In this short 5-min presentation, Dr. Martin Hedges shares his insights about the current status as well as medium term (3-5 year) and long term (5-10 year) development roadmap of the industry. Martin is the CEO of Neotech AMT GmbH, a leader in the development of 3D printed electronics machinery, for both prototyping and volume production. Current status: you can exampleds of (1) print on already 3D surfaces and (2) fully additive 3D printed electronics. In the latter, you can see an example of a filament (FFM) 3D printer building the mechanical part. The process is interrupted to automatically do SMT PnP and Ag metal jetting for building the conductive tracks. Here, multiple layers of interconnected electronics are created within the 3D structure, integrating parts such as LED, optics, waveguides, etc Short term (3-5 year) roadmap: the industry should complete the first completely automated processing line based on digital 3D printing of electronics. Some degree of AI/ML will also be integrated for quality inspection and perhaps even auto correction. Furthermore, a wide range of functionalities, especially power electrodes, will be integrated, perhaps using cermaic structures, and the printed area/volume will also expand to form large 3D objects. Long term (5-10year) roadmap: completely new product architectures will be enabled and the industry can start to move away from traditional etching-based PCB production techniques. Furthermore, automated recycling, repair and reuse will be possible To learn more about 3D printed electronics join us in Eindhoven (the Netherlands) on 12-13 OCT 2022. Martin will be there in person, making a presentation and also showcasing the latest prototypes/products https://www.techblick.com/electronicsreshaped

Dr. Eric Macdonald is one of the pioneering developers of 3D printed electronics and he also happens to ba great storyteller. In this short presentation, you can learn about the evolution of 3D printed electronics at their lab from 2009 until now. First, you will see an example of 3D printed motors from 2009. Here, the 3D printing process would be interrupted to manually insert wires and magnetics into the stator, making a functional motor able to run at 4000 rpm. In the next example, you can see an automatic multi-station system, combining multiple 3D print and gantry/worktop stations all connected and orchestrated by an industrial robotic arm. Here, the plastic parts would be printed using Stratasys printers. The 3D printing process would be interrupted and the robotic arm would take the part to other gantries where wire placement, milling, machining, dispensing, IC and PCB placement etc could automatically take place, before the robotic arm would take the part back to the 3D printer to continue the build up. This was thus a fully automated system for building 3D printed electronics. In general, Eric's group did not focus on conductive inks and pastes given the low conductivity levels. However, as they look to form 3D printed electronics based on alumina and zirconia sintered at high temperature, they may re-use high temperature sintered conductive plates, perhaps borrowed from the LTCC world. Given the high sintering temperatures, very high conductivity levels can be achieved. To learn more about the world of 3D printed electronics join us onsite in Eindhoven (the Netherlands) on 12-13 OCT 2022 https://www.techblick.com/electronicsreshaped

Additively deposited interconnects as wirebond replacement in electronic packaging can have many advantages. They can reduce or eliminate the loop and the associated inductance, which is important in high frequency electronics. They can shorten the inteconnets, thus reducing loss. They can - depending on the printing technique- narrow the pitch and wire width down to 20 and 10um, respectively. They can enable custom shapes for the interconnects, enabling one to have custom resistance values. Finally, they can save space, as no bond pads will be required and can be more delicate as it is a non-contact deposition technique. Here, we can see an example by Optomec. A microstrip is aerosol jet printed (AJP) with a width of 45um using silver nanoparticle (Ag NP) inks. The data here suggests that wirebonds perform poorly at mmWave signals whereas AJP micrtrops can operate well upto 100 GHz. Of course, it is important to note that wire bonding is not as bad as this because often circuit compensation is built in. Furthermore, at such high frequencies, the competition is often not wire-bonding, but package-level integration. Clearly, digital additive techniques like aerosol have many advantages. They still need to prove produciton at scale, reliability, etc. The conductivity of the printed lines- especially when the curing T is limited- needs to further improve as otherwise it becomes the dominant loss factor

