MINNEAPOLIS, MN — SMTA announced that the program is finalized for the 27th Annual Pan Pacific Microelectronics Symposium. The event will take place from January 30 to February 1, 2023 at the Sheraton Kauai Resort on Kauai, Hawaii. The Pan Pacific Microelectronics Symposium promotes international technical interchange and provides a premier forum for networking among microelectronics professionals and business leaders throughout the world.
In addition to several inspiring keynotes, this program features ground-breaking research from global experts on Advanced Packaging, Advanced Processing, Advanced Materials, Business Strategies, Reliability and more.
On the afternoon of Monday, January 30, a plenary session will kick off the event followed by a Keynote presentation by Eric R. Fossum, Ph.D., Dartmouth College, titled “Cultivating a Culture of Innovation Should be Easy in a University, Right?”
On Tuesday, January 31, Dan Feliciano, OpEx 90, will deliver the keynote lunch talk on “Benford's Law: Helping to Minimize Financial Fraud, Among Other Things.”
On Wednesday, February 1, Rolf Aschenbrenner, Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration, will give the lunch keynote on “Advanced Packaging Technologies - Key Enablers for Electronic Systems.”
To conclude the symposium, Shintaro Yamamichi, IBM Japan, will provide his keynote presentation about “Neural Networks and Quantum Computing.”
View the complete program and register at: https://www.smta.org/panpac. Promotional packages are available for companies wishing to gain exposure for their products and services. Please contact Karlie Severinson, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or +1-952-920-7682, with questions.
CAMBRIDGE, UK — How can advanced functional materials such as conductive inks be developed more quickly? Anyone who has spent time in a laboratory knows that material development can be a laborious process. By utilizing an AI platform to optimize experimental parameter selection and reduce the number of iterative steps, materials informatics promises much more efficient material development pathways.
In a recent press release, particle-free conductive ink company Electroninks announced a partnership with material informatics company Citrine to develop a new conductive ink with reduced resistivity (3.2 µohm cm-1) and curing temperature (80°C). This is a more desirable set of properties than existing materials and should facilitate adoption for printed electronics and especially electromagnetic (EMI) shielding. The collaboration clearly illustrates the benefits that material informatics (MI) can provide to expedite improvements in the properties of pre-existing materials with clear industrial applications.
What Is Particle Free Conductive Ink?
Conductive inks are a longstanding technology that underpins printed electronics. Conventional conductive inks comprise micron-scale metal flakes suspended in a solvent with polymeric binders and are widely used in applications ranging from solar panel busbars to printed/flexible sensors.
In contrast, as the name suggests, particle-free conductive inks do not contain any metal particles. Instead, a transparent solution of solvated metal salt is chemically converted in situ to produce a metal. The chemical reaction is induced by heat, light, or plasma, resulting in a smooth conductive metal layer. This particle approach brings three main advantages: high conductivity, low viscosity, and a smooth surface.
What Is Materials Informatics?
Material informatics describes the utilization of data-driven methods, including machine learning, in materials R&D. It can help design new materials or select the right material for a given application, optimize material processing, and more. While this can take various forms, including literature/patent analysis and sourcing data via computational chemistry, one approach (and that used to develop particle-free inks) is to facilitate experimental design and parameter selection via supervised learning algorithms.
MI can accelerate the 'forward' direction of innovation (properties are realized for an input material), but the idealized solution is to enable the 'inverse' direction (materials are designed given desired properties). If integrated correctly, MI will become a set of enabling technologies accelerating scientists' R&D processes while making use of their domain expertise.
Compelling Advantages
Particle-free inks typically have higher conductivities than their more conventional particle-based counterparts. Since the metal is formed in situ, and the proportion of binder materials can be very low, conductivity can be as high as 80% of the bulk metal. This, of course, means that less ink can be used, with the additional benefit of there being less solvent to evaporate away during curing.
The low viscosity of particle-free conductive inks reduces the risk of nozzle clogging, making them ideally suited to aerosol and electrohydrodynamic (EHD) printing. Both of these techniques have nozzles with very small apertures and are capable of printing at lines as thin as 10 and 1 um, respectively. Depositing lines this narrow enables printed electronics to compete with subtractive methods such as photolithography and thus be used for semiconductor packaging.
Additionally, the smooth surface produced by particle-free conductive inks makes them highly desirable for radio frequency (RF) applications since, as signal frequency increases, surface roughness rather than bulk conductivity increasingly dominates impedance.
