser beam to selectively remove or modify specific areas of deposited films enabling the generation of intricate patterns with submicron-level precision. Control and precision of the laser is critical and the non-contact nature of laser patterning reduces the risk of contamination and damage to the underlying substrate, ideal for delicate 2D materials. This technique provides the ability to develop and then validate a design and process in small volumes and then easily transfer to large area roll-to-roll production without changes to the laser processing equipment. Deposition of the conductive material onto the substrate was done with Intellivation’s R2R thin film vacuum deposition Lab coater , it is then laser patterned or the laser is used to isolate regions to crystallize them for interfacing with subsequent layers. Once the substrate, layer stacks and laser variables are optimized, the next phase is to scale these devices to large area R2R processing. The combination of laser patterning and sputtered coatings has unlocked new possibilities in the high-volume production of flexible 2D microelectronics. This innovative approach addresses the demand for devices with enhanced performance, precision, and scalability. A roll-to-roll approach offers several significant advantages in terms of efficiency, cost and adaptability.

How to extend the pot life of silicone to several months without changing its material properties? Ulrich Trog [Ulrich.Trog@joanneum.at | JOANNEUM RESEARCH] explains in this article how this is possible JOANNEUM RESEARCH offers the formulation of the appropriate compound based on feasibility studies of the silicones used by its customers. Licences for the Supresil™ technology are available. Platinum (Pt)-cured silicones are gaining in popularity, emphasising addition curing over traditional peroxide methods. This process ensures purity and efficacy, resulting in products with increased strength and superior aesthetics. The rise of Pt-curing marks a significant shift in silicone manufacturing techniques, promising unmatched quality and durability in a variety of applications. When crosslinking is initiated, the curing process starts almost immediately and the resulting silicone typically has a pot life limited to a maximum of a few hours at room temperature. This places significant practical and technological limitations on its use: short processing time manufacturing waste difficult reproducibility inflexible manufacturing process Our patented formulation greatly increases pot life via reversible inhibition of the crosslinking via hydrosilylation. After deposition, the inhibitors evaporate easily. Normal crosslinking occurs at mild temperatures, even below 80 °C, leading to a fast and complete curing. Join the Future of Electronics RESHAPED event in Boston on 12 & 13 June 2024. Learn more https://www.techblick.com/electronicsreshapedusa Benefits reduces production costs: the pot life of silicone mixtures can be extended to several months and beyond enables (3D) printing: shelf stable, 1-component silicone inks can be formulated for use with a variety of printing processes like dispensing, screen-printing, aerosoljet-printing, inkjet printing and others no change in material properties: through the complete and trace-free removal of the inhibitor during the curing process there is no change in the material or its properties applicable to liquid Silicone rubber (LSR) and high consistency rubber (HCR) suitable for all Pt-cure resins: no curing at processing temperature and normal curing at curing temperature, orthogonal with other inhibitors environmental: reduction in waste generation in production process Application examples LED production: Supresil™ resins reduce the processing efforts and increase the yield of colour conversion materials without changing their optical properties. The Supresil™ inhibited silicones can be mixed with colour conversion phosphors in large batches, increasing the accuracy and consistency of the colour conversion composites through improved wetting and distribution of the dispensed material and a better dispersion of the phosphors. 3D printing: Standard LSR formulations are optimised for extrusion and injection moulding machines and are not suitable for 3D printing. By adjusting the rheological behaviour and extending the pot life using JOANNEUM RESEARCH‘s proprietary reversible curing inhibition, 3D printing is now possible. All material properties of the silicones are preserved (through complete and trace-free removal of the inhibitor): physical: shrinkage, Shore hardness, storage modulus optical: UV/VIS transmission, no „yellowing“, refractive index biocompatibility: relevant for medical grade resins / formulations unaltered production: viscosity, reproducibility Fig. 1: Comparison of curing dynamics of standard silicone resins with SupresilTM inhibited resins We are Exhibiting in Berlin! Come and visit our booth Fig. 2: UV/VIS Transmission of cast silicones (100 µm) for the LED production JOANNEUM RESEARCH is a publicly owned, Austrian Research and Technology Organisation. It is successful nationally and internationally in the fields of “Information and Production Technologies”, “Human Technologies and Medicine” and “Society and Sustainability” AUTHOR: Ulrich Trog [Ulrich.Trog@joanneum.at |JOANNEUM RESEARCH] All images: © JOANNEUM RESEARCH TechBlick.com

