Novo Nordisk A/S supplies nearly 50% of the world’s insulin for treatment of diabetes, and 34 million people are using our diabetes care products. We are also develop and supplying medicine for growth disorder, hemophilia, and obesity. In Manufacturing Development - AP Innovation & Development, we are working on concepts for future aseptic production. As part of this we are developing a new concept, where we need to place a conductive pattern on the outside of the 3D surface of a plastic part. On top of being in a aseptic environment the conductive pattern and the plastic part will also have drug contact, so the materials have to be compatible with our drug products. This gives a very limited solution space and I would love to get suggestions on how to do it. SAVE THE DATE

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How ACI Material’s cavitation dispersion process improves the electrical & mechanical properties of materials used in additive manufacturing of circuits and composites Improving the Electrical & Mechanical Properties of Materials Michael Mastropietro, VP of Engineering, ACI Materials Many people are familiar with the negative effects hydrodynamic cavitation can have on bulk solid materials such as nautical propeller blades, fluid pump parts, and other manufacturing equipment. For example, the pitting of a boat propeller blade due to recurring cavitation can be seen in Figure 1. However, cavitation can also be used advantageously as well. ACI Materials has successfully developed and patented equipment and processes to control hydrodynamic cavitation in order to produce unique dispersions, formulated inks and pastes, as well as high aspect ratio nanoparticle and ‘2D’ filler particle masterbatches. To better understand how this is possible see Figure 2, which is a schematic showing the implosive collapse of vapor bubbles formed under vacuum in a liquid medium near a solid surface. Figure 1. Pitting of propeller blade due to hydrodynamic cavitation When the spherical bubbles are collapsed on surfaces, they form liquid micro-jets focusing the energy to extremely localized areas. When these vacuum vapor bubbles are created and collapsed under the right conditions, they can release a tremendous amount of energy via these jets. ACI is able to process highly concentrated dispersions of solids (very high solid surface area) making it very efficient at using the energy of cavitation to break apart agglomerated particles versus losing the energy to heat. ACI is able to process viscous liquid continuous phases such as polymer solutions, and these are highly effective at keeping the particles dispersed via robust steric stabilization of the particle surfaces. Figure 2. Schematic showing the collapse of a vapor bubble to form a liquid micro-jet during cavitation Figure 3. Images showing agglomerates prior to (left) and after cavitation processing (right) in carbon nanotubes (top) and silver microparticles (bottom). ACI makes materials that enable the environmentally responsible additive manufacturing of electronics. ACI's proprietary Cavitation process is a closed-loop system, which contains all volatile organic compounds (VOCs) within the machine during the dispersion process. The material is also removed from the process in a closed container. Preventing the loss of VOCs during the production process not only provides the advantage of more consistent products, but it also eliminates the uncontrolled release of VOCs that can occur during other traditional mixing processes. As a company focused on sustainability, we are thankful to be able to reduce the release of VOCs during production in this way. The end result of ACI's cavitation dispersion process on carbon nanotubes and silver microparticles can be seen in Figure 3. As can be seen in the processed material images on the right side, the number of aggregates has been almost reduced to nothing, and quite possibly the resulting structure are agglomerates that can no longer be separated. This process of breaking down the agglomerates in a paste can yield rheology improvements that can lead to superior slump behavior (reduced), allow faster printing rates, lower yield stress, etc. The following section explains and graphically depicts how cavitation results in dried coatings with superior mechanical and electrical properties. Lower volume resistivity (superior conductivity) Despite the claims made by manufacturers of thrifted conductive filler particles, the lowest volume resistivity materials under standard ambient conditions are those with the highest metal filler content in the dry films. Specifically sinterable nanoparticle and metalorganic inks which can achieve near bulk (3x) resistivity at ideal film thicknesses. That performance is not without compromise, as to achieve those values is to create a porous, near polymer-free, metal film. Therefore, adhesion is typically limited as well as mechanical properties such as flex ductility. As a result, decades after widespread research began on nano inks, thermoset and solvent/thermoplastic-based polymer thick film (PTF) materials have been the bulk of commercially sold electrical conductors for additive manufacture of circuits. Today ACI provides Alchemy series inks that offer the best features of both sinterable inks and PTF inks. Some benefits of the Alchemy series inks are: Lower sheet resistance than PTF, nanoparticle, and metal complex-based inks Faster cure times than traditional nanoparticle-based sinterable inks Nano-like volume resistivity (conductivity), but in less time Superior hard