Photonic Curing and the PulseForge Toolset

Stan FarnsworthVP Marketing

May 2014

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NovaCentrix®

Printed Electronics Manufacturing

RawMaterials

Mfg Materials

Curing Tools

Device/ Application

Ink components;Raw substrates

Inks;Substrates

Roll-to-roll;Conveyors

Inkjet;Screen;Aerosol;Flexo;Gravure;

Ovens;Air knives;New Tech

Ovens;UV Lamps;Lasers;PulsedThermal Processing;New Tech

Solar;RFID;Batteries;Transistors;Displays;Packaging;Smart cards

Material Handlers

Printers Dryers

Tool Integrators

Nanoparticles Metalon® inksNovele™ substrates

PulseForge® toolsSimPulse™ thermal simulator

Industryproduct types

Quick Profile• Initially established in 1999 in Austin, TX

• Employees: ~40 : Facilities: ~4000m2

• Competencies: Plasma physics, high-power (MW) electronics, nanomaterials, numerical modeling, machine systems design, dispersions and formulations

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Product Snapshot

PulseForge ® Photonic Curing Tools

Metalon ® Conductive Inks

Also: Ag, Ni, Co, others

SimPulse ® Numerical Simulation

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Photonic Curing– Using carefully timed and controlled flashlamps to heat only the surface and not the

entire thickness of the material. Exposure time is usually less than 1 millisecond.– Allows use of high-temp materials on low-temp substrates.– Organic and inorganic inks (including ITO, Si)– Polymer, paper, glass

NovaCentrix is the process originator, and holder of key patents.

Thin Film

Substrate

Pulsed Light

Tem

pera

ture

Distance from Surface

Thin Film/Substrate Interface

What is Photonic Curing?

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“Basic” Photonic Curing Pulse: What is it?

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Basic pulse suitable for depositions <10 um

Inkjet Ag (Metalon JS-B25P) @ <1 umNotice sintering after photonic curing.

Before

After

Basic pulse shape

Simple ON-OFF cycle.Can be repeated.

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Pulse Shaping: Advanced Pulse Structures

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Conventional Pulse Pulse Shaping

Pulse Shaping: Multiple pulses acting within the thermal equilibrium time of the material.• Equivalent energy but composite pulse allows better control of temperature profile.• Preferred pulse structure for many thicker depositions as well as for drying.

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Advanced Pulse Structures Required

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Warped substrate

Without pulse shaping, processing screen-printed inks can fail.

Skinning and pitting

Delamination

With pulse shaping, processing screen-printed inks is optimized.

• Optimal surface and curing

• Optimized electrical performance.

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Innovation: Copper Oxide Reduction Ink

Metalon ICI-021: Water-based• Nano copper oxide particles• Reduction agent• Water and ethylene glycol• Sheet resistance ~15 mOhm/sq• Very economical pricing

• Copper inks are of interest– Cu costs much less than Ag– Cu has 90% of the conductivity of Ag

• Traditional copper nanoinks are problematic– True Cu inks want to oxidize,

especially nanoparticle inks– Stable nanoparticle inks of true Cu

are usually expensive, outweighing cost benefits

• New Approach– Instead of fighting oxidation, begin

with particles in their terminal state: fully oxidized.

– Converts to conductive Cu during processing with PulseForge tool.

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Copper Oxide Reduction Ink and Pulse Shaping

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• To convert the copper oxide to copper, certain elevated temperature must be reached and sustained long enough for the reaction to complete.

• The exact required temperature and time are not known a priori for a given system: too low or too high will yield poor results.

This Basic Pulse creates temperaturetoo hot and too short.

Shaped Pulse creates optimal temperature for optimal time.

Pulse Configurations Resulting Thermal Simulation(Generated using SimPulse)Shaped Pulse (top)

Basic Pulse (bottom)

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R&D to Production

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• Different chassis• Shared components

– Lamps– Reflector housings– Power supplies– User interface

PulseForge 1200/1300 PulseForge 3200/3300

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Separation of Functions

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Lamp housingMaterial conveyance

Power supplies andlamp controllers

CablesWatercooling

Userinterface

Controls,worksurface

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Configurable Process Width

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Designed for Value and Performance

Throughout the design and development process for the PulseForge 3200 tools, careful thought was given to identifying key design topics. Interviews with external industry leaders as well as internal experts in the NovaCentrix inks and applications teams contributed to design attributes that are embodied in the current tool architecture.

Design Priorities• Safety

– Access interlocks– Automatic system operation monitoring

• Performance– State-of-the-art engineering allows optimization of application processing

• Economic operation – Extremely long lamp lifetimes with quick and tool-free lamp changes– No warm-up time required prior to operation– Water-cooled for continuous operation at max rated power

• Ease of operation– Advanced custom operating system and user interface– Process settings can be saved and accessed for future production

• Ease of integration into Customer’s Quality Management System– On-board recording of each pulse profile and lamp output can be linked and traced to specific item– Process conditions can easily be shared between R&FD and production PulseForge tools

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Thank YouContact our partners or us directly

with questions

or for samples processing.

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