On 25 April, we will hold our FREE-TO-ATTEND online Innovations Festival, focusing on aspects of additive, sustainable, flexible, hybrid, wearable, and 3D electronics. Attendee places will be limited and assigned on a first-come, first-served basis. At our last Winter Festival, we had 700 unique actual attendees, so book now to secure your place. As always, this festival will take place on the unique TechBlick platform. You can use your avatar to meet the speakers, visit the exhibition, and network with fellow participants. Agenda Track 1 1:00pm | Hangzhou LinkZill Technology | Innovating with TFT technology in both optoelectronic and biological ways 1:15pm | Smartkem | Organic Thin-Film Transistor Technology – from Lab to Fab 1:30pm | DoMicro | Inkjet Printed Interconnects on Bare Dies for Hybrid Electronics* 2:00pm | Fraunhofer IAP | Polymeric solid electrolytes* 2.00PM | Break/Exhibition 2:50pm | VTT | R2R Manufacturing of Flexible Electronics with Integrated Pick-and-Place* 3:05pm | Linxens | Scalable, customizable, multimodal electrode platform for biosensors and sensors 3:20pm | TNO | Advancing Medical Technology: Printed Electronics and Hybrid Integration Pave the Way for Next-Generation Medical Devices. 3:35pm | 3E Smart Solutions | Driving Reliability and Scalability in E-Textiles and Wearables via Embroidery Technology 3:50pm | Metafas | Going from Screen Printed Human Machine Interfaces to 3D Multi-Layer Electronics* 4:05 PM | Break/Exhibition 4:55pm | Copprint | Conductive copper inks enabling sustainable PCBs and printed electronics 5:10pm | Kimoto | Adhesive carrier and protection films for advanced manufacturing 5:25pm | Sun Chemical | Inkjet Printing in Electronics Manufacturing 5:40pm | CondAlign | Enabling room temperature electronics bonding in FHE applications, addressing sustainability and cost 5:55pm | Nagase ChemteX America | Advances in Wash Testing of Conductive Inks for Wearable Electronics 6:10 PM | Break/Exhibition 7:00pm | BotFactory | Additive and On-Demand Manufacturing of Electronics: Towards Increasing Complexity* 7:15pm | Suss MicroTec | Beyond Paper: Inkjet printing is the future in drops 7:30pm | NanoPrintek | Dry Multi-Material Printing: Printed Electronics WITHOUT Inks or Drying* Track 2 1:00pm | INO-Žiri | Screen Printing Everywhere: How to Industrial Screen Printed MultiLayer Flexible Electronics* 1:15pm | SPGPrints | Bridging the divide: scaling up printed electronics from lab to production 1:30pm | Niebling | High-Pressure Forming (HPF) for In-Mold Electronics (IME) processes 1:45pm | Notion Systems | Submicron and high viscosity patterning with EHD 2.00PM | Break/Exhibition 2:50pm | Akoneer | Going maskless for semiconductor packaging with SSAIL 3:05pm | Neotech AMT | Additive Manufacturing of Sustainable Mechatronic Systems 3:20pm | Qunatica GmbH | Why 3D Printing Has Failed the Electronics Industry 3:35pm | Hummink | Pushing Boundaries in Micro-Bump Fabrication: The HPCAP Approach 3:50pm | ImageXpert | Print Quality- All that can go wrong and how to identify them 4:05 PM | Break/Exhibition 4:55pm | Arkema | Printed Piezoelectric Material: From Robotics to HMIs to Wearable Sensors* 5:10pm | TracXon | Responsible electronics through printed electronics 5:25pm | Danish Technological Institute | e Textile Sensors and More 5:40pm | Brewer Science | Ubiquitous Water Sensors For Industrial Applications* 5:55pm | Intellivation LLC | Laser Patterning of sputtered coatings for high-volume production of flexible devices 6:10 PM | Break/Exhibition 7:00pm | Printed Electronics Ltd | Scaling up from idea to product using the PEL open-access printable electronics production facility 7:15pm | ACI Materials | The Conductive Revolution: Breakthrough Semi-Sintered Inks Transforming Electronics Manufacture 7:45pm | E2IP Technologies | Screen Printing heating devices - limits and challenges See the most up-to-date agenda and register here

