This is an auto-generated transcript to help the video. It has not been proof read by a person threfore they may be error Hello, everyone. I'm Andrew Baumbach. And I'm the Stretchable electronics product manager at ACI Materials. I'll do a brief overview of our our stretch portfolio and I'll start with talking a little bit about the patented cavitation processing tool that we use here to manufacture these inks. And basically what we're doing is we're harnessing the power of cavitation, which you can think of as exploding microbubbles. And it allows us to achieve levels of dispersion that conventional mixing cannot achieve. And this is all done without damaging functional fillers, which can be a problem with with some mixing technology out there. And it's a very highly controlled process and it's all automated. And this helps give excellent batch to batch consistency. And this is especially true when you're talking about carbon based materials to the particles high aspect ratio, things like carbon nanotubes, graphene, things like that that are extremely difficult to disperse. And now going into the stretch product portfolio, I'll talk about the 11 and nine. This is our silver conductor. You can think of this as the interconnects and the bus bars that are used in wearable electronics. We'll go over some of the performance data on the next slide. The SC 5025, that's the fixed resistance, stretchable heatsink. And so this is used for printing wearable heaters that heat very uniformly and you can do smaller resistors. I have an example later on of a 12 by 12 heater that we've done here and then we have the SI 1502, which is the printed carbon conductor typically used to encapsulate electrodes silver that's exposed and helps protect that while allowing access to the the conductivity. And then the AC 3104 is the stretchable insulator and that's just printed over the circuitry and that helps protect it from the environment and mechanical abrasions and has great ability. So I'm going to go over a few things that we commonly get asked here. And that's basically the stretch performance being one one big one. So here I have some graphs of our our performance. These are 76 millimeter by two millimeter. JThey all have an initial resistance of 0.9 ohms. So on the vertical here, you can kind of use that as a gauge factor as well. And on the left side, left side here on the chart. It shows the 20% stretch test which is done on fabric. So it's TPU that is bonded with an adhesive to the fabric and that stretched out 15.2 millimeters per second. So here you can see that in the performance that you start to get a nice leveling behavior and this is going out five, 5000 cycles. We have done testing hundreds of thousands of cycles and it does tend to go up a little bit, but it always recovers really nicely. And then on the right side here, we have two charts. We have a 50% stretch, 100% stretch, 550 cycles respectively. And this is just on the TPU film because for the most part, fabric doesn't go past. I think 30% is the highest stretch fabric I've seen. So this is just on TPU and this really kind of shows the performance of the ink just by itself. So you can see that although it's going up, which you can expect that it would go up if you're doing a change in length. To me, the telling thing is each cycle it's coming back down to a lower gauge factor. And in fact, if over time, as the TPU covers, it'll it'll drop closer and closer back to its original resistance. And then the 100% just kind of shows the durability of the ink. One of the key key requirements for a good stretch polymer thick film is that you can't have cracks developing while stretching. So our inks don't crack and they're highly durable. And the 100% you can see it's dropping back down, similar to how the 50% stretch did as well. So wash ability. That's another big, big question that people have. I have I have a data set here that is showing a 15 wash cycle just wash and hang dry. So this would be kind of like following the garment manufacturer's instructions. We do other tests and we'll have more data sets in the future. But this is just showing that even after washing, you get a nice flat resistance. It doesn't change over time. In the graphics here, you can see that it's the heat remains uniform and it doesn't change over the wash cycles and the power output is also stable at a 2.5 AMP test. And these are just examples of some of the applications that we see a lot of interest in. Biometric sensors got heart rate monitoring, just collecting signals from throughout the body and relaying it to a processor. And then, of course, the fix resistance heaters. We've seen a lot of interest in being washable, getting temperatures up to 140 degrees Fahrenheit. And then it's just not bulky. It doesn't have those wires and can go on to thinner base layers, things that are closer to the skin that you wouldn't necessarily want, you know, for traditional heaters, wearable heaters. And your time is almost up. And we're always interested to work with with people and new applications. And I encourage you to reach out to us and talk about your applications, and we can see what we can do for you. This is really durable ink and it has great, great potential for a lot of a lot of different areas.