crease survivability compared to even PTF inks Allow high-resolution printing without compromising resistivity and sheet resistance Enables reflow soldering using specific low-temperature solder pastes One benefit of the Alchemy inks enabling reflow soldering using specific low-temperature solder pastes is high speed/high throughput solder-based attach of surface mount components. This results in cost savings during circuit manufacturing. Before the ACI Alchemy inks, additively manufactured printed circuits needed electrically conductive adhesives (ECAs) to attach surface mount components. These require batch curing for significantly longer times than solderbased attach, which is used in traditional etched copper Flexible Printed Circuits (FPC). By enabling additive manufacturing of flexible circuits that are cost-competitive with traditional FPC technology, the Alchemy series inks are providing companies a scalable option that allows them to move away from the use of etchants used in traditional circuit manufacturing. Now companies can conserve energy and water and realize cost savings by not spending money on the treatment processes that are required for waste streams that result from traditional circuit manufacture. Figure 4. Mechanism of film formation during drying and curing of PTF and nano inks The films resulting from PTF conductors are essentially conductive composites, so the electrical benefits described are equally applicable to structural materials for building composites. Understanding why dispersion is so important to the performance of printed conductors first requires a basic understanding of the microstructures these materials have. Figure 4 is a schematic showing how solvent-based PTF and sinterable nano inks develop micro-structure going from a wet to dried or ‘cured’ state. As can be seen in the middle drawings and right-most SEM images, the resulting dry films have voids in the packing of the metal filler. The increase in resistivity observed in films of deposited additive conductors compared to ‘bulk’ metals comes from the following sources: Particle packing defects in the dried films due to agglomerates not dispersed, or aggregates formed during traditional 3-roll milling Polymer required to bind the particles into cohesive/adhesive films and organics used to stabilize and enhance wetting of conductive filler particles Porosity or voids resulting from poor dispersion of fillers, due to solvent evaporation rate, or localized nanoparticle aggregation prior to good coalescence during drying/sintering Oxide layers or more typically chemisorbed layers of organic ligands on the surface of the conductive filler particles from the manufacturing processes Grain boundaries within metallic ‘flakes’ which are made by attrition of spherical particles or at the sintered ‘necks’ that form in nano inks Non-ideal rheology (typically poor levelling) leading to mesoscopic variation in film roughness (Rz) with traditional screen printing, thus wasted conductor Hydrodynamic cavitation is more effective at minimizing many of these factors when compared to traditional manufacturing methods. Improved dispersion of filler particles can result in both improved particle packing, and reduced amount of polymer binders needed for cohesion and adhesion to substrates. The cavitation process is very effective in producing carbon-based inks and coatings (graphite, graphene, carbon black, CNTs) that have a higher volume of solid material. Through the cavitation process, these fillers achieve a high level of dispersion, and close to nominal primary particle size. This allows for the production of inks and coatings that have resistivities down to 10 Ω·cm, using only carbon materials as conductive fillers. This is possible with cavitation because the mechanism of micro bubbles imploding and releasing immense localized energy on the particles surface, will not damage the morphology of the particle. This is not the case for traditional mixers like a three-roll mill and ball mill, which damage the particles aspect ratio, which is crucial for maximum conductivity. ACI’s cavitation process can also operate at higher viscosities than traditional mixers, which is crucial for fillers like CNTs, as these inks and pastes will initially increase in viscosity as the CNT’s unbundle, before the viscosity starts to drop from these unbundled tubes becoming more dispersed. With some filler particles, cavitation is believed to be capable of removing excess organic from the surface of filler particles, potentially reducing inter-particle distance in the dry films. In the left picture in Figure 5 (also labeled Figure 1 in description from source1) is a 2D box model showing the reduced packing volume resulting from breaking down all agglomerates in a model particle system. The middle picture shows what may be the result of less effective dispersion processes where you have some amount of agglomerates and dispersed primary particles. Some degree of agglomeration of particles is likely normal for a traditional conductive paste manufacturing processes like 3-roll milling. Figure 5. Schematic representation of the change in effective volume or maximum packing as a function of the increase in the number of unbroken bonds. These unbroken bonds can be considered to either increase the effective volume of solids or decrease the maximum packing. As discussed below, both situations are equivalent. Schematic taken from Robert J Flatt and Paul Bowden, Yodel: A Yield Stress Model for Suspensions, J.Am. Ceram. Soc., 90, 1038–1044, 2007 The picture on