Disrupting Printed Electronics with a Dry Multimaterial Printing Technology? Author: Masoud Mahjouri-Samani, PhD | NanoPrintek | info@nanoprintek.com Modern technology and the move toward the Internet of Things have escalated the demand for innovative and efficient printing techniques, particularly in electronics and functional devices. Traditional ink-based printing methods have long been the standard, but now NanoPrintek’s dry multimaterial printing technology has emerged as a disruptive alternative, offering numerous advantages over its ink-based counterparts. The technology’s on-demand and in-situ nanoparticle generation and real-time sintering capability allow the printing of various electronics and functional devices with pure, multifunctional, hybrid materials printing. This thus opens the path to electronics printing and other applications ranging from energy and health to sensing devices. Figure 1. Dry printing process. On-demand/ in-situ nanoparticle generation and real-time laser sintering that enables the printing of various electronics and functional materials and devices. Unveiling a Universe of Materials Beyond the Limitations of Ink: Traditional inks can be restrictive regarding the materials they can accommodate. Dry printing, on the other hand, opens doors to a wider range of possibilities. From semiconductors and conductors to insulators and nanocomposites, dry printing can handle a broader spectrum of functional materials rapidly, enabling the creation of more advanced and innovative functional devices. Figure 2. The ability to directly print a wide spectrum of materials. I will be presenting at the Future of Electronics RESHAPED Conference and Exhibition in Boston on 12 &13 June 2024. Join me https://www.techblick.com/electronicsreshapedusa Environmental Friendliness: Ink-based printing often necessitates complex ink formulations, storage, disposal, and cleaning procedures. Solvents and other hazardous materials can pose environmental and health risks. Dry printing, however, bypasses these concerns entirely. By utilizing solid targets as a source for on-demand and in-situ pure nanoparticle generation, dry printing eliminates the need for harmful solvents and additives, leading to a cleaner, more sustainable, and environmentally sustainable manufacturing process. Figure 3. The game-changing advantages of NanoPrintek’s dry printing technology. Cost Efficiency: Dry printing technology significantly reduces production costs compared to traditional ink-based techniques. By eliminating the need for timely and costly ink formulation processes as well as consumables like inks and solvents and minimizing waste and downtime associated with cleaning, dry printing offers a more economical solution, leading to tens of thousands of dollars in savings per year. Potential Precision and Resolution Enhancement: Due to the nanoscale size and purity of the dry nanoparticles, dry printing enables higher precision and resolution in the deposition of electronic materials. This opens the possibility of creating intricate circuit patterns and fine features, leading to improved performance and reliability of electronic devices. Figure 4. Example of dry printed lines without sintering (a) and with real-time sintering (b, c). Compatibility with Diverse Substrates: Unlike ink-based printing, which may have limitations in terms of substrate compatibility, dry printing offers greater flexibility. It can be used on a wide range of substrates, including flexible materials like plastics and paper, as well as rigid surfaces like glass, ceramics, and even FR4 substrates, expanding the possibilities for product design and innovation. Figure 5. Enabling the printing on a wide spectrum of substrates. Improved Durability and Longevity: The materials deposited through dry printing electronics often exhibit superior durability and longevity compared to those applied using ink-based methods. This is due to the lack of surfactant and contaminations during the real-time sintering process, which allows better particle-particle fusion and a cleaner interface with the substrate. This results in electronic devices that are more resistant to wear and environmental factors, prolonging their lifespan and enhancing overall performance. Versatility in Applications: Dry printing electronics offers versatility in its applications across various industries, including consumer electronics, automotive, healthcare, and beyond. Whether manufacturing flexible electronics, RFID tags, sensors, energy devices, or smart packaging, this technology can adapt to diverse needs and requirements. In conclusion, the advantages of dry printing electronics over ink-based techniques are indisputable. From cost efficiency and environmental friendliness to enhanced precision and versatility, this disruptive technology is reshaping the landscape of functional devices and electronic manufacturing. As advancements continue to propel the field forward, NanoPrintek's dry printing technology promises to unlock new possibilities and drive innovation across industries. Author: Masoud Mahjouri-Samani, PhD | NanoPrintek | info@nanoprintek.com I will be exhibiting at the Future of Electronics RESHAPED Conference and Exhibition in Boston on 12 &13 June 2024. Join me https://www.techblick.com/electronicsreshapedusa