Sputtering remains the technology of choice for creating conformal package-level EMI shielding, which itself is a major trend in the electronics industry. For some years now, there have been attempts to replace the incumbent sputtering with spraying. The advantages are low Capex as well as non-vacuum operation, although these advantages may not be enough to overcome the momentum of incumbency. However, there are now two approaches based on digital printing of conductive inks to create conformal package-level EMI shielding. The digital nature of the coating enables mask-less area-selective metallization, which is an important advantage compared to sputtering when it comes to complex multi-chip heterogenous packaging or SiP package in which only a part of the package will need to be coated. One approach has been developed by Heraeus. It combines multi-head inkjet printing with their particle-free inks. Heraeus is offering a manufacturing-level turnkey solution, making it easy for customers to adopt its solution. Furthermore, the thin and smooth nature of the coating suggests it is effective even for mmWave frequencies and beyond, meaning that a single solution will suffice to cover sub-5G range, mmWave range, and many future frequency ranges. Another less mature approach is being developed by Ntrium in Korea. Here, they deploy aerosol printing. The results below were disclosed at TechBlick in May 2021. It shows aarea selective metallization on a 8x12mm2 IC. The aerosol head moves at 10mm/s. The Ag nanoparticle coatings are 1.1- 1.3um thick, which is thinner than spray and in the same range as inkjet. Aerosol offers a focused jet, enabling high resolution, but it may at the same time limit coverage area per pass. We do not know the latest developments but the plan in May 2021 was to achieve the following until late 2022/early 2023 UPH 1000 /system --> 4000/system Headspeed: 5mm/s --> 15mm/s Thickness: 1um/pass -->3um/pass Width: 500um/pass -->1mm/pass

Elepahntech (Japan) has spent more than $40m developing a technology based on IJP and plating to additively manufacture flexible PCBs (FPCBs) on PI as well as PET layers. The process is shown below. Here, the additive nature of the process means that the production process is environmentally friendlier and does not involve etching chemicals. Furthermore, the digital nature of the patterning (inkjet printing) means that designs can be changed faster. Here, inkjet printing is used to first print a thin silver nanoparticle track on the PET or PI substrate. The layer- which must adhere well to the substrate- is then thickened by copper (Cu) plating. This hybrid approach ensures that (a) bulk-level conductivity similar to PCBs is achieved and (b) soldering can be deployed without the challenges faced by conductive inks. These are two important points enabling the technology to be positioned as an alternative to etched FPCBs The linewidth is currently limited by the resolution of inkjet printing. The L/S (linewidth over spacing) is now around 200um/200um. With laser scribing, this can be further reduced to 100/100um today. In the future, the development target is an L/S of 20/20. Furthermore, the technology currently is applied only on flat surfaces. In the future, however, the seed layer could be applied to a 3D layer, enabling 3D metallization too.

Printing micro bumps with solder paste or conductive adhesives is an elegant solution. However, most printing techniques will struggle to achieve the current, let alone, future resolution requirements. Indeed, this requirement will become even more challenging as microLEDs shrink in size (roadmap is towards 5x5um2). Microgravure offset printing on wafers represents an elegant solution. Here, you can see an example of work by Komori, showing how 6um (diameter) solder pads were printed on a wafer with a pitch of 30um. This is an excellent resolution. After reflow, the solders spread, making the diameter of the solder bump15um. To learn more about this technology, and other technologies essential in manufacturing of next-gen microLEDs, check out the confirmed speaker list for TechBlick’s microLED event. You can see the full agenda here

As microLED’s inevitably shrink in size, the question of how to bond and contact them to the substrate becomes ever more important. This need will drive innovation both in terms of material development and deposition technology. An interesting additive approach is based on electrohydrodynamic printing (EHD), which can digitally print inks with few-micron resolution and over a spectrum of viscosities (can handle far more viscous than inkjet can). The image below by Enjet presented at a previous TechBlick conference, shows how conductive bond pads and adhesives in the scale of 15-20um were digitally (EDH) printed. Currently, the EHD is generally somewhat slow, but the recent development of multi-head printers may change this. This is an important technology area to watch. To learn more join TechBlick’s specialist microLED event. Check out the confirmed speaker list here. It is truly a world-class agenda . See full agenda here

This is an excellent chat by Eric Virey (Yole showing how LED dies are expect to shrink in size, going from mini-LED region (e.g., 125x255mm) to ultrasmall microLED region (5x5um?). This driver is essentially because it increases PPI and drives down cost as well as transfer time/cost since more LEDs are produced per wafer. To sustain this trend, many other technologies need to evolve from more efficient small-sized red LEDs to microbumps to better tiling and metallization techniques and transfer technologies. Join TechBlick’smicroLED event with a world-class agenda covering all key technologies in the field. See agena here

