Manufacturing

Blue Spark Technologies, the leading supplier of thin, flexible, eco-friendly printed batteries, announced it has opened a new high-volume printing and production facility located in West Bend, Wisconsin.

Optomec,the world leader in high performance additive manufacturing systems, recently announced the opening of its new and expanded Advanced Applications Lab and Product Development Facility in St. Paul, MN.

Researchers demonstrate future of computing with graphene, racetrack and carbon nanotube breakthroughs. Prototypes developed for first time in real-world manufacturing environments are critical step towards transferring research into commercial devices.

Boston College researchers have discovered two early-stage phases of carbon nanotube growth during plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition, finding a disorderly tangle of tube growth that ultimately yields to orderly rows of the nanoscopic tubes, according to a report in the latest edition of the journal Nanotechnology.

Korea LG Electronics receives AIXTRON G5 system for GaN/Si applications.

In a joint research effort with the existing partners at Holst Centre, technologies will be developed to enable patterned deposition of homogeneous film layers on flexible foils.

Thinfilm's partner InkTec upgrades and expands their production capacity.

Aerotech's APR series rotary stages employ precision-machined and ground stage parts coupled with high-precision angular contact bearings and an Aerotech direct-drive motor to produce exceptionally low error motions, accuracy errors, and repeatability errors. The addition of high-resolution optical encoders provides excellent pointing capability with low-jitter velocity tracking.

AVS1000 lift stage with large aperture offers precise elevation of large & heavy loads

Soligie enhances printed electronics manufacturing capabilities with sheet fed, flat bed screen printing line

Solutia Inc., a performance materials and specialty chemicals company, today announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire selected assets of Aimcore Technology Co., Ltd., a conductive film manufacturing firm based in Taiwan, for approximately $7 million.

The ACT is a high performance, cost-effective linear-servomotor-driven actuator that is faster and more accurate than a ball screw or belt-drive without the costly, time-consuming maintenance ball screw or belt-drives require.

Printed electronics has its origins in conductive patterns printed as part of conventional electronics, forming flexible keyboards, antennas and so on.

Northeast Ohio's flexible electronics cluster experienced significant growth in 2010 by attracting $14 million in capital from public and private sources, according to a recent analysis by NorTech.

Peregrine Semiconductor & Soitec new bonded silicon-on-sapphire substrate for RFIC Manufacturing. Continued evolution of SOS wafer part of long-term UltraCMOS™technology roadmap

Blue Spark Technologies, Inc., the leading producer of thin, flexible, printed power source solutions, has closed a $7.5 million Series B investment.

Caledon Controls Ltd. recently introduced a CLEAR conductive PET film using the PDIM metal deposition techniques developed by Vast Films at the IDTECHEX Printed Electronics show held in Santa Clara.

Applied Nanotech Holdings unveils transparent and electrically conductive substrates using copper-based metallic mesh technology during Printed Electronics USA 2010

Rapid prototype capacitive touch keypad service using digitally printed electronics

Creative Materials, Inc., introduces 125-26, an exceptional conductive ink for screen- printing circuits with fine-line widths and spaces. Creative Materials is expanding its line of products for the printed electronics market. Our newest product, 125-26A/B119-44 is a flexible two-part epoxy ink that features superior adhesion to ITO-coated surfaces and other low surface-energy substrates. This product has been used successfully in printed electronics applications and is recommended where high-performance on coated substrates is necessary.

NovaCentrix, a leader in printed electronics manufacturing technologies, is pleased to announce that Metalon® ICI-020, a new copper-based screen ink, will be prominently featured at Printed Electronics USA 2010 in Santa Clara, California from November 30-December 2, 2010. Pre-printed samples of Metalon ICI-020 screen ink on card stock will be distributed with the registration packs by IDTechEx staff, and attendees may bring their samples to the NovaCentrix exhibit area to cure the ink with NovaCentrix's PulseForge® process tool.

Flextech Alliance awards grant to Corning Incorporated to develop commercially viable methods for continuous printed electronic manufacturing on flexible glass substrates.

3M, through its New Ventures business, invests in Printechnologics, a German printed electronics specialist, aimed at joint efforts for providing innovative solutions for electronic features on paper or foil.

H.C. Starck GmbH, headquartered in Goslar, Germany, has signed a contract to sell its global Conductive Polymers Business Unit to Heraeus, Hanau, Germany.

Bayer MaterialScience AG and Holst Centre announce their partnership.