This article was written in a collaboration between Keiron Printing Technologies and LMNS by Roland Biemans and originally published in Specialist Printing Worldwide: Issue Two: 2022. Contact: Marco van Hoorn Email: info@keirontechnologies.com Phone: +31 (0)40 209 7074 Laser-Induced Forward Transfer (LIFT) printing is a high precision, non-contact method of printing materials that cannot be deposited through existing print processes. Roland Biemans, Founder/Owner of LMNS, a group offering independent print industry expertise, delves into the technology and its uses. The intelligent electronic skin The printing industry is ever-expanding into new application fields. Besides long-accepted traditional processes, innovative technology paves the way toward digital and hybrid methods that allow going beyond promotional and decorative printing. In particular, where it concerns functional and industrial printing, the search for alternatives continues when screen, transfer or inkjet processes are unable to offer a solution. One such alternative is LIFT, or Laser-Induced Forward Transfer printing; a high precision, non-contact method to print materials that are too viscous, too expensive or simply too difficult to be deposited through existing print processes. "LIFT is based on the principle of using laser pulses to jet material off of a donor plate for deposition onto a receiving substrate" Inkjet is known for its versatility in various industries, notably promotional graphics and decorative printing of full-colour images, where ink formulations are tailored to mimic traditional processes, but with the characteristics to run through small printhead nozzles. Most are either dye-based or have a relatively low amount of small pigment particles as a colourant. The solid content is usually kept to a minimum to promote stability and runability. Formulations are typically based on a primary carrier such as water or oil, and additives to control the stability of the composition and process such asco-solvents, humectants, surfactants, resins and initiators. In all cases, inkjet inks are developed with the application in mind and must be compatible with the substrate they are printed upon, or with the primer or pre-treatment of the media to which the colourant will bind. It is a delicate balance between having a fluid that has the right rheology to be jetted without any issues, yet, at the same time, delivering the right wetting and drying characteristics and material quality so that once it is deposited onto the receiving surface, it will perform according to the required fastness properties. A donor plate holds the material that needs to be deposited onto the substrate. A laser pulse agitates the material to form a jet. Visit Keiron virtual booth Deposition Challenges One of the bigger challenges has been to formulate an ink that will allow the formation of droplets that have the right size, velocity, directionality and frequency when being jetted from the printhead without having solid particles eventually blocking nozzles. The emergence of recirculation printheads has greatly enhanced the bandwidth of inkjet performance and it certainly has decreased clogging issues. As such, inkjet research is increasingly directed at printing non-decorative industrial and functional fluids with higher solid particle loads or functional components such as silver, gold, copper or graphene. But what if the application requires a non-contact deposition method with ultra-high precision that surpasses inkjet capabilities? What if the particle size or solid content volume prevents proper jetting with a nozzle? And what if the cost per drop in relation to the volume of ink is so high that precision and accuracy are more important than productivity? Stacking or layering solid particles in a pattern with a positioning precision of less than five microns is not an easy feat. In an application field where, for instance, conductivity in thin lines is needed, both accuracy and precision need to be warranted to prevent circuit interruption. This deposition requirement for repeatability alone is one of the key factors in choosing a printing process. And inkjet is often not capable of successfully reaching this accuracy level; certainly not when it concerns jetting material with a viscosity of 300cP or higher, and a particle load of 50wt% or more. Figure 1: Close-up photo of a LIFT printed glass surface, using silver nanoparticle ink from PV Nano Cell. Line thickness is approx. 100 microns / 0.1mm. Visit Keiron virtual booth A viable alternative could be LIFT printing, where the solid content and the viscosity is not limited by the restrictions of a printhead. Instead of trying to tailor a fluid to the relatively narrow bandwidth of inkjet, LIFT is based on the principle of using laser pulses to jet material off of a donor plate for the deposition onto a receiving substrate. The Lift Print Process The donor plate, usually a transparent carrier substrate such as glass, quartz or fused silica, is homogeneously coated with the deposition material. This is mostly done by spin-coating or blade-coating. The donor material can be solid, fluid or paste. The donor plate is positioned directly above the receiving substrate, which can be a flexible foil, a rigid media, or any other object such as a panel, a machine component or (semi-) finished product. A laser beam is focused on the donor layer and a pulse initiates a gas pocket that expands to form a jet. Depending on the type and combination of laser beam and optics, the dot diameter, pulse frequency and intensity are configured. Jetting speeds depend on the LIFT system set-up; the example used in this article (see Figure 1) is printed by Eindhoven-based Keiron Printing Technologies with a firing frequency of up to 300kHz with a single laser beam jetting a dot diameter of 100 microns. "Stacking or layering solid particles in a pattern with a positioning precision of less than five microns is not an easy feat" Where inkjet typically uses one and the same ink formulation in a system set-up and a preset print mode (single-pass/multi-pass, resolution/drop-size, dithering/screening, etc.), LIFT allows for the exchange of donor plates and variable donor materials in the same production run. Stacking or layering of different fluids and materials using the same deposition technology opens up possibilities for a hybrid printing approach. Complex patterns and structures can be printed at high speed and high precision. The quality of the deposition depends on the quality of the donor plate coating. Visit Keiron virtual booth Application Fields Although LIFT seems promising, it has been, to a large extent, a niche technology slow to gain traction with a wider audience. The technique is not new: in fact, in the late 1960s, the first patent describing the operating principle of LIFT was filed. In the 1980s LIFT as an acronym was coined and the process was tested as a novel technology to deposit metals and oxides. "LIFT has seen successful application uses for the deposition of inorganic, organic and living material" By now, LIFT has seen successful application uses for the deposition of inorganic, organic and living material. For medical and pharmaceutical application fields, bioprinting is an area of interest, with possibilities in cell tissue engineering and protein deposition. Moreover, printed electronics is an application field that LIFT has been tested on extensively. Think sensors, antennas and solar cells, for instance. Due to its non-contact, high-precision, high-speed jetting performance, LIFT is a promising printing technology that enables deposition of viscous and precious material. Video still: LIFT uses laser pulses to jet material off of a donor plate and deposit in onto a receiving substrate. Visit Keiron virtual booth At the ESMA IPI conference taking place 18–19 May 2022 in Düsseldorf, Keiron will showcase its technology platform and the various application fields it has been researching. As part of the HighTechXL deep tech venture building programme in Brainport Eindhoven, with partners such as TNO Holst Centre, Keiron started off with the intention to create a platform for the production of ‘lab on a chip’ devices. More recently, the start-up company has secured funding allowing it to build its first alpha tool. Innovations Festival: Printed, Hybrid, 3D, InMold, Textile Electronics 24 June 2022 | 13:00 - 19:00 CET | Virtual Event Platform Keiron will be having a virtual booth at the Innovation Festival. Visit Keiron virtual booth

