July 27, 2012 – BUSINESS WIRE — Optomec’s Aerosol Jet deposition tools are being used for printed sensor, display, solar cell, CMOS and passive devices, and other development areas, with new installations at CEA Liten (France), Innovation Lab (Germany) and the University of Sheffield (UK).
Optomec supports more than 40 customers in Europe.
@ CEA: The Aerosol Jet system at CEA is located at PICTIC, which is the first European platform entirely dedicated to printed electronics. Christophe Serbutoviez of CEA Liten states, “The Aerosol Jet system plays a key role in ensuring the digital printing of fine traces of conductor and dielectric materials on flat and 3D surfaces. The system enables our customers to manufacture advanced printed CMOS devices, thermal sensors and passive components such as RLC filters.” CEA Liten is the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives). CEA is active in four main areas: low-carbon energies, defense and security, information technologies and health technologies. CEA’s PICTIC (Research and Development of Printed Electronic Devices) platform is financially supported by the European Feder funds, Rhône Alpe Region and the CEA.
@ Innovation Lab: The Aerosol Jet system at Innovation Lab is used to develop new manufacturing processes for a number of different printed electronics applications. Kai Sudau of Innovation Lab states, “Aerosol Jet systems offer the opportunity to deposit fluids that could otherwise mainly be processed using spin coating. The Aerosol Jet system enables us to create structured layers of these fluids rather than full layers.”
Innovation Lab GmbH (iL) is an application-oriented organization for research and knowledge transfer in science and business, supported by the Universities of Heidelberg and Mannheim, and by the companies BASF SE, Merck KGaA, Freudenberg & Co., Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG, Roche Diagnostics GmbH and SAP AG.
@ University of Sheffield: The Aerosol Jet system at the University of Sheffield is currently used to produce a series of photomask samples with positive and negative micro arrays on a glass substrate. Conventional production methods are extremely complex and require special processing equipment. The Aerosol Jet deposition system provides a more cost-effective approach by directly printing the photomasks, eliminating many process steps. The University plans to use the Aerosol Jet system to help solve a wide variety of printed electronics manufacturing challenges.
The Mercury Centre is a multi-million dollar industrially focused facility within the University of Sheffield, accelerating the manufacture of high-technology components across a range of sectors, including advanced manufacturing, energy, health-care devices and electronics.
Optomec is the world-leading provider of additive manufacturing solutions for high-performance applications in the Electronics, Solar, Medical, and Aerospace & Defense markets. Internet: www.optomec.com