C4IR Conference Series 2017

1. 1
Inkjet in Advance Manufacturing
Ramon Borrell, CTO
15th Anniversary HVM 2107 & Graphene New Materials Conference
2-3 November 2017 Cambridge, UK
www.cir-strategy.com/events

2. 2
Contents
● Xaar
● Industrial Inkjet
● Case studies in Advanced Manufacturing

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15th Anniversary HVM 2107 & Graphene New Materials Conference
2-3 November 2017 Cambridge, UK
Xaar Company Overview
● A world leader in the development of inkjet technology and the leading
independent manufacturer of industrial inkjet printheads
● Founded in 1990 as spin-off from Cambridge Consultants Ltd
● 1997 London Listing (XAR)
● Turnover: £96.2m in 2016
● Employees: 550
● Over 250 patents granted/pending
● Core business: design, manufacture and sale of printheads. Legacy business from
licensing
● Licensees include Seiko Instruments, Konica Minolta and Toshiba Tec
● Direct customers are OEM’s of digital printing equipment
● Acquired EPS (USA) and Blueprinter (Denmark), entering integration business in
product printing and 3D printing
● Based on Science Park, Cambridge, UK. Manufacturing Huntingdon, UK.

4. 4
Our four strategic pillars
Mission: Leading the Digital Inkjet Revolution. Vision: annual sales of £220m by 2020
Maintain Grow New Expand

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Industrial Inkjet

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15th Anniversary HVM 2107 & Graphene New Materials Conference
2-3 November 2017 Cambridge, UK
Industrial Inkjet Today
● Key drivers
“More for Less”
Manufacturing flexibility
Mass customisation
● Analogue to digital shift
● Inkjet expansion to industrial print
Commercial – books, brochures, bills
Packaging – coding, direct-to-shape
Décor – ceramics, laminates, glass
Textile – clothing and decor
● Functional applications emerging
Electronics – devices and displays
Energy – cells, batteries
Construction – structural coatings
Bio-medical
Xaar Industrial,
excluding
Ceramics, grew
80% YOY in 2017

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15th Anniversary HVM 2107 & Graphene New Materials Conference
2-3 November 2017 Cambridge, UK
Décor
● …and coatings and conductive
inks
● Decorative and functional
applications
● Internal and external applications
● Ceramic tiles, Laminates, Glass
● On-demand and short-run printing
● Printing of UV inks, glazes and
glass frits…
● Enables new products

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15th Anniversary HVM 2107 & Graphene New Materials Conference
2-3 November 2017 Cambridge, UK
Direct to Shape
● Direct Printing
Packaging – Bottles, Cans
Non-uniform shapes
● Broad range of applications
Beverage
Automotive, aviation
General industry
● Replacement of labels and
analogue coatings
● On-demand and short-run print
● Skyscraper and multi-axis print
modes

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15th Anniversary HVM 2107 & Graphene New Materials Conference
2-3 November 2017 Cambridge, UK
• Non contact
• Wide range of fluids (any chemistry, only limited by
viscosity)
• Low cost (£0.4 to £3 per nozzle)
• Modular, easy to integrate
• Scalable (20mm to 5m)
• High productivity (up to 25 l/h per printhead)
• Versatile
• Many printhead models with broad range of properties
• Flexible operation
Why is piezo IJ suitable for manufacturing?

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15th Anniversary HVM 2107 & Graphene New Materials Conference
2-3 November 2017 Cambridge, UK
• Drops from 0.3pl up to 600pl in current range
• From CMOS to glazes
• Viscosities from 2 mPa s up to 60 mPa s
• From biological samples to polymers for 3D printing
• From 128 up to 5680 nozzles per printhead
• From microscope slides to 10.5G display glass
• Up to 60% solid content by mass
• High load of silver nanoparticles
• Resolution from 90dpi up to 1200dpi
• Braille text to microtext and security features
• From 0.2mm to 15mm distance to substrate
• Silicon wafers to boxes in motion
Xaar Industrial InkJet properties