Speaker: Michael Petersen | Company: Information Mediary Corporation| Date: 10-11 March 2021 | Full Presentation Bio Michael is a sought after presenter at conferences and has taught master class sessions on digital health transformation, NFC/RFID, coldchain, and printed electronics, smart packaging in Europe, Asia and North America. Michael has co-founded and shaped IMC (Information Mediary Corp) into the world’s leading smart-package and medication adherence solutions provider. Experience the power of convergence with our connected smart packaging and innovative, patient centric adherence solutions. Our solutions run over global health platforms to connect patients and their data directly with their care teams to assist in behavioural modification and support both AI and human clinical decisions. www.informationmediary.com 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

Speaker: Simon Nieh | Company: Front Edge Technology | Date: 9-10 Feb 2022 | Full Presentation A stable solid-state electrolyte material is only part of the solution to an all-solid- state Lithium battery. Li ionic conductivity in cathode is as important for energy density, power density and charge rate. The morphology of metallic lithium formed on electrolyte surface when charging is a major factor controlling the safety and cycle life. This presentation will discuss the cathode and anode development at Front Edge Technology for a LiCoO2/LiPON/Li battery system. 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/

Speaker: David Lim | Company: Australian Advanced Materials (AAM) | Date: 10-11 March 2021 | Full Presentation Australian Advanced Materials (AAM) is an Australian start-up company established to develop and commercialise revolutionary materials technology being developed in Australia. AAM is a wholly owned subsidiary of Strategic Elements Ltd. AAM is currently developing a printed memory technology for the printed/flexible electronics sector based on its Nanocube Ink technology. This presentation will cover the current status of the printed memory development by AAM. 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

Company: Break | Date: 9-10 Feb 2022 | Full Presentation 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/

