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Silicon photovoltaics (PV) are one of the most important markets globally for printed electronics. This is because each wafer carriers a small of fired screen printed silver paste. Indeed, this could be the largest market worldwide. The chart below- from the indistry roadmap ITRPV 2022- shows the amount of Ag metallization utilized per wafer (both front and back metallization) per watt depending on the type of silicon photovoltaic (monofacial p-type, TOPCon n-type, HJT n-type, etc). It shows that today something around 25-30 tonnes is used per GW of solar for HJT n-type PV and around 12-14 tonnes for monofacial and bifacial types. Considering the size of the PV market, this translates into a 100+ tpa market! As shown in the charts below, screen printing remains the prevelant technology for metallization, despite long-term attempts by other technologies to make even a small dent into this space. In the long term future, other technologies such as plating on seed layer or stencil printing are expected to obtain a small foothold, although we have heard this story too many times already. There are various screen printing techniques. Single print and dual print (finger and bus bar printed seperately in two seperate steps) are the most common techniques. Double printing (print a second layer on an already screen printed already for better aspect ratio) is also popular. The advantage of dual print is that different paste types could be used for fingers and bus bars, giving optimal results. There is of course always a trend to narrow the linewidht of the screen printed lines, whilst maintaing high aspect ratio, excellent ohmic contact, and high conductivity. This has been the direction of development for years. Today, the state of practice in production is a screen printed linewidth of around 34-35um. The industry expects this to evolve to a linewidth of 20um, which is very narrow for screen printing and would represents a real advancement of the art. In the slide below, you can see an example from Fraunhofer ISE (2019) demonstrating a screen printed finger with a linewidth and height of 19um and 18um, respectively. This is, in my view, the state of the art, and requires close collaboration of all those involved from stainless mesh makers, to paste and particle manufacturers, to emulsion makers, and so on. This is an incredibly important market for the printed electronics industry. Outside China, the main particle makers remain Dowa, Ames Goldsmith, Metalor, and Technic. There are many paste makers including Heraeus, DuPont, etc. Of course, given that the market is in China, the supply chain has also been moving there with Chinese suppliers rising in terms of market share as well as technology capabilities. Indeed, their powders and pastes are no longer significantly inferior to the state of the art. To protect market share, others must evolve their particle/powder and paste technology so that it can sustain the roadmap towards ever narrow printed linewidths without a loss in efficiency. This is one of the guiding principles directing technology development. Finally, Fraunhofer ISE publishes an excellent and very detailed annual report on the state of the global photovoltaic industry. As seen below, global production is already a staggering 140+ GW/year with 82% being produced in Asia. To support the scale of this industry, any metallization technology requires to have excellent throughput. The ITRPV 2022 roadmap also outlines the throughput step for the backend steps. It shows that screen printing machines today handle something around 7000 wafers per hour (180 x 182 mm2). This is expected to rise to over 9000 wafers per hour in a decade. This is included here to show the scale of the challenge faced by alternative processes including non-contact technologies such as inkjet.

Rolling nanolithography can take the linewith resolution of R2R lighography even below 1um. This technology, by Meta Inc (Meta Materials Inc) includes a roller around which a mask is wraped and within which a UV light sits. The wrap-aroud mask itself it manufactured using electron beam lithography, giving it very fine features. Therefore, the mask can support, like nanoimprint technology, nano-meter scale features. However, the UV exposure itself may limit feature size to 500nm or 1um range. The current web size is 300mm although Meta is developing technology to scale this to 1200mm webwidths. Here, a step-and-repeat process can be used to create larger rolling masks (note: there might be some 100um wide discontinuities and thus may not be fully seamless, although they are workarounds for this). To achieve single-layer ultrafine line metallizaiton, first a photoresist is deposted and then patterned using the rolling UV mask. Next, a thin metal layer is R2R evaporated (AI or Ag, for example) before creating the final pattern in a R2R lift-off process. Ultra fine features with excellent aspect ratio (300nm/100nm) can be achieved. This is a wide web industrial R2R or R2S process that can print few micron or even sub-micron features on 1.2m wide webs at lenghts of 6 km and at print speeds around 2-10 m/min speeds. The embedded slides show examples of products. On slide 2, you can see the examples of fine feature sizes achieved, putting the technology in the same feature size range as silver nanowires. In slide 3, you can see the demonstration of Al and Ag metal mesh with L/S of 500nm/30um achieving 3.5-5 ohm/sqr at 96% transparency. The bechmarking chart shows that this nanoweb technology can outperform all the other options in terms of its low sheet resistance and high transparency.