The Partnership - Coatema and Heliosonic are planning a partnership Stay tuned for the launch of fuelcell2print, our high precision digital membrane coating system integrated into a world-class web handling infrastructure. Pre-registration for trial days coming soon! Key highlights with our partner include a seamless integration of HELIOSONIC print head with  Coatema's cutting-edge web handling systems, digital fabrication for renewable energy tech, and a significant leap in printing capabilities, combining speed with unparalleled precision. The fusion of Coatema's legacy with HELIOSONIC';s innovations is not just a partnership; it is a call to the future of industrial printing. We invite stakeholders, partners, and customers to join us in embracing this new era where potential meets realization. The Companies HELIOSONIC - Printing the Unprintable HELIOSONIC uses and develops a laser-based digital printing technology suitable for material deposition with a large range of inks for several different applications. With this technology, inks that can so far not be printed digitally can be used, such as high viscosity inks or inks containing large particles. The principle A carrier belt is coated with a layer of the ink. A laser beam is focused into the ink from the opposite side of the belt. The laser creates a bubble, and, as a result, an ink jet is produced. While the carrier belt is moving to continuously supply fresh ink to the printing area, the laser beam is scanning over the belt. Before reaching the scanner unit, the laser beam is passing through an acousto-optical modulator. The acousto-optical modulator can switch the laser on and off, thus creating the digital image. The acousto-optical modulator is digitally controlled, synchronized with the scanner movement. The patterns for material deposition are given by image files in Tiff-format, that can be designed with any image processing software. The jetting mechanism requires the ink to absorb the laser light (typically approx. 1070nm). For inks that do not absorb at this wavelength, absorbers can be added to the ink. MEMBER OF ATH www.coatema.com MEMBER OF ATH www.coatema.com COATEMA Coating Machinery GmbH Roseller Straße 4 41539 Dormagen Germany P +49 21 33 / 97 84 – 0 F +49 21 33 / 97 84 – 170 info@coatema.de The benefits Fully digital technology The material deposition is entirely controlled by the print file and the print parameters (such as laser power, for instance). Unlike screen printers, the HELIOSONIC technology does not use a print form. This allows for free form deposition with arbitrary shapes, that can be changed at any time. Contactless printing The print head does not touch the target. Depending on the ink, typical print distances are 200µm to 1mm. Therefore, wet-on-wet deposition is possible. This can be used to increase the thickness of the deposited layer by running multiple prints consecutively on the same target. Also, no pressure is applied to the target. Nozzleless printing In principle, the HELIOSONIC technology can be thought of as an inkjet process without nozzles. Thus, some of the major restrictions of conventional ink jet printers are eliminated. Since no nozzles can be clogged or damaged, high viscosity inks and inks containing large particles can be used. Coatema – From Lab2Fab Coatema Coating Machinery GmbH designs and produces Sheet-to-Sheet and Roll-to-Roll equipment for the coating, printing and laminating sectors. For more than 40 years Coatema has designed and built laboratory equipment and pilot/production plants for traditional markets such as the textile sector and the materials converting market. The laboratory and pilot machinery product lines were expanded more than 20 years ago making Coatema a market leader in emerging technologies such as advanced batteries, solar, prepregs, medical and pharmaceuticals, fuel cells and printed electronics. Marketing Contact: Tanja Simone, Marketing Manager Phone +49 (0) 21 33 / 97 84 – 121 tsimone@coatema.de | www.coatema.com

written by FERNANDO ZICARELLI (Printed Electronics Product Manager) E2ip Technologies manufactures Flexible Heaters using Screen Printing Technology.  We use flexible and conformable inks for the manufacturing of our heaters.  Printed heaters can be manufactured in high volumes using print processes such as flatbed, rotary, and roll-to-roll presses.  The size of the order and complexity of the device determines the equipment that we would use. Typical applications are Airplane/Automotive interiors, Battery and fuel cell heating, Hand tools, De-icing, Defogging, Medical, Display panels or touchscreens, Food and drink tempering, Heating for trains, mobile homes, and caravans. Thermal Management Solutions is a hot topic of discussion in recent months; we at e2ip Technologies have multiple solutions for every application.  We currently make 4 types of heaters: Serpentine (left picture), Resistive, PTC (right picture) and Transparent heaters (see below). Each type has its advantages and disadvantages which are highlighted below: A.      Serpentine heaters are made with metallic pastes which are screen printed with materials such as silver, copper, silver/carbon, graphene, and our own Silver Salt Minks.  