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15th Anniversary HVM 2107 & Graphene New Materials Conference
2-3 November 2017 Cambridge, UK
• Precise structures and features of sub-micron precision
• High resolution and high nozzle density
• Small drops, multidrop jetting
• 64 levels of individual adjustment for each sub drop
• To adjust volume or velocity for precise landing
• Microsecond level timing adjustment
• Up to 16 separate drive signals per printhead
• Precise fluid temperature control
• Maintain physical properties constant
Thin Film Si-MEMS offers unprecedented control

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15th Anniversary HVM 2107 & Graphene New Materials Conference
2-3 November 2017 Cambridge, UK
Actuator design
• Elongate channels, open at both ends, symmetrical design
• for true high flow recirculation; provides thermal stability, thermal
range, jetting reliability, tolerance to particles and air, tolerance to
ink sedimentation even with the most difficult inks, extended
viscosity range
• Nozzle located in pressure chamber for maximum benefit of recirculation
design
• Roof mode, bending mode (d31)
• 4 rows of channels 300 npi each, interlaced for 1200 dpi printing

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15th Anniversary HVM 2107 & Graphene New Materials Conference
2-3 November 2017 Cambridge, UK
• Circular nozzles with high accuracy in location and
dimensions, plus excellent uniformity and finish quality
• Optimised nozzle shape delivers excellent directionality
and low voltage requirements, while benefiting from
recirculation
Si MEMS nozzle plate + dry etching
Straight
Tapered
Straight

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15th Anniversary HVM 2107 & Graphene New Materials Conference
2-3 November 2017 Cambridge, UK
Dot placement error launch target of 3S = 5um
Long term target 3S = 3um
Total landing error could be less than 2um on substrate
Excellent dot landing
1mm
1200 dpi pixel grid
10um visibility limit
5um target
3S = 6.06um

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15th Anniversary HVM 2107 & Graphene New Materials Conference
2-3 November 2017 Cambridge, UK
Excellent text quality
Arial 6 pts – 1.5 mm
Arial 1 pt – 250 µm
Arial 6 pts – 1.5 mm
Arial 1 pts – 250 µm

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15th Anniversary HVM 2107 & Graphene New Materials Conference
2-3 November 2017 Cambridge, UK
Jetting performance

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15th Anniversary HVM 2107 & Graphene New Materials Conference
2-3 November 2017 Cambridge, UK
• Highly optimised structure made of 23 distinct layers
from 37 deposition steps
• Stack geometry dimensions in 3 directions optimised for
maximum mechanical efficiency
Actuator stack design

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Use cases in Advanced Manufacturing
Xaar Advance
Manufacturing is
growing 200% CAGR

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15th Anniversary HVM 2107 & Graphene New Materials Conference
2-3 November 2017 Cambridge, UK
Multiple process using IJ
• Obscuration
• Conductive tracks
• Insulation layer
• OLED materials
• Encapsulation
• Antenna
• Decoration
Displays and portable devices

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15th Anniversary HVM 2107 & Graphene New Materials Conference
2-3 November 2017 Cambridge, UK
Cover lens Printing
1. Black Matrix
(inkjet)
Cover Glass
Key Drivers
• Cost savings
• 80% screen printing yield vs 98%
inkjet yield
• Less material handling
• Less setup/NRE
• Screen grid loosens up while
inkjet always prints the same
exact drop
• Faster production: 2+ passes vs single pass
• Easier prototyping
• On demand - less inventory
• Ink height of 2um vs 5-6um for screen
printing
• Straight lines are shaper with inkjet
• 4 color capable for logos, still in single
pass.

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15th Anniversary HVM 2107 & Graphene New Materials Conference
2-3 November 2017 Cambridge, UK
Display PI Layer
PI Machine
• Using 1002 GS6 Alpha 5 heads
• Extra robustness to jet aggressive
Polyimide fluid
• 16 heads per machine
• 8 X 8” tablets per sheet
• 333,600 tablets per month
Key Drivers
• Non contact printing
• Reduced breakage
• Much cleaner than flexo
• Can control thickness in isolation layer
much better

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15th Anniversary HVM 2107 & Graphene New Materials Conference
2-3 November 2017 Cambridge, UK
Inkjet Antenna – reduces total height ink
Screen print paste
Display
Screen Print Process
Inkjet Process
Inkjet silver nano ink
Display
Inkjet
Screen-print
27µm
Main reason for using inkjet is height – 2um for silver ink and passivation layers
vs 6um with screen printing. Customer wants to reduce total thickness of
mobile device and tablets.