the right is typical of what you may expect with a system with poorly dispersed agglomerated particles. This is what might be expected using only low shear mixing like is used to wet out the system before a higher shear final mixing process, or with very difficult to disperse materials like carbon nanotubes. An example of the rheology and electrical performance improvements that can be achieved in a silver PTF material made via cavitation versus traditional 3 roll milling can be seen in Table 1. This work was done on a fine silver microparticle containing ink for touchscreen applications where lower resistivity and better yield of fine lines/spacing without shorting is highly desirable. A microscope image showing the ability of the paste to maintain tight spacing around the 90 degree turns of a display bezel can be seen in Figure 7. Figure 6. Lines drawn indicating percolated paths for electrical current to flow in dried conductor films Improved mechanical properties of composites Dispersion of fillers in structural composites is also an area where ACI materials believes its process is superior. In particular, its ability to disperse high aspect ratio fillers and those with a dimension in the nanometer regime such as carbon nanotubes, hexagonal boron nitride, boron nitride nanotubes, clays, etc. Conventional processes like ball and attritor milling often used to disperse agglomerates down to primary particles, can over the long time required, damage a large population of the particles by crushing them. Because the shear induced by hydrodynamic cavitation is not generated by creating very small gaps between blades or media, damage to the particles can be prevented. This is very desirable as it ensures the best chance to maintain the original aspect ratio of the primary particles and to maximize the strength of the composite. Figure 7. Microscope image showing high-resolution capabilities of silver paste made via cavitation More generally, good dispersion with wetting of the entire surface of all particles by the polymer system should also lead to the increased strength of a composite. Figure 8 below tries to graphically depict the impact of poorly dispersed agglomerates on the wetting of the particles by a polymer. Red lines have been drawn at places where voids due to poor dispersion could lead to fracture sites when stresses are applied to the material. As can be seen looking from the right, to middle, to left images, improved dispersion will yield fewer voids and defects to the composite. There are numerous scientific papers showing that often without good dispersion, adding CNTs to composites can actually degrade elongation at break, tensile strength and toughness (references 2-4). DAC mixers are capable of subjecting materials to very high shear rates, but don’t necessarily do well with strongly held-together agglomerates or aggregates of fillers. Traditional mixers, like three-roll mills and ball mills, have been used to mix CNTs, but damage the particles and lose the aspect ratio. Figure 8. Impact of agglomerates and poor dispersion on mechanical strength of composite Also of great importance to some structural 3D printing methods is the size of the largest agglomerates in the system after dispersion (D100 particle size). Agglomerates can clog the nozzles of the printing system requiring machine downtime, time-consuming cleaning, or increased usage of disposable wetted parts. The size of agglomerates in many commercial carbon nanotube dispersion and polymer masterbatch products sold by the manufacturers can be 100’s of microns in size. It is generally accepted practice that a 10:1 ratio between orifice inner diameter and maximum particle size must be used. This means that only coarse structures could be printed with current off-the-shelf CNT products. ACI’s cavitation process can dramatically reduce top size dramatically, which is important in many applications and use cases. References Robert J Flatt and Paul Bowden, Yodel: A Yield Stress Model for Suspensions, J. Am. Ceram. Soc., 90, 1038–1044, 2007 H. Patanwala, D. Hong, S. Vora, B. Bognet, A. Ma, The Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of 3D Printed Carbon Nanotube-Polylactic Acid Composites, Polymer Composites, 1-12, 2017; DOI:10.1002/pc S. Dul, L. Fambri, A. Pegoretti. Filaments Production and Fused Deposition Modelling of ABS/Carbon Nanotubes Composites, nanomaterials 2018, 8, 49; doi:10.3390/nano8010049. J. Ervina, M. Mariatti, S. Hamdan. Effect of Filler Loading on the Tensile Properties of Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotube and Graphene Nanopowder filled Epoxy Composites, Procedia Chemistry 1

Digital additive manufacturing of electronics is a key technology development frontier, shaping the future of electronics, making electronics production additive, on-demand, customized, sustainable, and 3D. All the key innovations in this field from around the world will be showcased at the TechBlick’s Future of Electronics RESHAPED conference & tradeshow in Berlin on 17-18 OCT 2023. This event brings together the entire industry in one place, offering 68 live talks, 12 expert-led masterclasses, 4 tours, 78 tabletop exhibitors, and over 600 attendees. In this article, we highlight some of the key innovations which will be discussed as part of the programme in Berlin. Join us and the global community in Berlin on 17-18 OCT 2023 and let us together RESHAPE the Future of Electronics, making it Additive, Sustainable, Hybrid, Wearable, or 3D. Apply the following coupon: Save100Euros Learning from the masters The