OrelTech’s gold ink to boost material savings on gold electrodes by as much as 60%
OrelTech, a pioneer company from Berlin, Germany, recently launched its latest product, a nanoparticle-free gold ink, under the name OTech Aurum. This type of ink is unique on the market and presents deep savings on material use and costs for the customers.
According to the company, OTech Aurum gold ink has superior conductivity to all existing gold nanoparticle-based inks. The same device performance can be achieved by using up to 60% less material at the fraction of the production price. The ink is compatible with aerosol and inkjet printing processes and can be used in many different applications ranging from gold-coated body electrodes for EEG/ECG monitoring to lab-on-a-chip to roll-to-roll printed electrodes for skin patches.
Gold is primarily used in biosensors and medical components, where it cannot be substituted by any other metal due to issues related to the toxicity of metals. But the high prices of gold are limiting its widespread use in other areas. Only in the last 12 months, the price of gold increased by almost 24%. Hence, any price reduction and/or conductivity improvement can have a big impact on the cost of the end device.
Increasing the accessibility of gold by optimising the material economy, “OTech Aurum gives a boost to the healthcare device market which utilises almost exclusively gold electrodes,” says Natalia Zamoshcik, CEO and co-founder of OrelTech. “Moreover, it opens new doors to innovation and potential new applications due to the newly-established accessibility of gold inks.”
OTech Aurum is the newest addition to OrelTech’s product family of inks. Besides gold, the company also sells silver transparent inks, as well as non-transparent silver, platinum, and palladium ink for applications on a wide variety of substrates. Early next year, the company plans to launch a novel, application-based ink for devices with reflective electrodes.
Caption: OTech Aurum: Comparison of gold ink layers (photo: OrelTech)