Speaker: David Dewey | Company: Fujikura Kasei| Date: 10-11 March 2021 | Full Presentation 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

and superior sustainability Speaker: Ofer Shochet | Company: Copprint| Date: 10-11 March 2021 | Full Presentation The future of printed electronics is Copper. Conductive Copper inks are ushering in a new era of printed electronics, empowering ubiquitous conductivity. In this presentation, we will review Copper pastes, which are superior to silver pastes and to etching techniques. These pastes are suitable for various substrates such as Paper, PET, PI, Glass, Aluminum, Alumina, FR4, silicon wafers and photovoltaic wafers. We will review different applications such as printed antennas, heaters, flexible circuits, PCBs, and displays. We will demonstrate that a very high level of conductivity can be obtained with Copprint’s Nano-Copper pastes while dramatically reducing costs and using simple, low-cost equipment and under-air processing. All our Copper inks are commercially available for purchase. 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

The technology for integrating dies is one of the key enablers for the realization of new applications in flexible hybrid electronics (FHE), e.g. in in-mold electronics or smart glass. Using inkjet printing technology, DoMicro has developed a state-of-the-art approach for micro assembly. This approach enables the realization of demonstrators of advanced applications with for example ICs, passive components, sensors and LEDs. An example, described in this paper, is the demonstrator for wireless IoT devices with touch sensors and a Bluetooth chip. With the integration of ultra-thin bare dies, the total height of the demonstrator is below 0.7 mm. This thin form-factor enables smooth integration of functionality in various surfaces, labels, fabric etc. The inkjet printing technology brings several important capabilities, such as seamless and invisible integration, integration of thinned bare dies on flexible substrates and a reduced number of process steps. Configurations for die bonding and contacting A first step for the realization of the wireless IoT demonstrator was the investigation of the optimal configuration for die contacting and bonding. Several configurations have been studied. Figure 1 is showing a Fan In Ball Grid Array (BGA) configuration by inkjet printing on bare die. An inkjet-printed dielectric is covering the die while keeping the areas at the contact pads open. Next on top silver ink is connecting the bond pads to a BGA pattern on top of the dielectric coating. Alignment and registration of structures are performed through the automatic vision system of the used PixDRO LP50 laboratory printer equipment. Figure 2 shows the flip-chip bonding of a bare die to an inkjet-printed silver pattern. For interconnection, high accuracy alignment die bonding equipment is used. Figure 1. Fan In Ball Grid Array printed on die Figure 2. Flip Chip bonding on printed tracks (through substrate view) Figure 3. Fan Out Die first face-up Figure 3 is showing the face up thinned bare die of a microprocessor being interconnected on the bond pads. As it is impossible to inkjet print conductive tracks via a steep vertical surface, a dedicated ramp structure is provided to guide and support the inkjet-printed silver conductors. This innovative approach of contacting is avoiding any regular and height consuming wire bond loops with glob top or as applied in advanced packaging, a redefinition layer or substrate (RDL) interface. This ‘die first’ approach is creating minimal height for assembling and mounting dies in systems. It enables a good optical alignment of the die before integration and offers a compatibility of material surface interaction. From the three configurations as described above, the innovative face up ‘die first’ technology was chosen for the realization of a flexible hybrid electronic (FHE) wireless IoT demonstrator because it was the best fit for this application. It should be noted that it depends on the application which configuration gives the best fit. Bluetooth Beacon The next step was to create the Bluetooth functionality. This was done with a Nordic 51822 Bluetooth low energy (BLE) chip, which was available in thinned bare die version. The integration of this chip with printing has been demonstrated in an existing beacon design (see figure 4). Figure 4. printed BLE beacon Wireless Flexible Hybrid Electronics interface Typical for having wireless functionality for IoT devices is the combination and integration of a sensing function, computing processing and radio functionality for operating and communicating remotely from nodes to the network. In line with this, the final step for the realization of the wireless IoT demonstrator was the integration of a micro controller, a Bluetooth radio Integrated Circuit (IC) and a printed touch sensor on a polyester foil. The micro controller (a thinned Cypress CY8C20 touch controller) has been integrated in the same way as the BLE chip. For sake of demonstration, powering the demonstrator has been addressed with a regular cell battery. It is understandable that integration of a flat flexible battery solution would top off this wearable flat flexible device. Typical advantage over standard wire bond interconnection is the ability to print functional circuitry on all kinds of thin and bendable substrates. This form-factor enables smooth integration of functionality in various surfaces, labels, fabric etc. Next to that, the ability to integrate a bare die chip face up instead of flip chip, can expose the sensor side of the chip to the outside in an extremely low height package solution. On the polymer foil, the thinned BLE IC and the thinned touch controller IC are bonded and contacted in a functional circuit and antenna by inkjet printing technology. Additionally, some SMDpassive components were added as well. Powered with the external cell battery this demonstrator is able to show two-way bluetooth communication with a cellphone app. The high accurate inkjet-printed traces are aligned and connected to the fine pitch (60 micron track/gap) bond pad of the IC’s. Passives used are approximately 0,5mm thick (height) as this is commonly available in SMD components. Figure 5 is showing the layout of touch area and electronic circuitry for both MC and BLE including the antenna structure. After powering and testing with the Nordic Blinky app, the functionality is shown while interaction is initiated from the demonstrator device back and forth. The touch area is changing the status message in the app. Touch function is activated by a manual touch area on the sample, the state of the button is shown on the wireless interface. The LED can be switched on/off remotely and activated by a switch on the app. Figure 6. LED on, button released Figure 7. LED off, button pressed You can check out the demonstrator video via https://domicro.nl/demonstrator-wireless-iot-devices/ Conclusions & Outlook DoMicro has demonstrated that bare dies can be integrated in flexible substrates using inkjet printing for the contact. This is achieved with a dedicated ramp structure for guiding and supporting the printed silver conductors. This innovative approach of contacting eliminates the need for height consuming wire bond loops. The approach has been demonstrated in a Flexible Hybrid Electronics application with thin bendable Bluetooth electronics that can be laminated in a thin flexible and/or wearable product or application. The thin form-factor enables smooth integration of functionality in various surfaces, labels, fabric, in-mold devices, smart glass, etc. Furthermore, the ability to integrate a bare die chip face up instead of flip-chip, can expose the sensor side of the chip in an extremely low height package solution. The target group for the demonstrated technology includes application developers in several industry sectors like automotive, transport and logistic companies, and medical device companies, but also in science, aerospace and other applications that might have a need for new ways of integrating electronic functionality in products and structures. Imagine, Create, Accomplish DoMicro BV is a technology company providing innovative manufacturing technology, application solutions and micro-assembly technology for flexible hybrid electronics (FHE) and microdevices. DoMicro develops cutting edge inkjet printing processes and technology for micro-assembly and 3D packaging. At the forefront of innovation, DoMicro offers state-of-the-art R&D services and exploration of new capabilities and applications for customers with manufacturability in mind. The company delivers R&D services, small series production, system architecture and project management. Typically for customers exploring new technologies for circuitry on flexible substrates like transparent conductive films, OPV electrodes, OLED, Lab-on-chip, wearables, in-mould electronics, IC and MEMS integrations. www.domicro.nl Innovations Festival: Printed, Hybrid, 3D, InMold, Textile Electronics Limited Free Spots Available