programme starts on 17 OCT 2023 with masterclass and tours. Here you will have the opportunity to learn about 3D Printed Electronics: This class will be led by Martin Hedges, Founder of Neotech AMT GmbH, one of the leading firms in building 3D printed electronics machines with deep expertise. Martin will teach us about all the key deposition processes and system-level approaches enabling different types of 3D Printed Electronics. Electrohydrodynamic Printing (EHD): This class will offer an introduction to EHD printing, an emerging additive electronics technology overcoming fundamental barriers of conventional inkjet printing. This class will be offered by Patrick Galliker, CEO of Scrona, a leading company pioneering this technology in Zurich,Switzerland. For those who are interested, we will then take you on a tour of the facilities at Quantica3D, a company developing a technique for multi-material jetting of high-viscosity materials. Start-up Innovation and Applied Research As part of the programme you will hear from a number of exciting start-ups, developing truly novel technologies. Here is a short and non-exhaustive summary: Dry [Ink-Less] Multi Material Printing Technology: Dr Mahjouri-Samani, Founder of NanoPrintek, will explain about its dry multi-material printing technology, enabling ink-less additive digital deposition of pure nanoparticles, which are generated in-situ and on-demand with bulk-like properties, followed by real-time laser-sintering to multi-layer structure without any further post processing. Electrochemical Printing of Multi-Material Electronics: Dr.Viktorova, CEO and Founder of, Syenta, will join us from Australia to explain about Syenta’s patented fabrication method for multi-material 3D printing using electrochemistry. This method combines electrochemical with three-dimensional control of electrode positions to culminate in a new process for 2D patterning and 3D printing of metals, semiconducting materials as well as polymers into complex shapes with ultra small feature sizes. This method does not rely on nanoparticles and therefore does not need post-treatment and allows for nearly bulk material properties. Dry Digital Plasma Deposition without Curing: Dr. Prasad from Space Foundry will present the technology they developed at NASA. Here, the aerosol goes into a print head - where a plasma is generated. The aerosolized ink will interact with the plasma, tailoring in-situ the properties of the aerosolized ink. Here, ink properties are changed not by wet processes, but in the dry plasma process, eliminating both pre-processing of ink properties and post-processing the printed pattern. Continuous Laser-Assisted Deposition of Standard Materials: This is a multi-material production process that relies upon the LIFT (laser induced forward transfer) technology, enabling digital, precise, high-resolution, and high-volume deposition of most industrial materials including high viscosity ones like standard solder pastes. In this talk, Mr. Javice from ioTech Group will explain the advances in this technology, showcasing how different materials with high-resolutions can be printed for applications ranging from semiconductor packaging to flexible electronics. Printed Electronics Via On-Demand Jetting of Liquid Metal Droplets: Dr. Cormier from Rochester Institute of Technology is one of the best-known figures in printed electronics and additive manufacturing. He will explore the use of on-demand liquid metal droplet jetting to fabricate printed circuit patterns, showing how one can achieve solid metal traces whose conductivities match that of the bulk metal on temperature sensitive flexible polymer substrates and/or 3D structures. Importantly, the process uses inexpensive wire, rather than nanoparticle ink, as the feedstock material. Pre and post-processing steps normally used with nanoparticle ink processes, such as substrate cleaning and ink drying + curing, are eliminated. Manufacturing A Tool for Every Additive Electronics Project: One of the challenges for flexible hybrid electronics is that it is not easy to prototype and later manufacture ideas. This has slowed down, and continues to slow down, the industry as whole, throttling idea-to-product conversion. Jesus Zozaya, CEO of Voltera, will explain how they are addressing these pain points. Their modular dispensing platform enables users - be they academics and researchers or engineers in large companies - to rapidly and digitally prototype designs and ideas on various substrates with materials and properties that can be easily transferred into high-volume screen printing. This breaks down one of the long-standing barriers in the idea-to-manufacturing transition in this field. In parallel, Voltera is building a collaborative ecosystem that further lowers barriers to the realization of ideas based on flexible hybrid electronics. Jetting Functional Fluids - Up Scaling from Laboratory to Industrial Production: Implementing an inkjet solution to industrial processes can create incredible advantages, as well as open up new opportunities for manufacturing. However, scaling up a solution from a proven laboratory method to a mass-manufacturing environment is surprisingly difficult. In this presentation, George Boedler, CEO of Inkatronic, will draw up his 25+ years of experience in inkjet technology to give a breakdown of some of the challenges that need to be overcome in order to achieve this successfully. This talk is recommended for those who wish to achieve mass production of electronics with inkjet. Advancing the State-of-the-Art 3D Printed