(AME/PE) Speaker: Chris Booher | Company: ChemCubed | Date: 10-11 March 2021 | Full Presentation ChemCubed, a U.S. based manufacturer of materials and printing solutions for 3D printing / Additive Manufacturing, will present their ElectroJet brand solutions for AME/PE covering the offerings of materials (silver conductive and dielectric insulating inks), equipment (electroUV3D inkjet printer for electronics), and processes. The multi-faceted portfolio will be highlighted for differentiation in performance, economics, flexibility, compatibility and benefits to key applications and market segments. ChemCubed will also present examples of the ElectroJet brand’s resulting solutions to date by application, further understandings of unmet needs within the industry and emerging technology to address the needs in the future developments of materials and equipment. Christopher Booher Chief Marketing Officer @ ChemCubed Bio Chris Booher holds a BBA in marketing with over 25 years of business experience in the packaging and materials industry and is committed to growing ChemCubed’s leading technologies position in the 3D printing materials market. He has worked with multiple companies from privately owned expansions to Fortune 500s headquartered in the USA and Europe. His experience ranges from full P&L general management, sales and business development for application-specific technologies in paper, films, adhesives, specialty coatings and printing inks. Chris is focused on partnering with customers to fully embrace target driven solutions tailored to each company’s unique end-use applications and needs. 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

A major challenge in printed electronics is the inability to solder directly on Ag paste (the most common ink and paste material) because no intermetallic layer is formed. With Cu, this can be different. Here, Copprint is showing results, demonstrating that one can directly solder onto their Cu pastes with good shear test results, even if sometimes the wetting is not the best. It also shows how a strong intermetallic layer is formed during the solder, for example, with the standard SAC305 solder on an FR4 substrate. This is an important advancement of the art because it makes printed electronics more compatible with standard SMT processes. Furthermore, the Cu ink is compatible with low-T solders too, enabling one to solder components directly onto a PET substrate with printed Cu lines. In general, Cu inks have had issues in the past. The conductivity has not been high enough, meaning more material is needed thereby eroding their $/Kg advantage vs. Ag. They have also required novel sintering steps with a new learning curve and with new equipment. The data from Copprint suggests that their ink can be sintered very fast and achieve conductivity levels outperforming those of classic Ag suppliers.

Impulse Printing- unveiled and presented recently at TechBlick- seems to be an exciting technology. The technology details are not yet fully disclosed, and the development is still at a laboratory stage, but the disclosed results and claimed performance levels are incredible. As you can see below, the technology can digitally print tracks with resolutions as low as 2um and as high as one millimeter. It can print materials with an extremely wide viscousity range, from 0.1 to 10,000 Pa.S, meaning that it can print copper and silver inks as well as solder and epoxy(!) based conductive adhesives! The technique prints over 3D surfaces, able to print over gaps as short as 1um and as tall as 10mm. This digital printing technique can print sequential as well as simultaneous patterns at high speeds. The diversity in all paramters (resolution, print gap, viscosity of ink or pastes, etc) is very unique for any digital pritning process. Indeed, as shown in the chart belows, each technology occupies a given position in terms of resolution/feature size, viscosity, print gap, etc). Perhaps, as this technology inches towards scale-up, trade-offs will become clear, and not all the reported performance benefits will be satisfied at the same time. The technology is still young and in development. Today, the print area is a small (1x10mm2) but there is a roadmap to scale the tool to be able to print first at 20x20mm2 and then 96x96mm2. Watch this space as the technology will soon be spun out into a start up!

