fantastic plastic

In Optomec’s M³D (Maskless Mesoscale Materials Deposition) system particles are generated from a liquid (typically a suspension) raw material using an ultrasonic or pneumatic atomiser. The resulting aerosol is deposited via a nozzle and focused with flow guidance using an additional gas. A deposited precursor material is then converted using conventional heating or, in the case of heat-sensitive substrates, laser sintering.
This technique allows the additive deposition of lines with of 10 micron width. More details can be found in this article (pdf file, Sept. 2001) or on their website.
According to their website, the main applications are:

Printed Circuit Boards
M³D can fabricate high-density circuitry in materials such as copper, silver and gold with line widths down to 10 microns and smaller. In addition to “direct write” of conductive traces, the M³D system can be used to deposit a full range of electronics materials, including insulators, adhesives, and even intermediary materials such as photo-resist or seed layers for copper plating.

Embedded Passives and Components
M³D […] can directly manufacture high tolerance passives with a wide range of resistance values in a single layer. The solution can also be used to “embed” other components, such as capacitors, filters, antennae, etc., and can further be used for producing the trace interconnects within a layer.

Flex Circuits
M³D is ideal for the production of circuits on flexible substrates since the process operates at extremely low temperatures. In such applications, M³D has demonstrated excellent adhesion to the substrate, sufficient to withstand the stresses of dynamic flexing.

Hybrid Manufacturing for Electronic Devices
[…] M³D demonstrations in this area include sub-micron layers of platinum for fuel cells, high-density back planes (organic and metal) for flat panel displays, and deposition of photo-resist for MEMS production. Additionally, M³D systems are being used to repair production defects on flat panel displays.

Semiconductor Packaging

The technology has also been applied to the patterning of various bio materials including viable enzymes and living cells.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 15th, 2005 at 9:45 am and is filed under printing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.