Speaker: Mike Rosenberg | Company: Prieto Battery | Date: 9-10 Feb 2022 | Full Presentation While the electric vehicle market is growing exponentially, there are still significant issues with the lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries that are powering those vehicles. Auto companies are still looking for batteries that can provide longer driving ranges, can be charged in the same amount of time as today’s petrol cars, can start at temperatures as low as -30 oC and are safer than today batteries, which may have thermal runaways or fires in accidents and upon charging. Prieto is developing an advanced 3-dimensional (3D), solid-state, rechargeable lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery that will address these issues and enable a complete transition to electric vehicles. Prieto’s advanced 3D batteries will have higher energy density than today’s Li-ion batteries, which translates to significantly longer ranges in electric vehicles. The 3D batteries can be charged in 3 to 15 minutes and can operate at temperatures ranging from -30 oC to 120 oC. In addition, these batteries will be safer than traditional Li-ion batteries, since they use a solid polymer electrolyte versus a liquid electrolyte, thus eliminating possible thermal runaways and fires. While improving the performance of the batteries is paramount to improving electric vehicle performance and enabling a complete transition to electric vehicles, being able to manufacture at low-cost and high-volume is equally important. The design of Prieto’s 3D battery was done with low-cost, sustainable, and high-volume manufacturing in mind from the very early stages of development, enabling a faster transition to full scale commercial manufacturing. 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/