The standard metallization technology for Si solar cells is screen printing. Today, it can print 35um linewidths and is expected to evolve down in production to 20um linewidths. The productivity for a 182x182 mm2 wafer is today around 7000 wafers per hour, setting the industry benchmark for any alternative technology. In the past, inkjet printing tried to offer an alternative, but could only handle low viscosity nanoparticle (expensive) inks with low aspect ratio. It was proposed to use inkjet as the technology to print seed layer, but inkjet – as a tool for PV metallization- has not yet gained significant traction, despite more a decade of development. Fraunhofer ISE has developed a novel multi-head non-contact digital printing based on high-resolution dispensing. This technology – spun off into HighLine Technology GmbH – can digitally print high-aspect ratio (:1) ultra narrow linewidth (17-19um) metallization lines using high viscosity solar Ag pastes. This technique may improve upon the linewidth capability of screen printing whilst being inline and non-contact, which can lead to lower breakage/reject rate especially for ultrathin wafers. Join TechBlick to learn more about the complete world of printed electronics, additive electronics, and photovoltaics Source: https://doi.org/10.1002/solr.202000475

Speaker: Terho Lahtinen | Company: Movesense by Suunto Oy| Date: 10-11 March 2021 | Full Presentation Movesense is an open sensor platform for creating new solutions to track motion, heart rate and ECG. Movesense is used for building wearable sensor concepts and for integrating sensors with apparel. To enable smooth apparel integration and to provide context information for the sensor, Movesense team of the Finnish sports watch expert Suunto worked together with TactoTek, another Finnish tech company specialized in IME, to develop a flexible connector element that includes in-molded electronics and can be applied to clothing with typical textile industry methods. The presentation describes the project background and steps in practice. Join TechBlick on an annual pass to join all live online conference or online version of onsite conference access library of on-demand talks (600 talks + PDFs) portfolio of expert led masterclass year-round platform https://www.techblick.com/ And do NOT miss our flagship event in Berlin on 17-18 OCT 2023 focused on Reshaping the Future of Electronics. This event attracts 550-600 participants from all the world and offers a superb ambience and dynamic exhibition floor. To learn more visit https://www.techblick.com/electronicsreshaped To see feedback about previous event see https://www.techblick.com/events-agenda

By Piotr Trzaska | Noctiluca | https://noctiluca.eu/ OLED (organic light-emitting diodes) is the display technology based on a thin layer of organic emitters that emit light of a specific color. Key parts of the structure of OLED displays are OLED emitters - the chemical compounds in form of a powder responsible for luminescence - light emission after application of electric current. The quality of the image displayed using OLED technology, the saturation of the color, and the intensity of the light depends for the most part on the emitter parameters, which have evolved with the development of the industry. OLED technologies have been divided into 4 generations, depending on the characteristics of the emitter, which determine the properties of the diode constructed with its use: 1st generation - fluorescent diodes, 2nd generation phosphorescent diodes, 3rd generation based on the TADF effect, and 4th generation based on hyperfluorescence. Noctiluca develops third- and fourth-generation OLED TADF emitter systems, which will become an alternative to existing technology. Why? Let’s find the answer while analyzing all the generations. First generation emitters, so called “fluorescent OLEDs” OLED displays of the first generation are called fluorescent OLEDs and use organic emitters. As the intersystem crossing (ISC) between states of different multiplicity is impossible due to basic laws of physics, only transition S1 -> S0 is allowed and radiative. Upon an electrical excitation, only 25% of formed exciton are of singlet multiplicity and are emissive. The rest 75% are of triplet multiplicity and are not involved in the emission of light. This is why the internal quantum efficiency (IQE) of fluorescent OLEDs is capped to 25% and as a result external quantum efficiency (EQE) to a few percent. The most common today second generation emitters To utilize the rest 75% of excitons, metallorganic complexes were discovered and named as OLED emitters of the second generation. As the presence of rare metals like iridium and platinum causes very strong spin-orbit coupling, in phosphorescent emitters T1 -> S0 transition becomes radiative and ISC process between S1 and T1 also takes place. This approach theoretically allows the utilization of up to a 100%of formed excitons for the emission of light and up to 100% of IQE. The EQE values of the best phosphorescent OLEDs are about 30%. Even though phosphorescent emitters offer high efficiency and potential for application in OLED technology, the presence of expensive and toxic rare earth metals and precious metals in the structure of complexes causing problems with recycling, limit their application on an industrial scale. Moreover, to date, there has been a notable lack of blue emitter, that represents 70% of display light emission, of second generation. TADF - third and fourth generation emitters The problems with 1st and 2nd generation of emitters is what stimulated the intensive research on other efficient emitters but without metals in structure. One of the promising phenomena is thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF). TADF emitters thanks to the appropriate design have a very small energy difference between S1 and T1 states (ΔEST). When the exciton lifetime in the triplet state is long enough, the RISC process becomes allowed and is thermally activated. Triplet excitons are converted into singlet excitons – emissive, and emission of delayed fluorescence occurs. The theoretical maximal value of IQE is 100%. The development of OLED technology has not stopped at the third generation. The requirements for the next generation are high efficiency, high color purity, and considerable lifetime. One of the most promising approaches which meet these conditions is hyperfluorescence – the concept developed by scientists from Kyushu University. Hyperfluorescence is a term known since 2013 when Adachi and his group developed this approach. In a hyperfluorescence, the TADF molecule serves not as an emitter but efficiently transfers the excitation from the host to the fluorescent dopant. During the TADF mechanism, the electrically generated triplet excitons are converted to singlet excitons, then through FRET, the S1 state of fluorescent dopant is filled and light emission occurs. This approach is attractive because of an extremely narrow emission band, better stability, and high color purity. The theoretical limitation of IQE for hyperfluorescence is 100%. Why do we need the 3rd and 4th generation of emitters? TADF emitters are expected to drive the growth of the OLED industry in the coming years because they address many problems: • They are more energy efficient - 5G phones have up to 33% higher power consumption than 4G phones, foldable devices will allow for a bigger display, and slim design means less space for battery – having all this in mind OLED displays with 3rd and 4th emitters could save up to 30% of current energy consumption • They are better for the environment - OLED displays with 3rd and 4th generation of emitters do not require heavy metals and Rare Earth Elements • They are cheaper • They prolong device life and eliminate the burn-in effect of displays • Additional value: efficient blue emitter, unattainable for 2nd generation Within the OLED market, the use of second-generation emitters has grown rapidly over the past few years - but not in all colors. Although efficient green and red light emitters have been successfully produced, constructing high-quality blue light emitters seems to be an insurmountable problem - the market is still using blue emitters of the older, 1st generation. The main technological goal of OLED emitter manufacturers is to create and implement next generation emitters (3rd and 4th generation OLEDs), and to break the technological barrier associated with blue light emitters. To date, however, no one in the world has succeeded in creating an effective 3rd or 4th generation RGB emitter that would be commercially implemented (one use case with yellow monochromatic display has been rolled out). Obtaining 3rd and 4th generation emitters will be a true technological breakthrough.