They are a very cost-effective solution since most of the time you only need one single printed layer of a serpentine pattern (as electricity flows through the conductive traces by applying specific voltage levels will cause the metal to heat up).  These types of heaters are usually printed on PI, PC, PET, Kapton and TPUs. B.      Fixed Resistance heaters combined a layer of silver paste with a resistive paste to obtain the desired value.  Mixing of the resistor inks is one of the most important steps in the manufacturing of these heaters.  They normally require only 2 printing steps, but a dielectric layer is sometimes added to protect from physical damage.  They can be printed on PI, PC, PET, Kapton and TPUs as well. C.      PTC heaters are made with conductive inks and a specialty formulated carbon inks (for temperature output) which are arrayed in parallel as resistors tiles.  As electricity flows through the conductive traces to the carbon tiles, the temperature increases in the tiles (and so does the resistance).  Both the temperature and the resistance will continue to rise until the resistance is too high for electricity to flow through (this is called the Shut-off point).  Afterwards, the tiles begin to cool down until the resistance is low enough for the electricity to begin flowing again.  PTC heaters normally require only 2 printing steps, but a dielectric layer is sometimes added to protect from physical damage.  They can be printed on PI, PC, PET, Kapton and TPUs as well. Flexible printed heaters rely on a range of conductive, resistive, and dielectric pastes which are deposited on flexible substrates, such as thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU), polyester (PET) and Kapton. Through specific patterns and deposition levels, our engineers tailor flexible heaters to meet specified operating parameters based on the application.  Printed heaters typically have a good bend radius which is a function of the materials used and heater thickness.  A good rule of thumb for a flexible printed heater is to have a minimum bend radius of 0.4 in. (1 cm).  We recommend that power supplied to the heater to be constant for the temperature to remain constant. For a Typical PTC Heater, the selection of the correct ink is essential to obtaining the desired; below you can see the temperature range and electrical specifications: Input voltage: 5 to 250 V (AC or DC) Drive current: at startup less th an 2 A PTC inks available: 40°-115°C Thermal Management Solutions are different in most cases, we would like to encourage anyone to contact our Technical Team to discuss your application.

TechBlick conference series on display technologies covering MicroLEDs, MiniLEDs AR, VR, OLEDs, QDs, Flexible Displays, etc

Microprinting Workshop in Dresden? Our partners Jonas Jung and Dominik Gronarz from OES - Organic Electronics Saxony are organizing this exciting workshop on Microprinting in Dresden. TechBlick is a happy member of OES - Organic Electronics Saxony 📢 Microprinting Workshop Conference Program Now Online! 📢 We are thrilled to announce that the conference program for the eagerly anticipated Microprinting Workshop is now available online! Dive into a comprehensive schedule packed with insightful presentations, cutting-edge research, and innovative applications in the realm of microprinting. 🔍 Discover the lineup of distinguished speakers, explore the topics they will address, and plan your participation in sessions that promise to broaden your understanding and spark your curiosity. What's in store? From advanced materials and techniques to groundbreaking industrial applications, the program is designed to cater to a wide range of interests within the microprinting community. 📅 Make sure to check out the program and mark your calendars for the sessions you don't want to miss. 📋 View the program here: https://microprinting.de/ Join us for what promises to be an enlightening and inspiring event, bringing together the brightest minds in microprinting. Let's connect, learn, and innovate together! #MicroprintingWorkshop #ConferenceProgram #Innovation #Technology #Networking

Printed electronics or more specifically inkjet printing is already an established part of OLED display manufacturing, where industrial-scale inkjet printers are used to deposit the organic material in the multilayer thin film encapsulation (TFE) layer that protects OLEDs from oxygen and water ingress. Inkjet printing the RGB active materials in OLED displays, however, seems not to have succeeded in overcoming the technical hurdles despite significant investment and decades of development on both material and machinery sides. It appears that the material performance never bridged the gap with vacuum-processed ones, which kept on improving, whilst the potential manufacturing cost benefits proved insufficient to force a shift away from the incumbent