Xaar and Lawter collaborate to deliver silver nano-ink printing
Xaar plc, a leading provider of industrial inkjet technology based in Cambridge, UK, and Lawter from Chicago (IL), USA, a global specialist for resins, emulsions, additives and lacquers for the print industry, have declared their intention to cooperate in the optimisation of a range of nano-silver conductive inks in the Xaar 1002 industrial inkjet printhead. The combined solution will be of particular interest to manufacturers of consumer electronics looking for a robust and reliable method for printing antennas and sensors with silver nano-particle inks as part of their manufacturing processes.
Industrial inkjet offers significant advantages over traditional print technologies to manufacturers of consumer electronics products. Inkjet is a cleaner process than other methods of printing silver inks; this is especially relevant when printing onto a substrate, such as a display, in which any yield loss is very expensive. With inkjet, manufacturers can very precisely control the amount of ink dispensed in certain areas of a pattern so that the ink or fluid can be thicker in some areas and thinner in others. Similarly, inkjet enables the deposition of a much thinner layer of fluids than traditional methods, which is significant for the manufacturers looking to produce thinner devices.
“This is an excellent opportunity to showcase our latest technological breakthroughs and demonstrate the unique value that our revolutionary nano-particle inkjet solutions can play as part of an integrated system solution in the printed electronics world,” says Dr Arturo Horta, business development manager for Lawter Innovation Group.