Speaker: Erik Kremers | Company: SALD | Date: 9-10 Feb 2022 | Full Presentation In all growth markets, maximum throughput at the lowest possible costs is essential for success! SALD has developed a unique technology that makes this possible, which is protected by several patents. This technology has been incorporated into a compact machine that can be used for research as well as for small-scale production. It does not matter which material is involved: battery electrode, solar cell, OLED or foil. Moreover, SALD is the only company in the world that has the expertise to subsequently quickly and reliably upscale the Spatial ALD technology to high volume production. In Spatial ALD (SALD) precursors are continuously supplied in different locations and kept apart by an inert gas region or zone. Film growth is achieved by exposing the substrate to the locations containing the different precursors. The process is very fast and compatible with fast-throughput techniques such as roll-to-roll (R2R) and is versatile and cheap to scale up. In addition, one of the main assets of SALD is that it can be performed at ambient pressure and even in the open air, while not compromising the deposition rate. Join TechBlick on an annual pass to join all live online conference or online version of onsite conference access library of on-demand talks (600 talks + PDFs) portfolio of expert led masterclass year-round platform https://www.techblick.com/ Our next battery-related event will take place on 15-16 FEB 2023, covering 1) Solid-State Batteries: Innovations, Promising Start-Ups, & Future Roadmap 2) Battery Materials: Next-Generation & Beyond Lithium Ion The speakers include: General Motors, Graphenix Development, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Fraunhofer IKTS, RWTH Aachen University, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, Meta Materials Inc, Skeleton Technologies, Solid State Battery Inc, Argonne National Laboratories, OneD Battery Sciences, VTT, Leyden Jar Technologies B.V., b-Science, Rho Motion, Wevo-Chemie, LiNA Energy, CNM Technologies, Ionblox, Empa, Zinc8 Energy Solutions, Avicenne Energy, Echiontech, South8 Technologies, Basquevolt, NanoXplore, Chasm, Li Metal, Sila Nanotechnologies, Quantumscape (tentative), Fraunhofer ISI, etc https://www.techblick.com/