processes. This is not the end of inkjet printing in manufacturing the active elements of the display though, thanks mainly to quantum dots (QDs) including QD-OLED and QLED displays. The idea behind QD-OLED displays is that a blue OLED layer is vacuum deposited, whilst the red and green colors are achieved by pixel-level inkjet-printed QD color conversion, giving the emissive display perfect contrast, high efficiency, as well as a very wide color gamut, beyond what all-OLED displays could achieve. Mastering the inkjet printing of QD-OLED displays could also offer a technical and manufacturing roadmap towards true emissive QLED displays. QD-OLED displays are already in production with 77-inch 4k QD-OLED being on the market for several years. The manufacturing volume is projected to grow rapidly. Furthermore, the technical performance will also improve. The latest announcement is that the resolution of inkjet-printed 31.5-inch QD-OLED displays will be 140 PPI. This is a challenging technical feat. It could involve inkjet printing quantum dots on 8.5-Gen (2.2x2.5 sqm) mother glass.  To get a rough idea of the requirements for illustration purposes only, assume that five displays can be manufactured on the mother glass. At 4K and 8K resolution, this translates to around 125M and 500M inkjet printed sub-pixels, respectively. Assuming 3-5 drops have to be inkjet printed in each pixel well, it means that for an 8K display around 1500 and 2500 million drops would have to be inkjet printed under stringent uniformity, size, and TAKT time requirements. Source: Kateeva [8.5-Gen Inkjet Printer for Display Manufacturing] Mini- and MicroLEDs - from micro bumps to microLED transfer to color conversion mini- and micro-LED technologies could also benefit from printing. Here, the micro bumps for the placement of a large number of microLEDs on the glass substrate could be printed. Indeed, excellent prototypes were already demonstrated with gravure offset printed solder pastes with 5um precision and 6um diameter (15um after reflow). Source: Komoro [presented at TechBlick in 2022] The metallization tracks connecting the front and back of the mini- or micro-LED display via the edge of the glass hosting the microLED chips could be screen or aerosol printed to avoid drilling and metallizing through-glass vias, although it will probably prove too difficult to beat the incumbent subtractive process given the resolution speed, and yield requirements. The microLED chips themselves could also be transfer printed. Here, an elastomeric stamp could pick up these chips, stamping and thus transferring them at high speed and yield onto the final target substrate.  There are currently many firms developing a variety of transfer printing techniques for this purpose, although the competition from other approaches including laser-based ones is very stiff. Finally - and possibly most promising - is to achieve color conversion via printed quantum dots. A major challenge holding microLEDs back is the need to transfer millions of microLEDs with practically zero defects. To transfer all three colors would be extra complicated. Thus, one could transfer only the blue microLEDs and achieve red and green colors with QD color conversion. A technical challenge is that microLEDs are too small for inkjet printing (ca. 40 um print resolution), and their size is bound to shrink further to improve display resolutions and economies of scale. To address this need, EHD (Electrohydrodynamic Printing) is being used, demonstrating lab printing resolutions of 1-10 um with likely mid-term reliable print resolutions around 15 um, translating to some 1000 dpi. The EHD printing still needs to be further developed and scaled, especially to a multi-head high-resolution technique without loss of print resolution, stability, or speed. Of course, EHD is not the only way to achieve QD color conversion, but it is still very much in the running for manufacturing selection with strong chances vs. the photoresist-etch option. Source: Left images: Scrona | right images: Fraunhofer IAP To appreciate the growing successes and the wonderful diversity of this industry, we invite you to join the TechBlick Future of Electronics RESHAPED events in Boston ( 12 & 13 June 2024) and/or Berlin (23 & 24 OCT 2024) where the entire global industry learns and connects. More info on www.TechBlick.com

