Optomec, a fast growing
supplier of advanced manufacturing equipment for the Electronics, Photovoltaics,
Display and Defense industries, announced today that the company's Aerosol Jet
deposition system has been selected to be part of the PETEC (Printable Electronics
Technology Centre) facility. The Aerosol Jet system, which will be installed
at PETEC's location in County Durham, UK, will be primarily used to prototype
Organic Thin Film Transistors (OTFTs). The system will be located in a Class
100 cleanroom that contains process equipment for 300mm panel fabrication on
glass or flex.
Dr. Simon Ogier, PETEC R&D Manager, states, “We are eager to work
with this new technology for depositing active layers of organic devices. It
will allow us to learn much about the performance that can be achieved in high
resolution printed devices.” The system is one of the items of equipment
purchased under the LACE project (Large Area Coating Equipment), and is part
financed by the European Union's ERDF Competitiveness Programme 2007-13. PETEC's
LACE project has secured a total of £2M ERDF investment through regional
development agency One North East. The ERDF programme is bringing over £250M
into the North East to support innovation, enterprise and business support across
the region.
PETEC is a new design, development and prototyping facility that has brought
together leading experts in printable and plastic electronics to help industrial
and academic clients bring products to market quickly, cost-effectively and
with minimal risk. PETEC's role is to drive product innovation through all the
necessary stages of development, including concept, design, materials formulation,
prototyping and fabrication. These functions are supported by a range of application
development, testing, validation, process development and optimization services.
Several European-based companies are already using the PETEC facilities to test
and develop their new organic electronic prototypes.
The Aerosol Jet system is ideally suited to be part of the PETEC facility because
the technology is able to print the fundamental building blocks for printed
electronics. The technology is most suited to printing the challenging fine
resolution features of the source and drain electrodes in TFTs, in addition
to the active channel and other material layers in these electronic device structures.
These materials can be combined and layered to make more complex devices and
circuits. The ability to print fine features (<10 microns) and work at room
temperatures without vacuum processing means the process is an enabling technology
for many emerging printed and large area applications. To download the latest
whitepaper on Aerosol Jet technology for printed electronics applications, click
here.
Dave Ramahi, Optomec President/CEO, states that “PETEC is a state-of-the-art
facility that is breaking new ground in the development of printed thin film
transistors. The Aerosol Jet system will help PETEC and their clients to take
TFT printing to the next level.”
Optomec is the world-leading provider of additive manufacturing systems for
high-performance applications in the Photovoltaic, Electronics, Biomedical,
and Aerospace & Defense markets. These systems utilize Optomec's proprietary
Aerosol Jet and LENS powder-metal fabrication technology. The company has a
global customer base of industry-leading manufacturers.