Search Results

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

Start-up Showcase in micro- and mini-LED Technologies Start-up Showcase in micro- and mini-LED Technologies | 22 Feb 2024 | Online Event This is a MicroLED conference dedicated to promising microLED startups, who will showcase their latest development and technologies. A great opportunity to learn the latest cutting edge technologies and connect with early stage companies looking for partners, customers and investments. This event is curated by TechBlick and the MicroLED Association. It is part of the MicroLED Connect series - accessible with a Virtual or Hybrid Annual Pass. Register now and save 100 Euros * *apply the following discount code at check-out: Save100Euros ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Agenda 3:00 PM | Rayleigh Vision "Stacked MicroLED: The Ultimate Solution for Immersive XR" 3.20PM | Inziv "Emerging Trends in microLED Chip Architecture, Metrology, and Inspection" 3.40PM | Comptek Solutions "Atomic-scale passivation for microLED devices" 4.00PM | QustomDot "QustomGlow: Illuminating Excellence in Quantum Dot Innovation" 5.00PM | Terecircuits Corporation "Materials for novel microLED mass transfer" 5.20PM | iBeam Materials "Roll-to-roll Fabrication of LED Sheets for MicroLED Display Application" 5.40PM | KuraTech "AR headset development with MicroLED Technology" 6.00PM | NS Nanotech "From Quantum Dots to Nanowires" Agenda explore here ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This event is part of the MicroLED Connect. It means - with an Annual Pass - you can access (a) all online events for 12 months and (b) existing library of talks featuring over 750 talks and masterclasses (video+slides). With the hybrid pass you can also join us onsite at the first ever dedicated conference and exhibition focused on microLEDs ­------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What other events are planned? On 10 & 11 April 2024 you can join the “OLEDs: Innovations, Manufacturing, Markets” You can check-out our year-round planned set of activities on www.TechBlick.com Register now and save 100 Euros * *apply the following discount code at check-out: Save100Euros ­ MicroLED Connect | Onsite Conference and Exhibition Eindhoven, 25 & 25 September 2024 This is the most important event worldwide dedicated to Micro and MiniLED technology and application. This will be a sell out event. If you purchase a Hybrid Annual Pass, admission will be included in your ticket. Below you can have a sneak peek in the first set of confirmed speakers and exhibitors. Register now and save 100 Euros * *apply the following discount code at check-out: Save100Euros

World-Class OLED Conference | 10 & 11 April 2024 | Online Event Agenda here This event focuses on innovations in materials, manufacturing, applications, and markets for OLEDs. OLEDs are already a commercial success for years and yet the the pace of incremental and radical technological innovations and breakthroughs is incredible, furthering device properties [color, stability, resolution, color gamut, brightness, etc], expanding applications, and opening new manufacturing and patterning techniques from photolithography to inkjet printing and beyond. These innovations could not only entrench the success of OLEDs further, addressing their weak spots, but also perhaps take away the selling points of challengers or alternatives like MicroLEDS, QD-LCDs, etc. Understanding the OLED market and industry dynamics is a must for microLED professionals. This event is curated by TechBlick and OLED-Info.com. It is part of the MicroLED Connect series - accessible witha Virtual or Hybrid Annual Pass

Saralon is going global with its distribution network, covering Europe, USA, and East Asia This is superb news for the Saralon team and for the industry We thus use this occasion to share the talk that Steve Paschky gave at TechBlick in Dec 2023 The level of Q&A shows the higher interest in these materials You can download the brochure here https://www.saralon.com/en/download-brochur-2022-c3d2y2fa3fge21p92c/ Copper Inks #CopperInk #CopperPaste #StretchableElectronics #InMoldElectronics #PrintedSensors #Heating #PrintedElectronics

