

Fraunhofer IKTS has many years of experience in the field of printed electronics. This includes the synthesis of ceramic and ceramic-compatible materials, their conversion into printable pastes and inks, the requirement-specific design of print layouts, and the implementation of electronic components using various printing processes (screen printing, stencil printing, dispensing and dispense jetting, aerosol jet printing, and inkjet printing). Special technological possibilities for the production of multilayer, hybrid components are offered by a multi-material printer that allows the parallel use of inkjet and aerosol jet printing. Integrated inline drying or sintering technologies as well as various characterization devices allow functional materials to be deposited with high precision and fully cured after each printing process.
The multi-material printer “CeraPrinter-F-Type” has a hybrid material deposition platform in which three inkjet print heads and one aerosol jet print head are installed in combination. This allows complex planar as well as 3D components to be produced from up to four different materials. With the help of a micropositioning system, the production resolution can be adjusted as needed according to the interactions of the printed inks with the substrate. Based on a multi-nozzle manufacturing system, the 3D printer is also capable of operating in a single-nozzle mode with precise positioning of the print. The integrated device for droplet analysis makes it possible to characterize both the droplet output and the deposition or leveling behavior.
During the process, the machine can work with up to three different curing technologies (NIR, UV and photonics), making it easy to adjust exposure time and dose. The post-treatment modules integrated in the printer allow the applied layers to be cured without having to treat the printed components outside the system. In addition, the post-treatment modules can also be used independently from the printing process. Substrates that have been printed with other technologies or devices can be fed into the machine and processed only for the curing step. Photonic drying or sintering using flash lamp technology, which emits high-energy light pulses onto the substrates and thus heats the printed layers to high temperatures without damaging the temperature-sensitive substrate, should be emphasized.