We’ve talked about the various ways photonic soldering simplifies the soldering process, like how the PulseForge can be thought of like a grill. Here, I’m sharing an example of how photonic soldering can help engineers overcome design limitations they face when creating new devices for the 3D world around us, while traditional electronics designs have been constrained to 2D (rigid) substrates. We can overcome these limitations using photonic soldering.
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At NovaCentrix, we love working on projects that present real technical challenges with collaborators who think creatively and work smart. We have worked on many rewarding projects with both small research groups and individual researchers up to large multi-national technology companies. Working in printed electronics means exposure to many innovations – as the prints end up in an ever-growing number of devices (and it’s important to keep on top of process technology know-how). It can feel overwhelming to consider all the necessary details for creating a valuable and innovative new device, so I’m hoping that this post can help put us onto the path of success.
As a company, we bring many years of experience in printed electronics and a strong position in developing and understanding the latest techniques. I took some time to chat with one of our inks team experts (pictured) to talk about how an existing ink, or new ink, may be incorporated into a customer’s printing process. I’ve done so to build on the foundation laid by Rudy in his printing post, which I highly recommend reading [link]. I also recommend clicking through our Metalon Conductive Inks FAQ page which contains a lot of useful info [link].
As a team, we love to highlight and share the work we see being done by researchers using NovaCentrix equipment and materials. While we regularly do this internally, my hope in sharing and writing about this recently published work for a broader audience is that it helps spread some interest in new tech, as well as bring attention to these great results. Researchers at the Army Research Laboratory and Duke University have shown that PulseForge curing can dramatically improve the electrical performance of 3D printed conductive filament composite materials.
3D printing, or additive manufacturing, has seen commercial efforts over several decades with a quick rise in interest over the past several years. A Gartner analysis from 2019 showed a 300% growth in enterprise 3D printer manufacturers over the preceding 3 years. Aerospace and medical device industries were among the first to create real value by using additive manufactur
ing to reduce weight and consolidate the assembly of components. Their success has paved the way for many other industries to evaluate new 3D printing techniques for their own processes.
An introduction to a new application from NovaCentrix with guiding questions for collaborators and customers...
NovaCentrix continues to bring new technologies to the printed electronics market to enable new structures and patterns that were previously considered unfeasible, too costly or impossible to manufacture. In this blog post we introduce the reader to PulseForge® Printing, a novel new way for contactless printing of a wide range of materials. This technology uses the capabilities developed in the PulseForge light source to instantaneously heat an ink loaded in a patterned plate. On heating, the ink is ejected from the plate and onto a target substrate – transferring the pattern. Our patterned plate gives the printer the ability to make very high resolution (< 25 µm), high aspect ratio (~ 1 for a single print), and multi-height prints out of a wide range of materials. Our PulseForge tool set gives the process high throughput, high duty cycle, repeatability, and uniformity. Common initial questions are outlined in this post with our answers to initiate a discussion around what this technology is capable of. Please connect with our team to learn more and engage on specific projects that could benefit from the capabilities of our new PulseForge Printing application.