TechBlick, the leading platform for emerging technologies is holding a US edition of its successful 'The Future of Electronics RESHAPED' conference and exhibition in Boston on 12 & 13 June 2024. See here for further information. TechBlick is responding to huge demand by the global industry to hold this event. It will focus on additive, sustainable, flexible, hybrid, wearable, structural, and 3D electronics. All 54 exhibition booths have been sold to key players in this industry with a long waiting list of interested companies. A world-class speaker programme too has been announced featuring companies such as Boeing, Myant, GE Aerospace, SRI International/Parc, Northrop Grumman Corporation, GE Healthcare, Asahi Kasei, Panasonic, Voltera, Kateeva and many more. As well as a world-class agenda and exhibition, the event will also feature expert-led masterclasses and company tours to some of the innovative organisations in the Boston area on 11 June. Khasha Ghaffarzadeh, CEO of TechBlick reported "We have been overwhelmed by the industry response to this event and are delighted that we have sold all the exhibition booths at this early stage. The agenda has just been announced and features 52 world-class organisations, many speaking for the first time in many years, in the US. Demand for attendee places too, is high and we fully expect that the event will sell out" See here for further information and to register for the event. Join the global industry at the long-awaited TechBlick US event on 12 & 13 June 2024 in Boston and also in Berlin on 23 & 24 October 2024.

You can explore the world class agenda here Solid State Battery Conference Sodium Battery Conference Novel Battery Material Conference This will TechBlick’s third online event covering three major themes in the battery industry: (1) Solid state batteries (2) Beyond Li-ion battery technologies (3) Next-gen and frontier Li-ion chemistries The conference covers the latest innovations and developments on applied research, materials, manufacturing and applications from around the world. The programme is entirely curated by our in-house experts, striking a fine balance between industrial developments and applied research advancements, bringing together a world-class set of speakers from end users, material developers, manufacturers, start-ups, as well as renowned research centers and market analyst groups. Our exceptional online events are also truly a unique networking opportunity. All talks will be given live online but will also become available on-demand. The talks from previous events are all also accessible in your library with a single annual (virtual or hybrid) annual pass. You can see the past events here 2023 | Solid-State Batteries: Innovations, Promising Start-Ups, & Future Roadmap 2022 | Solid-State Batteries: Innovations, Promising Start-Ups, & Future Roadmap * in the agenda means that the title is tentative awaiting final confirmation by the presenter Solid State Batteries | Next-Gen Batteries | Beyond Li-Ion | Sodium Batteries | AI in Battery Development | Li Metal | Aluminiu, Batteries | VACNT | Graphene | Silicon | Natrium | Potassium | 3D Batteries | Additively Manufactured Batteries | Dry Electrode Technology | Monocarbon Membranes | Sulfide Glass | LiS | Novel Cathodes | Direct Plating | Emerging Solid-State Electrolyte Material Families | Layered Oxides | Ceramic and 3D Ceramics | Existing Emerging Novel Cathodes Materials for Li-ion and SSBs | Aqueous, Binder-Free and/or Green Solutions | Thin Film Solid State Batteries and Microbatteries | Supercapacitors | Promising Start Ups | Market Forecasts & Patent Analysis | Scale Up Techniques and Successes | Roll-to-Roll Battery Materials

VueReal has started shipping its advanced high-resolution and high-transparency microLED displays to customers. These displays are produced using VueReal's proprietary MicroSolid Printing Platform, which integrates microLEDs into an active-matrix microLED display. This technology allows for high-efficiency, high-quality displays with adjustable transparency levels ranging from 80% to complete opacity. VueReal provides a comprehensive turnkey platform enabling partners and customers to develop custom displays and fabricate them at VueReal's pilot production line. The company is currently accepting new orders for these innovative displays At the upcoming CES 2024, VueReal plans to demonstrate its displays and technologies. The company is encouraging attendees to request a demo. Significant developments for VueReal in 2023 included a breakthrough in its MicroSolid Printing Platform, allowing for sub-7um LED pitch for full-color microLED deposition. This advancement has minimal impact on the External Quantum Efficiency (EQE), facilitating high-efficiency display production. Earlier in the year, VueReal received a $7.7 million investment to upscale its production line. In 2022, VueReal raised $14.4 million in Series B funding. The company began shipping transparent automotive microLED displays in 2021. Key highlights of VueReal's advancements include: The MicroSolid Printing™ platform, marking a significant milestone in the mass market adoption of MicroLED displays. VueReal's active engagement with new customers to incorporate MicroLED into their products. An invitation to explore VueReal's MicroLED displays and technology at CES 2024. VueReal is transforming the display landscape with its MicroSolid Printing™ technology, applicable in various fields including automotive, AR/VR, smartwatches, and smartphones. The company's unique transfer technology aims to make developing groundbreaking products as easy as software, focusing on scalable, cost-effective, and eco-friendly micro-pixel fabrication. More information can be found on VueReal's website.021. CEO info@vuereal.com