![]() It can also be used for PCB/printed electronics, MEMS and sensors, life sciences, and security printing. For instance, the yet unseen resolution and layer thickness control can enable printing of quantum dot RGB color filters for high-brightness, full-color micro-LED displays in augmented reality glasses for gaming and metaverse applications. Other markets can also be transformed by this type of technology. In addition, a semiconductor fab may use between 2 to 4 million gallons of ultra-pure water (UPW) every day, which is approximately equivalent to the water use of 40 thousand households.įigure 2 Additive manufacturing functional printing can reduce manufacturing steps of certain semiconductor back-end components-for example, the microfabrication of redistribution layers (RDL)-by 10-fold. With multiple steps-over 20 required for one single component on a semiconductor device-fabrication can take up to 15 weeks, with 11–13 weeks being the industry average. The semiconductor and display manufacturing industries are ideal targets for additive manufacturing to reduce their complexity, high-cost as well as high-water and energy usage while delivering the high resolution needed.Īs the below graphics depicts, this could reduce manufacturing steps of certain semiconductor back-end components 10-fold, while also significantly reducing material, energy and water usage. ![]() The ability to print on any material, at scale, can improve the speed, accuracy and cost of producing innovative products for today and tomorrow. Implications for semiconductor manufacturing This capability has the potential to revolutionize the fabrication of semiconductors, displays, and many other similar products. One example is an invisible touchscreen that could be printed as fast and economical as printing an image on a typical office printer today. That, in turn, allows the development of products we have only envisioned. This enables the digital microfabrication of functional elements printed from multiple materials in a resolution invisible to the naked eye. While one single nozzle already demonstrates unseen performance for microfabrication, an economic usage only becomes viable by replicating these nozzles 1,000x times using a single microfabricated MEMS chip. Through this new process, the expensive treatments of inks to make their rheology compatible with inkjet printheads become obsolete. This ability to print with many types of fluid expands use cases besides typical nanoparticle metal inks into a wide range of materials, such as: In theory, it could even be possible to print with honey. These inks can be at least 100x more viscous than inks used in today’s conventional inkjet printheads. Small droplets can be placed accurately onto the substrate and the small volumes dry quickly and form into 3D projects smaller than 1 µm.īecause the electrostatic ejection principle is more or less ink-agnostic, it opens the door to use a wide variety of inks. Since no force needs to be guided to the nozzle exit from the inside of the nozzle, the technology becomes essentially agnostic to ink thickness, allowing both thin and thick fluids to be processed almost equally. Due to the force-focusing effect, droplets are no more limited to the size of the nozzle, but can in fact downscale more than 10 times. ![]() It is from this tiny tip that small droplets are ejected, accelerated and guided downward. This conventional pushing concept physically limits nozzle sizes to a few tens of micrometers and thereby makes it difficult to reach the ultra-high resolution that is needed for microfabrication.Ī new and alternative approach is to use an electrostatic force that pulls the liquid out of the nozzle, forming a pointed cone and focusing all energy to the tip of that cone. The actuated droplets are no smaller than the size of the nozzle from which they were ejected. The problem with the traditional actuation process is that it only allows the ejection of thin inks, which are then flattened on the substrate due to their high fluidic content. Figure 1 The image above highlights the performance parameters and differences between conventional piezo-based inkjet printing and the new electrostatic technology.
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