Electronics with SMT integration: In recent years, 3D printer technology that can manufacture bare PCBs using digital printing technology for both conductors and insulators has been developed. However, it is essential to optimize the SMT process in accordance with the transformation of the bare PCBs manufacturing process for the practical application of this technology. In this talk, Tominaga-san from Fuji will introduce a novel machine that combines the additive manufacturing process of bare PCBs and low-temperature SMT technology. Next generation of resolution in additive technology: Inkjet has well known limits including resolution and viscosity. Here, Lukas from XTPL explains how their Ultra-Precise Deposition can deposit functional materials with a wide range of viscosities with micro-level precision on planar as well as non-planar surfaces. Furthermore, he will showcase the available solutions for next-generation Flexible Hybrid Electronics, Advanced IC Packaging, and Flat Panel Display applications. Redefining Coatings in Electronic Packaging with Digital Selective Metallic Coating: This is an innovative technique to digital yet site-selectively deposit thin coatings of metal onto 2D and 2.D surfaces, replacing expensive vacuum PVC techniques which also require masking and wet etching. In this talk, Franz Vollman from Heraeus showcases how they have developed a turnkey ready-to-deploy industrial solution, consisting of particle-free inks with industrial wafer-based inkjet printers, covering any standard CAD design into customized thin metallization films in the range of 150 nm to 3 μm with a conductivity of 20-50% of bulk silver. Franz will also explain the key applications including EMI shielding of semiconductor packages for 5G applications. Applications of Ultraprecision Aerosol Deposition in 3D Printing and Packaging: Aerosol jet technology offers digital & ultraprecise deposition methods, over 2D and 3D surfaces, with excellent resolutions. David Keicher from IDS will give an overview about different ways to advanced the art and the application of aerosol deposition. 3D Printed Electronics is Powerful when combined with CHIPS: 3D Printed Electronics saves space and enables new designs in 2.D and 3D. In this talk, Kenneth Church, CEO of nScrypt, explains how one can deposit conductors and electronics and how one can place and integrate active components onto surfaces. Furthermore, he will focus on optimizing next-generation smart tools and smart labs to ensure thousands of layers are perfect every time, making this technique ready for mass production. Cicor Group: Aerosol jet technology offers capabilities in printing sensors in 2D and 3D, as well as a way to connect off the shelf components in a very efficient and space saving way. Karl-Heinz Fritz will give an overview about different ways to make best use of the capability. In addition, there will be a vibrant exhibition showcasing the entire depth and breadth of additive and printed electronics including all advances in digital and 3D additive electronics. For example, you can visit Quantica3D, Notion Systems, Hummink, Suss Microtech, DoMicro, and many more onsite. Join us and the global community in Berlin on 17-18 OCT 2023 and let us together RESHAPE the Future of Electronics, making it Additive, Sustainable, Hybrid, Wearable, or 3D. Apply the following coupon: Save100Euros

Arnold Kell, National Research Centre of Canada SAVE THE DATE

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Human Machine Interfaces (HMI) of electronic devices are currently undergoing significant changes. Followed by the trend of using smart phones for „everything“, nearly all electronic devices show significant changes in the user interface. In industries such as automotive, white goods or consumer electronics, the displays become touchscreens, the mechanical buttons become capacitive touch buttons and even gesture control is reality. This trend also includes significant change in the surfaces, as they are becoming seamless, large and more and more 3D shaped. Printed Silver and PEDOT based transparent conductive films enable this trend as they are flexible, with high conductivity and high optical performance. They can be integrated together with decoration to glass and plastic surfaces in flat, curved or 3D shapes. Besides the trends and the technology, also showcases of different industries such as automotive and white goods are presented, as well as the ideas how they will further develop along the roadmap. SAVE THE DATE

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Speaker: Sima Hannani Company: Electronink SAVE THE DATE

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Airbus Dennis Hahn Presentation of an animated movie of our end-to-end vision on how we imagine the printed electronics technology may impact the aviation industry. Introducing our current status of technology testing (hopefully with some breathtaking photos) and open topics such as customization software, max automation and end of life processes. Q&A. SAVE THE DATE

Karl Guttag, President, KGOnTech The presentation will give a quick overview the common optical designs and display devices used in AR systems today including their advantages and disadvantages. The presentation will include a discussion of which optical designs and display devices work well together. The optics designs include large combiner (bug-eye), birdbath, freeform, diffractive waveguide, reflective waveguide, and holographic mirror. The display devices include LCOS, DLP, LCD, Micro-OLED, and MicroLED.