Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology IWS
IWS scientists develop functional inks as well as printing and sintering processes for highly resolved printing processes of structures. By means of the Aerosol Jet® technology a variety of materials such as metals, semi-conductors, polymers or nanoparticle dispersions can be directly applied on 2 and 3 dimensional parts.
To activate and functionalize surfaces different techniques, which employ substrate-saving plasma and laser assisted cleaning and pre-treatment methods, are available to achieve optimum printing results. Commercial as well as self-developed inks are correspondingly adapted and printed. Printed structures are subsequently laser heat-treated.
The procedure allows for the non-contact printing of fine structures with minimum line widths of about 10µm and is characterized by highly economic ink consumption and a high material utilization.