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15th Anniversary HVM 2107 & Graphene New Materials Conference
2-3 November 2017 Cambridge, UK
Touchscreen
1. Black Matrix
(inkjet)
3. OC1 Insulator
(inkjet)
4. Metal Trace
(gravure)
2. ITO Grid
(gravure)
5. OC2 Overcoat
(inkjet)
X
X
X
Y
Y
Cover Glass
● Displays for mobile
devices
● Multilayer touchscreen –
2.5D printing
● Multiple print
technologies
Flexography
Off-set gravure
Inkjet

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15th Anniversary HVM 2107 & Graphene New Materials Conference
2-3 November 2017 Cambridge, UK
Smart Glass
Merk Window Tech
• Use Liquid Crystal in windows to darken
interior of commercial buildings
• Also have touch capability to create
venetian blind type appearance
• Have 4 business partners who will license
• Big potential as the volume of glass needed
per building
• Using Xaar 1002 to print PI isolation layer

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15th Anniversary HVM 2107 & Graphene New Materials Conference
2-3 November 2017 Cambridge, UK
Solar Cell
● Schmid (Germany)
● Selective Emitter Technology - Nanojet
● 1,650 wafers / hour (single lane)
● 1270 x 1080 dpi (adjustable)
● 32um track width (±2-3um)
● Uptime 95%
● Low breakage:
Contact-free process
Very smooth wafer handling
● Reduced silver cost
● 0.3% cell efficiency gain

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15th Anniversary HVM 2107 & Graphene New Materials Conference
2-3 November 2017 Cambridge, UK
Solar Cell
Inkjet Process (Seed+Plate)
high conductive
plated silver
conductive
seed ink
Burn-In
Cell
emitter
47.5µm
11 µm
Nano-Jet + Ag LIP

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15th Anniversary HVM 2107 & Graphene New Materials Conference
2-3 November 2017 Cambridge, UK
Nano Imprint Lithography
Information supplied courtesy of
● Canon Nanotechnologies (USA)
● Acquired in 2014
● Feature sizes down to 23nm
● 2013 – First 450mm patterned
disk with Jet and Flash ™
● Uses Xaar 1003 AMpX variant
● Drop sizes under 1.0pL at high
frequency

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15th Anniversary HVM 2107 & Graphene New Materials Conference
2-3 November 2017 Cambridge, UK
16nm
11nm
22nm
10nm Pillars
2.4nm Features
J. Rogers
22nm
Information supplied courtesy of
Nano Imprint Lithography

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15th Anniversary HVM 2107 & Graphene New Materials Conference
2-3 November 2017 Cambridge, UK
Jet and Flash™ Imprint Lithography

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15th Anniversary HVM 2107 & Graphene New Materials Conference
2-3 November 2017 Cambridge, UK
25n
m
3D printing
● 7 processing technologies
● Range of materials
Metals; Polymers; Ceramics; Paper
● Applications
Modelling
Prototyping
Bespoke manufacturing
Small batch manufacturing
● 3 inkjet based technologies
Direct material jetting - polymers
Binder jetting – to powder bed
Powder bed fusion - HSS

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15th Anniversary HVM 2107 & Graphene New Materials Conference
2-3 November 2017 Cambridge, UK
High Speed Sintering

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15th Anniversary HVM 2107 & Graphene New Materials Conference
2-3 November 2017 Cambridge, UK
High Speed Sintering

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15th Anniversary HVM 2107 & Graphene New Materials Conference
2-3 November 2017 Cambridge, UK
Part cost projections
Euros

34. 37
15th Anniversary HVM 2107 & Graphene New Materials Conference
2-3 November 2017 Cambridge, UK
Ramon Borrell, CTO
Xaar plc
Cambridge, UK
ramon.borrell@xaar.com
Thank you!
Wafer of actuators
for 5601
Xaar new 5601 GS3 Thin
Film Si-MEMS printhead