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In-Mold Electronics (IME) is a process that combines printed electronics with 3D forming and molding to create 3D objects with embedded electronics. The electronics can include interconnects, sensors, rigid IC or LEDs, optical waveguides, and so on.
The table below shows some examples of prototypes and products. These examples show the clear value proposition of InMold Electronics: it eliminates or shrinks the separate circuit board and structurally integrates the wiring and optical guides, saving space and enabling novel, thin, and light-weight 3D-shaped designs.
The team at IDTechEx Research has been researching the market developments around InMold Electronics. The results of this research are captured in this comprehensive market report “In-Mold Electronics 2020-2030: Technology, Market Forecasts, Players”. The IDTechEx market forecasts are also shown below, suggesting an inflection point around 2023 and that the market can reasonably be expected to reach $700M by 2027 from only a few million today. To get there, the market will grow in small steps, starting with small-volume items before graduating to larger-volume products with challenging reliability requirements.
This technology is not very young. It has a developing history older than nearly a decade. One reason it has taken this long to reach significant commercial success is that its production demands a steep learning curve. The process flow is shown below. One can see that many challenges are involved in taking a flat sheet, printing multiple layers on it, mounting rigid ICs, 3D forming it, and then over molding it. To understand the challenge please see a previous article published by IDTechEx – “In-Mold Electronics: challenges in every step?”.
Importantly, many material innovations and developments have been necessary to enable In-Mold Electronics. In this article, IDTechEx Research Director, Dr Khasha Ghaffarzadeh, outlines some key developments and trends, seeking to show how the required materials have evolved and to highlight interesting innovation opportunities.
This report offers a detailed assessment of the materials, processes, products and prototypes, applications and markets for IME and multiple rival technologies, such as molded interconnect devices (MID) or aerosol deposition. Furthermore, the report provides application-segmented ten-year market forecasts and overviews of the key companies across this emerging value chain.
The process flow for making an IME device. For more information about the process, the equipment set, the materials, the suppliers and the markets please see “In-Mold Electronics 2020-2030: Technology, Market Forecasts, Players”.
Increased Value Capture
The chart below was presented by Faurecia at the IDTechEx Show! Santa Clara in 2019. It shows how the functional film will increase its value capture as one shifts to IME. Here, the functional film is composed of the base film, the stack of printed graphical and functional inks, adhesives, pick-and-placed ICs or LEDs and so on. Clearly, much of the value on the functional film side will go to the constituent enabling materials as the other components are, more or less, standard products.
Showing how value shifts towards the so-called functional film when IME is adopted in a touch device. Source: Faurecia @ IDTechEx Show! 2019
Making Inks IME Compatible
Conductive inks play a fundamental role in this technological platform. They are the embedded circuit board in an IME-made product. The conductive ink, however, must fulfil many requirements. Dr Ghaffarzadeh has selected the charts in the panel below to highlight some key requirements.
The inks must be IME compatible, meaning that they should survive the one-off elongation caused by the 3D forming steps. If the inks are not sufficiently stretchable, then cracks form along the tracks during the 3D forming. The higher the stretchability the more design freedom the developers will have in creating complex 3D shapes with sharp turns. This will help differentiate one ink from another.
The inks should also exhibit high conductivity. This allows thinner lines for a given conductivity, which should help the stretchability. This will also improve the electronic function. As can be seen below, the conductivity of IME inks has improved generation after generation, reaching a level that is commonly found in standard screen-printed PTFs or polymer thick films. Despite this progress, the conductive lines are not suited to carrying power and are restricted to signal lines.
The conductive inks often exist as part of a stack of inks including graphical and dielectric ones. The chart on the bottom right corner shows that the sequence of the stack matters. Furthermore, all the materials in the stack should be optimized to work with one another and survive the temperature cycles involving in curing the ink and the adhesives and in forming and molding. This means that selling a complete material portfolio is a good strategy because it lowers barriers to adoption, especially in the early days where standard products and procedures are missing.
The conductive inks should also be reliable. This means that they should show minimal change in behaviour during actual operation conditions or when exposed to heat or moisture. Or when they do show performance changes, these changes should be as predictable as possible so that they can be designed into the product function and behaviour. The chart in the bottom left shows an example of stretched conductive inks subjected to a heat and moisture stress. Here, the conductivity does change very significantly but it follows a regular behavioural pattern.
