Coatema Coating Machinery GmbH

Teaser: High accuracy R2R Printed electronics alignment through registration

In the industry of printed electronics alignment of the printed structures is a mandatory aspect. Where graphical printing is aiming at high speed registration alignment, printed electronics is still limited to low speeds, whereas the accuracy is much more demanding.

For more than 10 years, Coatema is working together with Offcode Ltd. as a strategic partner to develop a registration system, which meets the needs of the printed electronics industry. The goal is to achieve registration alignment of 10 micrometer or better in the coming years. To achieve the goals, Coatema has been involved in different funded projects, such as REGAC, Smartonics, Supersmart and OLEDSolar to integrate the technology and improve machinery for accurate R2R printing alignment. 

https://youtu.be/YtiZpWC3S-I

Teaser:
The field of smart textiles encompasses many sub-areas. Research, development and production are constantly advancing, and it is not easy to keep up with the rapid pace of innovative development. The relevance of wearable electronics has gained considerably in importance in this context and an increasing degree of digitalisation in our society.

Products such as smart watches, virtual reality glasses or fitness trackers have become an integral part of everyday life. New markets are constantly being opened up for the application of so-called wearables. In this context the development of intelligent textiles in particular has been advancing at a rapid pace for several decades. For the industry this means an intensive dealing with the further development and optimisation of the manufacturing process. The presentation will provide an overview of the industrial markets and future development priorities.

Teaser: The lecture will describe the Lab2Fab scale up of using a new sustainable material like Nanocellulose for being used as a coating on paper to provide barrierer function and to cast the NC onto a release liner to produce a transparent film of NC to replace PET.

The processes have been developed in the European Horizon2020 project and include coating technologies and drying technologies which had been modified to reach the requested results. Coatema developed here the overall production line concept and demonstrated the process on a Click&Coat system.

https://events.drupa.de/de/veranstaltung/replacement-of-plastic-in-packaging-materials-with-circular-materials-like-nanocellulose-films-and-coatings

Contact Details: tkolbusch@coatema.de
Phone: +49 21 33 97 84 121

Video presentation: https://youtu.be/-kpzSF8QpVQ

Teaser: Intermittent slot-die coating with low viscous fluid

Slot dies are originally designed to create homogeneous, endless, full area coatings. This technology verified its usefulness in the industrial manufacturing of photographic films and magnetic stripes as well as its potential in emerging applications like solution processed organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) or organic photovoltaics (OPVs). However, upscaling these techniques to large scale manufacturing is still challenging as several functional layers in OLED or OPV devices needs to patterned. In the last decades, the demand for down-web and cross-web patterning while keeping the advantages of slot-die coating is significantly increasing in academia and in industry. While down-web stripes are rather simple to be made by appropriate masking, cross-web stripes are much more complicated because they require a frequent precise fast start and stop of the coating process, the so-called intermittent coating. There are several different methods to achieve intermittent coating, which work well if the viscosity of the coating liquid is rather high. Good examples are battery pastes. But as soon as the viscosity of the fluid becomes very low (even lower than water) all those current methods fail. The authors would like to present Coatema’s recent developments and successes in the development of an intermittent slot-die coating process for low viscous fluids in a roll-to-roll process. Coatema’s patented switching intermittent slot die for low-viscous fluids is now approaching market readiness. 

Contact Details: jkoc@coatema.de
Phone: +49 21 33 97 84 167

drupa cube: OE-A Web-Seminar Printed Electronics – Materials and Processes

Teaser: On Wednesday, April 21 from 11:00-11:40 h, the second OE-A web-seminar will take place. OE-A members will present their latest developments with regard to materials and processes and how they can enable a sustainable future.

