Thin, light, flexible and robust are the key characteristics of printed electronics, which can be seamlessly integrated into a wide range of products. This enables new applications in a variety of industries, including automotive, consumer electronics, healthcare, printing/packaging and smart buildings, as well as its growing presence in the Internet of Things (IoT) - in short, "electronics everywhere". At the same time, there is a growing need for sustainable and circular electronics due to its quantities but also specifics of conventional electronics. Flexible and printed electronics enable more sustainable electronics by using new materials and processes, as well as through their lightweight nature.

Two main advantages of Printed Electronics are flexibility and transparency.  Both features complement traditional electronic systems. At Kundisch we devote our production and development efforts to these advantages. In this presentation we will show the latest advances in transparent antennas and their production with high yields. The challenge of high conductivity, freedom of design and high transparency is mastered in these products. 

Additionally we show how to integrate ICs in stretchable products converting analog signals to digital as near to the signal source as possible. A possible game changer wearable electronics where contacting has been a real troublemaker in the past.

The demand for printed electronics, especially sensors, is constantly growing over the last few years. Standard printing techniques like screen or inkjet printing are widely used with great success. Most of the substrates are two dimensional like foils printed in a either roll to roll or sheet to sheet process.

Often these substrates have to be connected with the actual surface where the function is needed
for instance via an extra gluing or laminating process. In contrast, the binder innovation and technology center is using an alternative approach. For three dimensional or structured substrates, pad printing is used. The function is directly printed on the substrate without any additional process. During the printing process, the paste is transferred from a printing form (cliché) via a silicon pad directly on the substrate. This process is well established for high volume production in marketing or graphic printing.

In order to achieve a reproducible and stable functional layer special needs of the printing pastes in terms of viscosity and homogenous preparation are required. Typical line widths are 80 - 100 µm and a layer thickness of 8-15 µm. Applications range from force and touch sensors as well as heating devices or bioelectrodes.

Although not intended for this printing technique binder uses different ELANTAS printing pastes for this purpose with great success since many years.

New applications in the field of printed electronics require higher demands on the functional pastes used and pose new challenges for further development. In this presentation, the current topics in research and development at ELANTAS Europe GmbH will be presented.

One focus will be on the development of paste combinations for printing fine structures (including multilayer structures) on a wide variety of substrates. The future reduction of silver with the possible use of copper also has an influence here. On the other hand, the demands on the insulators used as a migration barrier are increasing. Accordingly, part of the development is the further optimization of the screen-printable insulators used, also with regard to transferring methods from conventional electronics to printed electronics.

to be confirmed