Key Questions Answered
If you would like to learn more about the opportunities enabled by the many types of conductive inks and material informatics, IDTechEx offers comprehensive and recently updated market research reports on both fields. These draw on company interviews and conference attendance to provide market forecasts, technology analysis, player profiles, investment details, roadmaps, company lists, and more, giving a clear picture of the technological and commercial landscape. To find out more about IDTechEx's technical and commercial analysis across a wide range of emerging technologies, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
WALTHAM, MA — Nano Dimension Ltd. (Nasdaq: NNDM, “Nano Dimension” or the “Company”), a leading supplier of Additively Manufactured Electronics (“AME”) and multi-dimensional polymer, metal & ceramic Additive Manufacturing (“AM”) 3D printers, announced today that it has received a purchase order from a European army, for a DragonFly IV, the leading Additive Manufacturing Electronics (AME) 3D-printer.
This customer is the tenth western defense agency to become a user of Nano Dimension’s high performance additive manufacturing systems. For reasons of national security, Nano Dimension cannot reveal the name of the country it is from, but this is clearly a continuation of the company’s success in providing leading technology to those who need it most. This defense agency, and others like it, which include national armies, navies, air forces, and governmental intelligence agencies, rely on the DragonFly IV® to advance innovation in a way that other manufacturing technologies of electronics manufacturing cannot achieve.
The DragonFly IV® system and specialized materials serve cross-industry High-Performance-Electronic-Devices (Hi-PEDs®) fabrication needs by simultaneously depositing proprietary conductive and dielectric substances, while integrating in-situ capacitors, antennas, coils, transformers, and electromechanical components. The outcomes are Hi-PEDs® which are critical enablers of autonomous intelligent drones, cars, satellites, smartphones, and in vivo medical devices. In addition, these products enable iterative development, IP safety, fast time-to-market, and device performance gains.
"I am very excited that another European army is investing in the design and production of 3D electronics, to shorten its development cycles and bring to life innovative ideas which could not have been done before,” commented Stephan Krause, Vice President of EMEA Sales for Nano Dimension.
Mr. Yoav Stern, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Nano Dimension, added: “Engaging this new customer is exciting for us. It proves, yet again, how irreplaceable and essential our 3D printing technologies and materials are. There are perhaps no greater requirements for innovation than what defense agencies command, and we are proud to be chosen as the supplier of such unique solutions. After many years of experience with advanced technologies in the Air Force, I know that leading edge products which are adopted initially by defense forces, traditionally end up creating very large size commercial markets as well.”
SANTA ANA, CA — TTM Technologies, Inc. and Raytheon Missiles & Defense, a Raytheon Technologies business, have reached a multi-year agreement to provide radio frequency assemblies, electronic hardware, and printed circuit boards for the SPY-6 family of radars. The agreement has the potential to reach $500 million over five years.
"SPY-6 provides the unparalleled capability to the U.S. Navy and will be on 40 ships of seven different classes by 2030," said Kim Ernzen, President of Naval Power at RMD. "Agreements like these ensure we continue to meet the demands of our customers."
TTM designs and manufactures the Beam Form Network (BFN) along with PCBs, and specialized assemblies for the SPY-6 family of radars. This type of multi-year commitment for supply enables TTM and its supply chain partners to increase value to the end customer and transform the way TTM's supplier partners conduct business, creating efficiencies throughout the supply chain.
"This significant agreement further strengthens our partnership with RMD and positions both companies for future business opportunities where technology and innovation are key points of focus for the ultimate end user, the U. S. Government," said Catherine Gridley, Executive Vice President and President, Aerospace & Defense/ Specialty Business Unit.
When compared to legacy radars, SPY-6 brings new capabilities to the surface fleet, such as advanced electronic warfare protection and enhanced detection abilities. SPY-6 radar installation is complete on the Navy's first Flight III destroyer, the USS Jack H. Lucas (DDG 125), which is scheduled to be operational in 2024.
CAMBRIDGE, UK — A new wave of electronics manufacturing is on the horizon, driven forward by volatile energy prices and increasing demand for sustainability. With the electronics industry accounting for 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions, it requires substantial innovation to reduce its environmental footprint. Fortunately, this area has a lot of movement, with several potentially revolutionary technologies entering the scene. IDTechEx's "Sustainable Electronics Manufacturing 2023-2033" report explores the key opportunities for sustainable innovation and the most promising new manufacturing approaches. The report concentrates on the fundamental building blocks of electronics - printed circuit boards (PCBs) and integrated circuits (ICs).