To scale up microLED displays to large areas, smaller displays can be titled. Because microLEDs can be truely edge-less devices, the tiling can function, yielding a seemless look. Each title should house the microLEDs, backplane, as well as driver electrodes. The microLEDs and the backplane sit on the front side of the glass substrate whilst the driver electrodes are tucked away at the back. Interconnects are needed to connect the two. Wrap-around electrodes (interconnects wraping around the edge to connect front and back) is an elegent solution which bypasses the need for a drilled and filled through-glass via. The wrap around electrodes can be printed or PVD deposited (both prefer chamfered glass) . The latter can yield better feature sizes and thin and conductive lines, whilst the former can increase productivity. The below images demonstrate various technologies. Screen printing is a robust solution with low TACT time. Applied Materials has demonstrated that it can screen print very narrow (30um) linewidths over narrow spacings (50um). These are excellent results. Note, by way of reference, that state-of-the-practice/production and state-of-the-art in screen printing of conductive paste on silicon solar PVs are 35um and 20um, respectively. In the process, first the top and botton electrodes are printed before the substrate is rotated (with excellent alignment) to print the electrodes over the edge. This technologies requires excellent machines. Applied Materials has launched a machine able to handle 230x230mm substrate with +/- 6um repeatability and a throughput of 1000pph. Note that optimization of the past and print process are critical. In general, a paste with very high conductivity (20% bulk Ag) with 5B adhesion onto glass will be needed. The target final printed thickness is 3-5um. The screen printing process should yield smooth surface with no peaks near the edge. Aerosol jet is also being proposed for additive deposition of wrap-around electrodes. The advantage of aerosol is that it can print over 3D surfaces and that it can in general deposit fine features than screen printing. To achieve wrap-around electrodes, two half-wrap electrodes must be printed (see below). In between the steps, the glass will need to be rotated. Optomec claims to achieve 18k full-wrap interconencts per hour (excluding the time it takes to rotate the glass). Note that the example below shows L/S 50um although, in princible, aerosol jet can go from down. In general, this is an interesting solution for the microLED market

Flexible Hybrid Electronics (FHE) brings together the best of printed and flexible electronics with rigid Si-based electronics. A critical and often limiting bottleneck is the interconnect between printed (often wide) and Si ICs (often narrow pitches). Normal solder can not easily be used because (1) substrate such as TPU (stretchable electronics) and PET (flexible electrodes) impose severe temperature limitation, often even below bismuth-based low-T solders, and (2) some inks, specially Ag inks, dissolve in solder. Furthermore, these interconnects need not only support the pitch sizes of the ICs, but also survive flexibling as well as stretching, and be compatible with standard industry processes. One option is to deploy particle filled (often Ag particle) epoxies to form the interconnects. Here, unless it is anisotrophic, then the pitch sizes will be limited. Furthermore, particle loadings are often high to achieve high conductivity, adding to cost. Sunray has developed a novel solution: they disperse ferromagnetic particles within a two-part epoxy system. Under an external magnetic field, the particle align vertically, forming z-axis conductive paths. Here, the pitch can be down to 100um. The curing temperature can be as low as 80C, making compatible with TPU and PET. The material can sustain extreme repeated stretching. Furthermore, the process is, as shown below, compatible with standard SMT process. The material can be stencil printed or dispensed. Once the component is pick and placed, a magnetic pallet is used to align the particles before sending the film through a curing step (batch over, reflow, vertical oven) This is an interesting process. It of course lacks the self alignment properties of solder. The ptich is also currenly limited to 100um, which is too wide for many ICs.