Thinnest, smoothest metallic lines speed up miniaturisation of electronic devices

Introduction and production of Merck's new organic semiconductors in Plastic Logic's displays are being planned for 2011 by Merck KGaA and Plastic Logic GmbH. Merck recently invested in the expansion of the Chilworth Technical Centre, its chemicals research site in Southampton, UK, by adding new laboratories to intensify and accelerate display material developments based on plastic electronics. As part of the project announced today, Plastic Logic has also invested in additional manufacturing equipment to accelerate the introduction of Merck's new lisicon® materials into mass production. Merck's functional materials are already used in the manufacturing process of the flexible ePaper displays contained in Plastic Logic's first consumer product, QUETM proReader, which was presented at the 2010 International Consumer Electronics Show in January.

The traditional electronics manufacturing process is poised for a paradigm shift away from expensive photolithography toward inkjet technology. Carbon nanotubes are enabling this paradigm shift due to their high conductivity and nanoscale size. This combination enables the production of new inks that create the needed conductive paths at much smaller feature sizes than is currently possible.

A very interesting array of talks spread over 3 days brought together approximately 400 people interested in printed electronics and related technologies. On the opening day of the conference, Marc Bernstein from the Palo A lot research Center focused his presentation on the lessons learnt from the move from laboratory scale research to real world applications whereas John Pellegrino from the US Army research Labs, although primarily focused on "meeting the technology challenges for the soldier", highlighted efforts to accelerate the adoption of flexible electronics in the intersection of the military and commercial sectors.

Cambrios Technologies Corporation announced today that an important patent has issued covering commercially relevant methods of manufacturing metal nanostructures. U.S. Patent number 7,585,349 assigned to the University of Washington and covering an invention made by Younan Xia and Yougang Sun was licensed exclusively to Cambrios in its specific field of use.

Several organizations have demonstrated self assembling electronic devices but none have shown that high yield is possible over large areas. Now the University of Minnesota has developed a different self assembly approach to overcome that.

In a determined bid to take the e-paper market lead, PVI has collaborated with LCD display manufacturer Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO) who is looking to get a foothold in the industry.

FlexTech Alliance announces contract award for HP labs to develop imprinted and jetted color filters for reflective displays

Applied Materials begins shipments of world's largest, fastest, roll-to-roll vacuum coating systems.

Semiconductor production sites in Europe are important for the engineering industry

AGS15000 series Cartesian gantries provide outstanding performance and versatility in a wide range of automation platforms including precision micromachining, stencil cutting, fuel cell manufacturing, printed electronics, flat sheet processing, high-speed pick-and-place, automated assembly, vision inspection, dispensing stations, and high-accuracy inspection.

Imprint Lithography at the Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems in Dresden: Engineering and Volume Production of Nanometer Scale Devices and Systems

Aerotech NanoTranslation (ANT95-L, ANT95-L-H) cross-roller bearing stages combine high speed, accuracy, resolution, repeatability, and reliability into a compact package.

ICI Imagedata demonstrates Stabilex Ultra stabilised film at the Printed Electronics Show 2008 in Dresden (7-8 April) following successful launch in San Jose.

Dr Zella King, Senior Lecturer and AIM Innovation Fellow at the University of Reading, UK, has conducted a detailed study of plastic electronics in the UK. The project is funded by the UK's Economic and Social Research Council and is one of a series of projects considering options for public policy to increase levels of innovation in the UK.

Analysts see printed electronics rising exponentially to around $300 billion in twenty years' time, with demand for conductive inks alone reaching several billion dollars yearly five years from now.

ImageXpert has recently developed two products that allow for a broader range of printed electronic part inspection.

Polymer Vision, a spin out of Royal Philips Electronics, announced first production level rollable electrophoretic displays from its recently acquired manufacturing facility, Polymer Vision (UK) Ltd in Southampton, England - previously owned by Southampton University and called Innos.

On 20 November, the Printed Electronics Arena had a one day meeting in Norrkoping Science Park Sweden

Consumer electronics will mostly be made by printing in the years to come, but the interesting question is whether it will be poisonous either at the level of the factory or the level of the user?

There is a much more balanced situation across the world when it comes to development and production of printed electronic and electric devices.

Plextronics, Inc. announced last week that it has completed a $20.6 million Series B financing. The round is led by Solvay North America Investments, LLC, a member of the Solvay Group, an international chemical and pharmaceutical group headquartered in Brussels.

Overall, Europe may be losing the race for the huge new business of printed electronics and the rejuvenation of society that it will bring. This is despite having far more academic institutions than East Asia working on the subject, the number being comparable to the number in the USA.