Incentives for Sustainable Electronics
Sustainability within the semiconductor and electronics industries is being driven forward by government mandates and green investment initiatives. Increasingly relevant to the survival of traditional manufacturers is the conscious choice of the public to only purchase from, and even only work for, companies that prioritize sustainable practices.
Environmentalism is often perceived as an obstacle-laden with legislative red tape and burdensome disclosures. However, companies that embrace environmentalism reap long-term rewards, and as such, the negative perception is replaced by one of opportunity. The implementation of low-emission manufacturing processes or the adoption of material recycling and recovery schemes can be the financially astute choice presenting an opportunity to reduce costs associated with energy consumption, waste treatment, and superfluous steps. Prioritizing environmentalism keeps the industry ahead of the curve as legislation becomes stricter while positioning individual companies to benefit from designated ESG investment.
As energy prices rise globally, low temperature and rapid processing methods become more attractive. Some of these methods employ additive approaches that substantially cut waste by printing material only where needed. This spares manufacturers the costs and emissions associated with excess materials and etching required in traditional subtractive manufacturing. For example, switching to additive methods of PCB manufacturing can lower water consumption by up to 95% - an outcome that could save the sector hundreds of millions of liters of water annually.
IDTechEx's analysis expects additive manufacturing to be particularly significant to the scaling of flexible printed circuit boards. Flexible PCBs are an important part of the emerging electronics industry as they enable a wider variety of applications than conventional rigid electronics. Flexible PCBs inherently require an overhaul of traditional processing - for example, using plastic or paper rather than conventional FR substrates. Embracing a new technology enables scope for further changes, such as transitioning to new materials and additive methods. Low-temperature processing may also be imperative for PCBs made on plastics such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET), considering that these have relatively low heat tolerances.
Digitization for Smart Manufacturing
Sustainable electronics manufacturing presents many opportunities to be more efficient, reduce waste, and improve cost-effectiveness. Sustainable manufacturing can be facilitated through artificial intelligence and Internet of Things. Using smart digital manufacturing methods to automate processes and sensor technology to detect leaks and improper material usage can help companies minimize waste and cut down on excess costs.
Digital data analysis can help remove superfluous steps and illustrate where to focus efforts to eliminate excess material and energy consumption. Digitization is becoming increasingly popular, with many household name brands adopting similar measures. At the end of 2021, Apple announced it had joined Sustainable Semiconductor Technologies and Systems (SSTS) - a program created by the Belgian research institute, imec, to reduce the environmental impact of semiconductor manufacturing. Imec's SSTS program aims to improve sustainability by employing digital solutions that can assist in modeling less wasteful manufacturing methods. In addition to Apple, imec is also working with Microsoft and Amazon.
Outlook
Reducing the carbon footprint of the electronics industry is a daunting task, particularly for well-established manufacturers that are reluctant to divert from traditional methods. Across the world, government and consumer pressure are forcing manufacturers to take on greater responsibility in reducing their emissions. IDTechEx believes that by embracing sustainable manufacturing methods, companies can benefit financially and demonstrate significant reductions in environmental impact. A comprehensive analysis and exploration of sustainable innovations within the field can be found in IDTechEx's report, "Sustainable Electronics Manufacturing 2023-2033".
This report analyses the many innovations aiming to make electronics manufacturing more sustainable and how they are being deployed. It examines the current status and latest trends in technology performance, supply chain, and manufacturing. It also identifies the key challenges, competition, and innovation opportunities within sustainable electronics manufacturing. IDTechEx has 20 years of expertise covering emerging technologies, including printed and flexible electronics. Our analysts have closely followed the latest developments in relevant markets, interviewed key players across the supply chain, attended conferences, and delivered consulting projects on the field.
PETACH-TIKVA, ISRAEL — Eltek Ltd., a global manufacturer and supplier of technologically advanced solutions in the field of printed circuit boards, announced today the company has received a follow-up purchase order in the amount of $1.1 million from an existing customer in the defense sector. The original purchase order in the amount of $1.4 million was received during the first quarter of 2022. The order will be supplied by Eltek over a period of four months commencing in March 2023.
"This follow-up order represents the customer's recognition of our high technological capabilities and the quality and reliability of our products," commented Eli Yaffe, CEO of Eltek.