LIFT or laser induced forward transfer is a process enabling digital non-contact deposition of highly viscous conductive pastes and even adhesives and solder. This is in contract to inkjet which digital prints low viscousity inks. The principle of operation is demonstrated in the first slide. A transparent film is coated uniformly with a thin layer of paste. When laser pulses hit a spot on the film, if the paste is correctly formulated, it will detach and land on the substrate. As such, this technique opens to way to print without mask or nozzles pattens of various viscous materials on any substrates. The second slide shows the various materials that could be printed. The table is from IO Tech, suggesting that a wide range of off-the-shelf materials can be LIFT printed. It is of course not as straighforward as this since many parameters need to optimized, e.g., laser fluence, pulse rate, distance of film to substrate, print speed, coated film thickness, shear thinning properties of the paste, target substrate, etc, etc I include some printed patterns from literature. These are printed straightlines using PV metallization pastes, showing that narrow linewidths as well as very high aspect ratios can be achieved. In one example, a linewidth of 65um is achieved. Note that this is below the state of production in screen printing of PV pastes (34um). In subsequent slides, you can see various demonstrations. In these examples, solder paste is LIFT printed, adhesives are deposited, or packaging interconnects are fomed (in this example a linewidth of 20um is claimed, although we have not seen verification yet). Finally, you can see that also Ag and Cu nanoparticle inks can be formulated to be compatible with LIFT. In general, LIFT is a intersting technology. The production is not yet fully commercialized despite the principle of LIFT being well established for some years. The latest efforts aimed at creating industrial-scale R2R machine able to print multi-materials. It will be an interesting space watch, especially if it indeed succeeds in printing ultrafine linwidths using viscous pastes digitally but at R2R speeds. Join the TechBlick Innovations Festival (24 June 2022 | FREE | Online) to hear from Keiron Printing Technologies, a start-up in Eindhoven developing and commercialising a novel LIFT machine.

JetMetal Technologies has developed a novel process which is able to spray jet metallize surfaces with select area control. In this technique, two water-based components are sprayed onto a surface and via a redox process under atmospheric temperature and pressure conditions a thin layer of pure metal (in this case mainly Ag) is formed. The thickness can range from 10nm to 5um but is most typically a few hundred nanometers. This process is thus a bridge between high-throughput painting process and thin and controlled plating deposition. The formed lines are close to pure Ag, and thus offer high conductivity. Indeed, JetMetal Technologies suggests that they can reach 85-90% of bulk Ag conductivity on a smooth PET substrate when the sprayed coating is 500nm thick. Both the thinness and high conductivity are clearly differentiated from traditional particle-based pastes and inks because such traditional inks are typically 20-30% bulk Ag conductivity when applied on low-T PET substrates. Furthermore, with the exception of inkjet or particle-free inks, the printed thickness levels are typically in the few micrometer ranges. A challenge for any spraying or jetting process is the ability to achieve selective area metallization. JetMetal has developed a hybrid process in which a dielectric ink is first printed (Screen, inkjet, gravure, etc) to act as a mask. The jet metallization then applies the Ag, metallising the exposed parts and (this is crucial) removing the masking ink at the same time. Therefore, no lift-off or similar process will be required. As shown in the slides below, JetMetal has a S2S screen printing machine in-house (400x400mm with >50um resolution) as well as a R2R pilot jet metallization line (400m width, <3m/min web speed). Multiple applications are showcased in the slides. RF Antenna: a thin and highly smooth (Sa<20nm) layer is deposited achieving 90% bulk Ag conductivity with >50um resolution. The properties are shown in the slide PI based heater with with 50nm homogeneous Ag layer A metal mesh with 150nm linewidth and >90% aperture acting as a semi transparent thin film heater a thermoformed 3D circuit with <1000% elongation. This is interesting because in their case they elongate the masking ink first and then metallize the 3D shape using the jetting process. Thus, the elongation of particle-filled conductive inks will not be the limiting factor JetMetal Technologies will be exhibiting at TechBlick's Innovations Festival (24 June 2022 | FREE | Online). Sign up now here to join us