Program:
Welcome and Introduction
Jan Krausmann, Project Manager, OE-A
Conductive copper ink for additive electronics – sustainable circuit boards
Dr. Ofer Shochet, CEO and Founder, Copprint
Upscale for Printed Electronics products by the Lab2Fab development process with the focus on digitalization and sustainability
Thomas Kolbusch, Vice President, Coatema Coating Machinery
Q&A

https://events.drupa.de/de/veranstaltung/printed-electronics-materials-and-processes-4-oea-speaker-tbc

Contact Details: tkolbusch@coatema.de
Phone: +49 21 33 97 84 121

Teaser: High accuracy R2R Printed electronics alignment through registration

In the industry of printed electronics alignment of the printed structures is a mandatory aspect. Where graphical printing is aiming at high speed registration alignment, printed electronics is still limited to low speeds, whereas the accuracy is much more demanding.

For more than 10 years, Coatema is working together with Offcode Ltd. as a strategic partner to develop a registration system, which meets the needs of the printed electronics industry. The goal is to achieve registration alignment of 10 micrometer or better in the coming years. To achieve the goals, Coatema has been involved in different funded projects, such as REGAC, Smartonics, Supersmart and OLEDSolar to integrate the technology and improve machinery for accurate R2R printing alignment. 

Video presentation: https://youtu.be/kk2KMo7x79I

Teaser: Upscaling Roll-to-Roll and Roll-to-Plate Nanoimprint Lithography

Roll-to-roll and roll-to-plate nanoimprint lithography is a rapidly emerging technology for fabricating three-dimensional functional structures with micrometer or sub-micrometer resolution for various applications. This method was already used to prepare micro- and nano-pattern on polymer surfaces with light-guiding, light-trapping, light-diffusing or micro-lens effects. These structures enhanced OPV and OLED efficiencies quite significantly. Furthermore, nanoimprint is also a promising technology for the fabrication of large area nanostructures for flexible electronics. Therefore, large markets such as photovoltaics, lighting, semiconductors, and life-sciences have been keeping a close eye on the technological benefits nanoimprint technology can provide.

In order to establish Roll-to-roll and roll-to-plate nanoimprint lithography as a mature production technology, it is necessary to scale-up from small laboratory sized processes and machinery to ones that can be used for industrial fabrication processes. Steps towards commercialisation have already been taken by Coatema in cooperation with the UV-NIL specialist Temicon. Together, Coatema and Temicon developed a highly advanced UV nanoimprint lithography lab and production technology. We will present the latest developments in manufacturing technology and process development from our ongoing R&D.

Concerning the upscaling of the sample size we will present two different strategies: Large area seamless roll-to-roll, and high precision step & repeat sheet-to-sheet UV nanoimprint lithography. The latter method allows patterning of large area substrates with a stamp with a limited size. To pattern the large substrate, it is mandatory to position the stamp several times. Each positioning can lead to the formation of defects (i.e. seams) as an overlap or gap between the different imprint fields will occur. We will present our strategy to minimize the defects (i.e. seams) by optimizing the imprint tool and process parameters.

Until now, the most common roll-to-roll UV-nanoimprint processes are based on the usage of UV-transparent polymer foils. In this case, the fixation of the nanostructures can be performed by illuminating the structures with UV light through the transparent substrate. We will present, how one can modify the equipment and process in a way that also the usage of UV-in transparent substrates is possible.

Contact Details: dkourkoulos@coatema.de
Phone: +49 21 33 97 84 165

Video presentation: https://youtu.be/Qs_5QahgLX4

Spoiler: there will be graphene, Ag-Nanowires, Lithography and slot-die-coating involved!
Teaser: ITO Replacement: Process technology and materials Now and Tomorrow

Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) has been the prevailing transparent conductive coating in the thin film electronics for decades. High optical transparency of about 80% and high charge carrier densities and therefore low sheet resistance of about 30 Ohm/sqr have been the major factors in its market share of 97.2%. Disadvantages though are that Indium is a scarce element and ITO is a brittle material, making it less suitable for flexible electronics. In recent years alternative materials such as Silver Nano Wires (SNW), Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide (IGZO), Carbon Nano Tubes (CNT) and Roll-to-Roll Graphene as well as new processing technologies like ink-jetting of silver nanoparticles and lithography for metal meshes have emerged to overcome these problems. High performance and lower cost have herein been the major drivers behind the recent developments. 

Contact Details: texlager@coatema.de
Phone: +49 21 33 97 84 140