SOUTHINGTON, CT – Dr. Patrick Valentine, Technical & Lean Six Sigma Manager and Six Sigma Master Black Belt, announces the completion of Lean Six Sigma Black Belt training by 4 members of Uyemura’s professional staff. They are: Business Development Manager, Rich DePoto; Technical Service Engineer, Colin Poedtke; Senior Chemist, Brittany Levine, and Chemical Engineer, Magdalena Debkowski.

Six Sigma certification demonstrates a deep understanding of statistical analysis, problem- solving, and project management. It signifies an individual's ability to lead process improvement initiatives, drive change, and deliver measurable results. Black Belt is the program’s highest certification level.

WALTHAM, MA – Nano Dimension Ltd. (Nasdaq: NNDM) (“Nano Dimension”, “Nano”, or the “Company”), a leading supplier of Additively Manufactured Electronics (“AME”) and multi-dimensional polymer, metal & ceramic Additive Manufacturing (“AM”) 3D printing solutions, today announced that, in light of the ongoing war between Israel and the Hamas terrorists (the “War”), its Board of Directors (the “Board”) has cancelled the extraordinary shareholders general meeting (“EGM”) that was originally scheduled to convene on December 13th, 2023. The Board will consider rescheduling options for the EGM when the impact of the War on Nano’s Israeli workforce subsides.

When the EGM was initially announced on October 18th, 2023, the expansive nature and depth of the War was not yet clear. While Nano continues to believe that its financial performance during fiscal 2023 and beyond will not be affected by the War, its staffing across critical corporate functions (not including sales and marketing) will be impacted as individuals within Nano’s workforce are called to join the War effort. The recruitment of reserve duty in Israel currently includes approximately 15% of Nano’s local workforce.

As previously announced, Nano Dimension remains confident in its outlook for fiscal 2023 and expects to deliver its strongest year yet in terms of organic growth. The Board and the Company’s management team continue to take actions against the backdrop of the War-driven constraints outlined above.

The impact on organizational capacity should be considered in the context of two ongoing developments this quarter, beyond the sales & marketing and customer support campaign:

First, and fortunately, Nano Dimension hopes to have a strong quarter in terms of revenue, translating to many instances of high value promises to its customers and significant demands on all support functions to fulfill them.

Second, as previously announced, this quarter Nano’s management is preparing for Q4/2023 and 2024 goals of “Right-Shaping–Profitability Focus”. This is a major corporate transition that will include the adoption of programs that consume the efforts of finance and operation personnel, in addition to closing the reporting of the third quarter of 2023 and the fiscal year 2023.

Yoav Stern, CEO of Nano Dimension, commented: “While we operate in 6 countries across the globe, support for our Israeli colleagues and execution of our strategic plan must take priority. Prioritizing our effort during this special circumstance means that the time-consuming preparation for a December 2023 EGM is not currently in the best interest of the Company and its shareholders. Nano is performing during the War – without compromising business results. With approximately 15% of our colleagues serving in uniform for Israel’s armed forces during this tragic war, we see no other way to fulfill our primary responsibility of delivering on customer promises as we continue our effort to drive record results, other than to focus exclusively on execution. Hence, the December EGM is cancelled.”

CAMBRIDGE, UK – Ensuring that sensitive electronic components are not adversely affected by radiated electromagnetic interference (EMI) is an essential part of circuit design. Where compactness and close component proximity are a priority, such as in smartphones and smartwatches, conventional board-level shielding with metallic enclosures is increasingly being replaced with conformal package-level shielding. This approach utilizes conductive coatings applied directly to semiconductor packages and, together with emerging deposition methods such as spraying and printing, creates new opportunities for functional materials.

When selecting a material for conformal package EMI shielding, a variety of factors need to be considered. Most important is the attenuation of incident electromagnetic radiation, which is a function of electrical conductivity and magnetic permeability. Often parametrized as shielding effectiveness (SE), higher values enable a thinner coating to be used, reducing weight and material consumption. Other material considerations include adhesion to the underlying epoxy molding compound of the package, thermal conductivity, density, chemical stability, and compatibility with the deposition method if solution processing.