Printed electronics technology is evolving. A development direction is ultrafine line printing, increasingly allowing the technology to encroach into the realm of photolithography. The example here, developed by VTT, demonstrate a process for sub-micron printing. The process is reverse offset printing. Here, the PDMS roller is first coated with the ink. The ink semi-dries on the roller, partially through absorption into the PDMS. This semi-dried state allows one to overcome wetting-related issues when inks are in liquid state. The inked PDMS roller is brought into contact with a Cliche, or relief plate, removing parts of the inks. The patterned semi-dried inks on the PDMS roller are then transferred onto the final substrate. In this example VTT achieves 1µm direct printing of silver nanoparticle inks. The desktop RO printer was used to print a metal mesh on PET with 1µm linewidths. The reported sheet resisitivty is not very low (100Ohm/sqr), probably because the lines are very thin. In general, note that ROP can enable minimum resolutions between 0.5-5µm, printed thickness lines around 20-1000nm, overlay accuracy <2um, and printing speeds of 50mm/s (3m/min).

Speaker: Denis Pasero | Company: Ilika | Date: 9-10 Feb 2022 | Full Presentation Solid State Batteries are expected to outperform incumbent liquid-based battery technologies thanks to potential safety and performance advantages. SSBs have the potential to improve and even enable new application over a wide Wh-level range: from micro-batteries powering Augmented Reality smart contact lenses and perpetual Internet of Things sensors; to pouch cells providing safer and lighter power to cordless domestic devices and longer range to electric vehicles and new aerospace applications. Yet, after a few decades of R&D, the commercialisation of small SSB is only recent and that our larger format pouch cells still around the corner. This presentation will compare and contrast the various challenges and choices of chemistries, processes and engineering solutions necessary for the development of mWh level micro batteries to the full commercialisation of SSB modules at GWh level. 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/

Printed electronics technology is evolving. A development direction is ultrafine line printing, increasingly allowing the technology to encroach into the realm of photolithography. In this article, we discuss analogue direct as well as hybrid printing technologies, bringing printed electronics into the few micron and sub-micron feature size range. This is an important development, taking printed electronics closer to electronic applications. In a subsequent article, we will cover digital printing techniques. This article is based upon recent presentations and discussions at TechBlick events. TechBlick is the home of the global printed electronics industry, providing year-round online and onsite world-class conferences, masterclasses, and industry updates. Join TechBlick on an annual or monthly annual pass to connect with the global printed electronics community (www.TechBlick.com). Our next Printed Electronics event will be an online Innovations Festival taking place on 24 June 2022. This article begins with screen printing, as it is the powerhouse of the industry. Without the exception of displays, most printed electronics applications rely upon this technology. Today, many regularly print ca. 50µm linewidths in production on flexible substrates. However, the state-of-the-art is already pushing below this limit. Here, I show two interesting examples. The right image is from Fraunhofer ISE (2019), showing how they could screen print 19µm wide lines on silicon solar cells to act as narrow fingers. This is an important advancement compared to the common >30µm linewidths, reducing Ag content per wafer and leaving more solar wafer real estate open to the sun. These are critical drivers in optimising cost and performance of silicon photovoltaics. The images in the middle (above), by Asada Mesh (2022), demonstrate printed lines on PET with linewidths as narrow as 22µm. This is not an easy feat, and require optimization of the substrate, mesh, screen, paste, etc. A key enabling technology here is ultranarrow stainless steel meshes. Here, on the right, you can see 9µm mesh wires, recently announced by Asada Mesh, showing how mesh technology is evolving. These two examples demonstrate once again that screen printing has not reached the end of the road. One underestimates this technology at one’s peril. Incremental but important improvements will soon enable S2S sub-25µm and sub-20µm linewidths on PET and wafer/ceramic substrates. The exact linewidth limit is not known, but is, for now, assumed to around 15µm. To