Photovoltaics - manufacturing capacity reaches 1000GW? Photovoltaics are growing at breakneck pace. and that is important for printed electronics. According to the IEA, in 2022, global PV manufacturing capacity increased by more than 70% to nearly 450 GW, with China accounting for more than 95% of new additions across the supply chain. The growth continued at an unabashed pace, with the IEA expecting the global manufacturing capacity in 2024 to reach an incredible 1000 GW. Source: click here Screen printing silver pastes has a near complete market share for metallising silicon photovoltaics.  The amount of silver per cell - and consequently per watt - for front and rear metallization has declined. In 2023, it stood for PERC photovoltaics (the dominant technology) at around 10 tonnes per GW. Given the expected manufacturing capacity in 2024, this could translate to around 10,000 tonnes of silver (and more of paste depending on loading etc) per year! This is also an incredibly advanced printing technology. This field can already execute ultra fine line printing at scale. In 2022, the linewidth of the printed fingers were around 30 um with ca. 10um alignment precision as standard in manufacturing. This is projected to be further narrowed, reaching a linewidth of 15um with 5um alignment precision in 2032 to reduce the amount of expensive silver per cell.  In R&D and pilot settings, such screen printed linewidths are already being demonstrated with printed bus bars exhibiting incredible aspect ratios. To illustrate the progress, note that the state-of-the-art publications just a decade ago were reporting linewidths at 80-100 um! What is more incredible is that to maintain the high production speeds, these ultrafine lines are printed at incredible speed. Indeed, the screen printing system in 2022/2023 could achieve >7500 wafers per hour (M10 wafers: 182x182 mm2). The industry roadmap sees this increasing to over 10000 wafers per hour (with 15um linewidths!). These numbers are incredible technical and manufacturing achievements, and are a testimony to the inexhaustible innovation power of the screen printing ecosystem - from mesh and screen manufacturing to material and machine developers - to cooperate and push the performance to new heights. Source here. New silicon photovoltaics beyond PERC The manufacturing of newer silicon photovoltaic architectures like TOPCon or Heterojunction cells is also ramping it up. Their market share is still small, but in a vast market. Interestingly, these new photovoltaics bring with them new requirements, translating to new innovation opportunities. For example, for heterojunction cells, the presence of the hydrogenated amorphous silicon imposes a temperature limit on the firing temperature (<250C), thus epoxy based pastes instead of firing type must be used. These pastes have, however, higher volume resistivity (ca. 6 uOhm.cm vs 2-3 uOhm.cm for PERC PVs), longer drying and curing times (>30min vs <2min), slower printing speeds (<250 mm/s vs > 400mm/s), worst aspect ratio and fineline printing capability (50-55/10-22 um/um vs <30/10-20um), poor solderability,  and much higher consumption per cell to reach same conductivity (30mg/W vs 10mg/W), and so on.  Addressing these technical limitations is in fact an innovation frontier for paste makers and printers worldwide. Going beyond silicon photovoltaics Many photovoltaic technologies are in development, seeking to complement and/or replace silicon in specific fields. Two prominent options are organics and perovskites. For both, printing is likely to the main method of manufacturing the cells and not just metallization The former has a much longer development history with several cycles of high hope followed by deep disillusionment. The latter holds extremely high promise, both as a standalone and tandem technology, provided manufacturing and stability issues can be addressed. Both technologies offer newcomers and new territories ways to break into the vast solar market dominated by China. For organics, currently automated R2R printing is being scaled up, especially in Europe, building up decades of accumulated expertise to simultaneously establish a high-throughput process as well as a roadmap of niche markets that may, after over two decades of development, allow this technology to become commercially competitive. For perovskites, printing will likely play a pivotal role as perovskite active layers can come in ink format and be solution processed. Indeed, many around the world are today establishing hybrid printing lines to manufacture perovskites. Hybrid here means that not all layers will be printed, but the production will include R2R printing and other vacuum processes. There are many innovation and development opportunities here.  Stable and highly efficient inks with friendly solvents and rapid curing properties are required, and high-speed printing as well as  vacuum and laser processes are required to print cells at scale. At the same time, fundamental challenges - in particular around the issue of long-term stability - must be addressed. Luckily the worldwide momentum here is strong and the market pull even stronger, increasing the chance of ultimate success. To appreciate the growing successes and the wonderful diversity of this industry, we invite you to join the TechBlick Future of Electronics RESHAPED events in Boston ( 12 & 13 June 2024) and/or Berlin (23 & 24 OCT 2024) where the entire global industry learns and connects. More info on www.TechBlick.com