Sputtered metal

Sputtering metal is a well-established incumbent technology for conformal shielding, in which high-purity blocks of solid metal are ablated and deposited with a beam of charged ions. Many conformal shielding coatings use multiple metal layers, easily achieved by switching sputtering targets. Cap and/or adhesion layers are typically made from titanium, chromium, or stainless steel, with the primary shielding layer typically being cheaper metals such as copper, aluminum, or nickel.

While sputtering is well established, there is still scope for innovation. One proposed strategy, inspired by optical anti-reflective coatings, utilizes destructive interference from a multilayer stack to increase the shielding effectiveness. However, this improvement is highly frequency-dependent, given the fixed material spacing.

Conductive inks

Depositing conductive materials from solution provides an alternative to sputtering, with much-reduced equipment costs since the process occurs under ambient conditions rather than a vacuum. A range of solution processing methods, including spraying and inkjet printing, have been developed for EMI shielding, with all requiring conductive ink. Despite the high metal price, silver inks currently dominate due to their high conductivity and chemical stability.

Although the underlying metal is the same, there is extensive scope for differentiation amongst conductive ink suppliers. Particle shape and size are key factors, with nanoparticles generally offering higher conductivity but requiring higher curing temperatures than flake-based inks. Particle-free ink, also known as molecular ink, is a compelling emerging alternative. Rather than a suspension of metal particles, the ink is instead a solution of organometallic species that are reduced in situ, producing a smooth metal layer. A key advantage of particle-free conductive ink is eliminating the risk of nozzle clogging, a significant factor for digital printing methods such as aerosol and inkjet that enable selective deposition. Another benefit is that they produce very smooth coatings, which can improve shielding efficiencies at high frequencies.

MXenes

The ideal EMI shielding material would have high electrical conductivity, low density, flexibility to accommodate thermal expansion, tunable surface chemistry for adhesion, and solution processability. The emerging material class of MXenes, a family of two-dimensional inorganic materials composed of a few layers of transition metallic carbides, nitrides, or carbonitrides, fit this description. MXenes are thus the subject of both academic and commercial research for applications across electronics, including EMI shielding, with efforts currently being made to scale up production.

Comprehensive coverage

IDTechEx’s report “EMI Shielding for Electronics 2024-2034: Forecasts, Technologies, Applications” provides a detailed overview of the ‘EMI shielding for electronics’ market, with a more detailed assessment of the outlined materials classes along with nanocarbon-containing composites, metamaterials and combined thermal interface/EMI shielding materials. Innovations that will support the increasing adoption of heterogeneous integration and advanced semiconductor packaging, along with the activities of key players, are evaluated. 10-year forecasts for both deposition method and conductive ink consumption are provided, drawing on consumer electronic device analysis to assess the semiconductor package area requiring conformal shielding. Forecasts are segmented across multiple application categories, including smartphones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches, AR/VR devices, vehicles, and telecoms infrastructure. For more information on this report, please visit www.IDTechEx.com/EMI, or for the full portfolio of related research available from IDTechEx please visit www.IDTechEx.com/Research/AM.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Partnership for Assured Electronics (USPAE) today announced that the Defense Business Accelerator (DBX) Microelectronics Challenge received twice the number of entries expected. Nearly two-thirds of the entrants are startups, and one-third are small- to medium-sized businesses.

All are vying for a chance at awards between $500,000 and $2 million to advance commercially viable microelectronics solutions.

“We are very excited by the quantity and quality of the DBX entries for innovative electronic technologies and materials,” said Nathan Edwards, USPAE executive director. “This program helps advance solutions that will have commercial and defense applications while further strengthening the U.S. electronics industry.”

In a few weeks, finalists will be notified and invited to pitch their solutions at the Defense TechConnect Innovation Summit & Expo in late November.

“Defense TechConnect draws leaders from private industry, investment and government to accelerate state-of-the-art technology solutions,” said Matt Laudon, vice president of the TechConnect Division at ATI. “The DBX project is a great example of how new approaches can leverage innovation hubs to achieve great success.”

The innovative DBX program brings together the electronics industry expertise of USPAE with the Department of Defense’s (DoD’s) Manufacturing, Capability Expansion, and Investment Prioritization Directorate (MCEIP) to award funding through a process meant to accelerate the development of commercial solutions that the DoD can then leverage.