overcome linewidth limitations of direct screen printing, hybrid solutions are proposed. These typically involve the screen printing of a moderately narrow line followed by laser or other patterning. Here, I outline the solution developed by Toray. The approach is shown schematically below. A photo-patternable screen printable paste is developed, which can be directly photolithographically patterned without requiring an additional photoresist deposition and development step. The low-temperature PET-compatible version of this paste enables L/S as narrow as 10/10 µm. However, the achieved conductivity is not the highest (around 30-80 uOhm.cm when cured at 140C). The high-temperature version of course goes higher in conductivity, approaching x2bulk (3uOhm.cm) when sintered at 850C. This solution is particularly suited to touch screen edge electrodes based on ITO on PET substrates since (a) it enables narrow edge electrodes (lower L/S) and (b) ITO film patterning requires photolithography in any case. This approach can be finetuned to support even narrower L/S. In this example, you can see fine circuit wiring and metal mesh examples, reaching 8µm and 2.5µm linewidth, respectively. Note that at 2.5µm linewidth, this hybrid printing process approaches the best-in-class metal mesh linewidths. This technology still has some limitations though, namely, a high curing temperature of 230C, (which is not PET, PEN, PC compatible) and only a moderate paste resistivity. There are many reasons why one may want to print using a technique other than screen including higher print web-speeds, finer feature sizes, and lower print thicknesses. These two charts, developed by Eastman Kodak, offer an insightful map. The left chart shows that flexo, gravure, and inkjet are better suited in forming thinner lines using lower viscosity inks. The right chart shows that inkjet, flex, and various mico-nano contact printing processes enable features sizes in the sub-30µm territory. Kodak has further advancement the art of high-speed flexographic printing of functional layers. In particular, their flexographic plates with flat top dots and high resolutions (achieved with well-designed non-Gaussian lasers) enables finer features. Here, on the left, an example of a flat top dot plate can be seen. In the right, an example of fine line printing is demonstrated for an RF antenna application. Here, a thin catalytic layer is flexographically printed and then Cu plated to achieve high bulk-like copper conductivity, required for good antenna performance. The printed linewidth can be as narrow as 7.8µm, demonstrating the fine line printing capability of this process. Below is an example of a gravure offset process developed by Komura Tech in Japan, directly printing continuous unbroken lines with sub-5um linewidth. Note that it is an ‘offset’ process, and as we will see, most sub-5um printing techniques involve an ‘offset’ step. Here the inked gravure roll first transfers the paste onto a blank role, which then transfer it onto the substrate. One advantage of this approach is that the ink can be partially dried before reaching the substrate, thus preventing wetting-related issues which limit linewidth capability. This technology enables fine metallization of circuits on flexible substrates. The lines are currently based on Ag NPs and are likely to be very thin (250-300nm). Below is another example of ‘offset’ based printing, Shashin Kagaku in Japan, demonstrated S2S direct printing of thin (250nm) layers of Ag nanoparticle inks with linewidths as narrow as 1.5µm in complex patterns. The process can be on glass and PET (note: influences also the achieved sheet resistivity due to difference in allowed curing temperature). An obvious target market is metal mesh TCFs and here they can demonstrate 0.2- 0.3 Ohm/sqr sheet resistance at 150C (PET compatible range). Here is yet another example of ‘offset’ based printing developed by VTT (Finland). In this reverse offset process, the PDMS roller is first coated with the ink. The ink semi-dries on the roller, partially through absorption into the PDMS. This semi-dried state allows one to overcome wetting-related issues when inks are in liquid state. The inked PDMS roller is brought into contact with a Cliche, or relief plate, removing parts of the inks. The patterned semi-dried inks on the PDMS roller are then transferred onto the final substrate. In this example VTT achieves 1µm direct printing of silver nanoparticle inks. The small-sized RO printer was used to print a metal mesh on PET with 1µm linewidths. The reported sheet resistivity is not very low (100Ohm/sqr), probably because the lines are very thin. Note that ROP can enable minimum resolutions between 0.5-5µm, printed