A new electronic ink for inkjet printing, from DuPont Advanced Materials, is said to offer the high conductivity and strong adhesion required for digital design, prototyping and rapid manufacturing. It will be able to be used in applications where extremely fine lines are required, such as OLED and touch panels.
Heraeus’s printed 7″ touch panelThe PE410 ink was recently shown at LOPEC in Munich, and will also be on show at Printed Electronics Europe (27th – 28th April, Berlin). It is designed to enable a smooth transition from prototyping to manufacture.
Also attending LOPEC was Heraeus, a specialist in flexible display components. The firm was promoting its Clevios conductive polymer, for touch panels, and a new development: a 7″ touch panel on a polyimide film substrate, which is only 12µm thick and serves as a curved sensor to control an LCD display.
Heraeus’ prototype is a fully functional and flexible panel, which is ready for mass production. The company says that it has been tested and withstood 10,000 bending cycles at 5mm and 3mm radii. It was produced through work with Taiwan’s ITRI (Heraeus and ITRI Collaborate on Touch Screens).
A new method for drying printed electronics was also being demonstrated. Heraeus says that its infrared module can dry these components in 0.32 seconds: almost 2,000 times faster than convention approaches, the company claims.