Note that not just the conductive ink, but the entire printed stack should be reliable during operation, especially against moisture. In fact, one of the underlying causes of the failure of the IME products in the Ford car was understood to be that moisture ingress had corrupted the behaviour. Such mistakes can no longer be tolerated, especially given that the embedded nature of the electronics gives no change to repair.
The number of IME conductive ink players has increased. Multiple suppliers have good IME conductive ink and portfolio offerings. Some have engaged with potential users early, giving them a head start. In general, like most conductive ink applications, the value capture by the ink supplier will be initially high and they will have good margins on their cost of goods. However, with time, IDTechEx expects that the market will return to standard conditions found in other mature applications. Further note that this value capture is mainly by the formulator and not the powder manufacturer. The latter does not need to meet stringent morphology or size requirements. In fact, for IME inks to work, it seems that a fairly broad particle size distribution is actually helpful.
Images showing some key performance requirements that conductive inks must fulfil. Images are from Sun Chemical, Elantas, and DuPont. For more information please see “In-Mold Electronics 2020-2030: Technology, Market Forecasts, Players”.
Not Just About the Conductive Ink
As mentioned above, conductive inks are just one material in the stack. There will be graphic or IMD (in-mold decoration) inks- some of which can be UV cured. There will barrier ink and dielectric inks. The latter helps form multi-layer circuits or complex circuit patterns by allowing conducting traces to pass over one another. The dielectric layer will need to be- as shown below- as pinhole free as possible even after being stretched to increase breakdown voltage.
This is important for many reasons. A higher breakdown voltage per unit thickness enables thinner and thus more stretchable layers. A higher breakdown voltage may also enable the system to handle higher power levels. It is also crucial for the long-term reliability of the system. This is, we should emphasis- important because the system can not be repair post-deployment.
The adhesive should also show some stretchability. This would enable the ICs or the connectors to be mounded at or near locations that have some curvature. As shown below, without this built-in flexibility, the adhesive can peel off, causing a disconnect. Therefore, the development of IME compatible adhesives is needed to enhance reliability and to widen design possibilities by allowing more freedom in the placement of the rigid parts.
Going From PC to PET
The general substrate material is polycarbonate (PC). This is a very formable material. It is however not the lowest cost. An emerging trend is to use PET or heat-stabilized PET. This will certainly have cost benefits. This transition however is usually fraught with challenges. One challenge is not as formable. Therefore, it will be used in designs where the radius of the curve does not need to be high. This will probably cover most current designs.
Another challenge is that even heat-stabilized PET will impose a temperature ceiling. One consequence of this is that one cannot use solder to do the standard part attach. One could use conductive adhesives, but this often limits the type of IC that can be used to those with few I/O pins (in other words, to simple ICs).
An interesting innovation here is the development of ultra-low temperature. The market positioning of this solder is depicted below. It is claimed that this solder can be compatible with PET, and bring it without many advantages of solder including build-in position correction. This is interesting because it opens the door to integrating complex high I/O ICs on PET for IME devices that do not have sharp curvatures.
The molding material is also important. A recent trend is to develop molding materials that relax the molding conditions- e.g., temperature, pressure, etc. This would be an important step because the benefits would propagate back to all the other materials. In other words, relaxer molding conditions mean relaxer requirements for the IME inks, adhesives, dielectrics, etc.
Expanding the Material and Functionality Menu
The functional material menu for IME should expand in time. The image below shows various transparent conductive film technologies (PEDOT and CNTs) that have been 3D formed. This enables creating, for example, 3D touch surface in the IME-made part. Or these can help- as shown on the right- a molded curved transparent heater with potential applications in, for example, an autonomous mobility sensor lens.
Left images are 4 or 5-year-old images showing that PEDOT and CNTs can be thermoformed to give transparent conductivity. Images are from Canatu, Toray, Agfa. Right image from Canatu shows a potential curved molded transparent heater. For more information please see “In-Mold Electronics 2020-2030: Technology, Market Forecasts, Players”.
To learn more about this technology, key challenges and innovation opportunities, all the key players across the value chain, the latest prototype and products, as well as existing and future market forecasts please visit www.IDTechEx.com/IME for more details on “In-Mold Electronics 2020-2030: Technology, Market Forecasts, Players”.
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