thickness lines around 20-1000nm, overlay accuracy <2um, and printing speeds of 50mm/s (3m/min). In all the examples demonstrated thus far, a printed conductor (mainly Ag NP ink) is printed. However, this ultrafine line printing process can also print photoresist, enabling one to replace photolithography in some cases. The final direct ultrafine line printing process I wish to highlight is by Asahi Kasei. Here, sub-1µm unbroken straight as well as shaped lines are demonstrated. For example, in the right image, one can see a continuous 300nm wide lines, as well as TFT patterns printed for 2000 ppi (pixel per inch) resolution [here, the entire TFT pixel pitch is 12.5um) The exact process is not disclosed, but our guess is that it is a R2R reverse offset process. Here, as the case before, an ink system applies the ink onto a blanket roller. A roller mold containing the final pattern is brought into contact with the inked blanket roller, removing parts of the ink to form the pattern. Finally, the blanket roller transfers the pattern onto the final substrate. A key technology step here is in the formation of the roller, which essentially enables R2R nanoimprinting. Here, no laser is deployed. Instead, an electron beam lithography (with multiple exposure lines) is used to create ultrafine features. In the case, the roller is first dip coated, exposed to EB, developed and backed. The accuracy of this process is shown in the middle pictures, demonstrating 1µm linewidths in 5µm pitches. Currently, the rollers is available in 250mm width and 100mm diameter size or smaller. Our guest is that the current web speed is 1m/min or slower. Asahi Kasei is targeting TFT backplane metallization as well as transparent RFID antennas. Transparent RFIDs enable ones to print graphics on all parts of the package since they block no area. This narrow-line printing technique can also have security applications. So far we covered direct printing (except for screen printing). Many ‘hybrid’ solutions are also developed to enable ultrafine line features. This example is by Panasonic, although many others such as O-Film developed similar technologies before. We select the Panasonic example because it is a technically sophisticated solution, achieving 2µm features on both sides of the PET film. In this approach, fine grooves are first embossed into the film. The Ag NP inks are then used to fill in the groove (probably with a doctor blade). There are some core benefits here: (1) linewidth is set by embossing, which is free from wetting characteristics of a liquid or even semi-dried ink system; (2) conductive lines are embedded meaning that the surface is smooth; (3) high conductivity levels can be achieved even with printed inks without compromising linewidth or surface smoothness. The final point is worth further consideration. In normal cases, to increase conductivity, wider and/or thicker lines are needed. Here, to increase conductivity, one can increase ‘depth’ of the groove (although this is also subject to various limitations). The slide below shows a variation of the previous concept. Here, the innovation is to first create a thin Ag NP seed layer (with doctor blading) within the embossed groove before Cu plating. This approach results in high conductivity as plated Cu, and not printed paste, is used. Consequently, it enable it efficient large area transparent heating applications. Just a reminder, that photolithography, including R2R photolith, can also create ultra fine features including metal mesh. I include an example here by DNP (Dai Nippon Printing) which represents the state-of-the-art. In previous generations, 2um lines could be achieved for mid sized double-sided metal mesh films with 1.5 Ohm/sqr sheet resistance. The latest results are metal mesh films with 1um linewidth and 2ohm/sqr based on etched copper can be achieved. This is included here to showcase the performance level of the alternative non-printed technology. Finally, on this theme, I would also like to showcase the metal mesh films by PolyIC, Kurz. The metal mesh films have 10um linewidth and 100um spacing with ultrathin (100nm) layers of printed Ag NP. I include these last because I do not know the exact printing technique. Note that these capacitive touch films are already commercialised in automotive application, replacing mechanical with capacitive switches. In addition to metal mesh properties, a key innovation here is the so-called Functional Foil Bonding, which enables these metal mesh films to be integrated on the back of shaped plastic parts together with decoration layers. Innovations Festival: Printed, Hybrid, 3D, InMold, Textile Electronics 24 June 2022 | 14:00 - 19:00 CET | Virtual Event Platform Asada Mesh will be having a virtual booth at the Innovation Festival. Visit Asada Mesh virtual booth

