Inkjet company technical director tells a conference of the development needed

Inkjet company technical director tells a conference of the development needed

Inkjet printing will be a key technology in the manufacture of plastic electronics, but is not yet ready for the challenge Dr Steve Temple, technical director of UK inkjet company Xaar, told delegates at a recent conference: “Inkjet now is not really up to plastic electronics [but] plastic electronics will need inkjet.” Plastic electronics will enable circuits to be sprayed on to almost any surface making a whole new range of products possible from faster, cheaper PCBs to T-shirts that could display live sports results.

Problems with the present inkjet technology include not being able to print to an ultra-fine 1-micron width, the instability of the inks, and the need for better printing reliability for electronic circuits. Dr Temple said: “The development required for inkjet to meet this market is enormous. Funding is needed to drive development of inkjet for plastic electronics.” He added Xaar plans to look for partners in plastic and printed electronics markets.

The High Value Manufacture East conference, organised by Cambridge Investment Research (CIR), was held last week in Cambridge, where the world’s leading inkjet technology firms have clustered in the so-called Silicon Fen. CIR published an investment report saying the Cambridge inkjet cluster is the most competitive in the world. The cluster, which already turns over about Ј300m (E430m) a year, has the potential to become a multi-billion-pound industry if it becomes part of the industrial revolution in plastic electronics, according to the report.

CIR managing director Dr Justin Hayward said: “Given more investment, there’s no reason why the Cambridge inkjet cluster shouldn’t win even more of the industrial inkjet market. Current forecasts suggest the market could be worth more than Ј1bn [E1.4bn] to the Cambridge area by 2008.”