DoMicro participated as an exhibitor on LOPEC 2022 (22 – 24 March, München). At the exhibition booth, there was a lot of interest in the new nanoprinter DM50-ENP as well as in DoMicro’s services in flexible hybrid electronics, micro assembly technology, inkjet printed electronics and advanced packaging. It was a highlight that it was possible to meet people face to face at the LOPEC again, after the LOPEC could not be held onsite for a few years because of the pandemic.
DoMicro’s CEO Marcel Grooten presented the DM50-ENP nanowire printer at the exhibitor forum. The presentation highlighted the benefits from the electrohydrodynamic technology on which the printer is based. With this technology, an electric field is used for pulling an inkjet into a very narrow shape. This brings opportunities for a significant scale reduction in printed electronics. The pulling effect can reduce the line width from about 30 microns, as can be obtained with industrial inkjet technology, down to 1 micron or less. Applications are in various fields, such as displays, micro fluidics, batteries and photovoltaics. The printer is available for supporting R&D on the miniaturization of structures made with printed electronics.
Marcel Grooten presents DoMicro at Exhibitor forum
The printer has been developed in the E-Nanoprint-Pro project. In this project, which has been carried out within the scope of the RocKET Reloaded program, the German partners microTEC, Coatema, and the Dutch partners DoMicro, tec-V and TechToBizz have cooperated on the development of the printer and the evaluation of the use for a selection of key applications.
An important application is the replacement of scarce and polluting materials for touch screens by clean and readily available materials. For this application the printer must be suitable for industrial environments. Within the E-Nanoprint-Pro project, the new printer prototype has been tested on a continuous coating machine at Coatema. The trials were successful and showed that the new printing technology can be scaled up for industrial environments.
A second application within the project was the preparation of an insulin pump for placement inside the body of diabetes patients. Obviously, such a pump needs to be as small as possible. This is where miniaturisation of the connection wires, as enabled by nanoprinting, can help a lot. The idea for preparing such a pump already existed at microTEC. The combined efforts within the consortium brought important steps ahead towards the future use of an insulin pump inside the body.
If you are interested in the nanoprinter or in technology development, please contact us.