A research team led by Japan’s National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) has developed a new conductive ink for use in printed electronics with significantly improved resistance to oxidation. After the ink is printed, it self-organizes into a conductive pattern with a copper core–nickel shell nanostructure. The researchers say that use of this cheaper, more stable ink may help popularise printed electronics. Silver nanoparticle inks are currently the most commonly used in printed electronics. However, these inks are expensive and poorly compatible with soldering. Copper nanoparticle inks have been considered a viable, cheaper alternative but are extremely susceptible to oxidation, making them unsuitable for use in printed electronics. Development of more stable and economical inks was therefore required. The NIMS researchers focused on inks composed of complexes of organic amine ligands with a central metallic ion because they are stable in the air. The team subsequently discovered that inks containing a mixture of different metallic complexes are capable of converting into different types of printed metallic patterns, including multilayered core-shell nanostructures and alloys, depending on the ink’s composition and other conditions. Based on these findings, the team developed an ink composed of a mixture of copper and nickel complexes able to self-organize into a copper core–nickel shell nanostructure. Because its outer nickel layer is resistant to oxidation, this printed pattern is significantly more resistant to oxidation than patterns printed using conventional copper inks. As described in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, the new ink is said to be cheaper than currently available silver nanoparticle inks. Moreover, the electrical resistivity of conductive patterns printed using this ink was no more than 19 μΩ·cm, indicating that the conductivity of these patterns is comparable to patterns printed using conventional metallic inks. The addition of fine copper powder to this ink is expected to increase its ability to form thicker layers. The team is currently designing this new ink formulation in collaboration with the developers of the copper powder: Sumitomo Metal Mining and Priways. These companies plan to release sample ink products in the near future. For more information, visit: https://www.nims.go.jp/eng/news/press/2022/02/202202220.html https://www.electronicsonline.net.au/content/data-acquisition-management/news/oxidation-resistant-conductive-ink-for-printed-electronics-416453272

Speaker: Thomas Kolbusch | Company: COATEMA Coating Machinery GmbH| Date: 10-11 March 2021 | Full Presentation Coatema Coating Machinery GmbH is a market leader in R2R equipment for printing, coating and laminating. Working in PE for nearly 20 years the company specialized in the scale up from innovative products and technologies from Lab2Fab. The speaker describes the strategy and the shift into digital fabrication, moving from analog printing systems into inkjet and other digital methods. This approach is combined in the semi digitalization of standard systems like slot die coating. The overall umbrella on all activities is the industry 4.0 approach with the focus on inline control of processes, products and equipment by sensors, camera systems and other tools. Combining the data out of these processes with artificial intelligence and big data to make the digitalization of the processes possible. Thomas Kolbusch Vice President @ Coatema® Coating Machinery GmbH Bio Thomas Kolbusch is Vice President of Coatema Coating Machinery GmbH, an equipment manufacturing company for coating, printing and laminating solutions located in Dormagen, Germany. He is member of the board of the OE-A (Organic Electronic Association) in Germany, a global association for printed electronics. He serves in the advisory board of Fraunhofer ITA institute. He served as member of the board of COPT.NRW, a local association in Germany, as well as exhibition chair of the LOPEC in Munich for five years. Thomas is active in the field of fuel cells, batteries, printed electronics, photovoltaics and medical applications. He organizes the international Coatema Coating Symposium for over 19 years and represents Coatema in a number of public funded German and European projects. Thomas Kolbusch studied Business Economics at the Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences and got his degree as business economist in 1997. He started his career at 3M, Germany. Since 1999 he is working for Coatema Coating Machinery in different positions. 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