Author: Steve Paschky (steve.paschky@saralon.com)
I recently read an insightful article on Nature about the challenges facing the scale-up of the Printed Electronics industry [1]. The article effectively highlights how disruptive technologies, like those in our industry, are reshaping the electronics landscape. While we often associate this sector with innovation, not every innovation is truly disruptive. Disruptive innovations fundamentally change industries, even society and lifestyle. PE innovations don’t just add value; they also revolutionize how electronics are produced, replacing traditional methods.
As a materials supplier for PE industry, Saralon GmbH has started with engaging into emerging markets that didn’t exist before. Some of our best-selling Saral Inks© with high demands from these markets include SaralBattery Inks and Stretchable Saral Inks © among many others. However, as disruptive innovations evolve and mature, the key challenge becomes aligning them with mainstream markets. This is where the concept of product-market fit becomes critical.
Saral Copper 200 is our latest generation of copper conductive ink designed with product-market fit in mind. While it has the potential to be used in conventional PCB manufacturing (thanks to its solderability), the primary market we are focusing on is smart labelling, smart packaging, and antenna technology at the core—specifically RFID and NFC tags and inlays.
Before diving into the details of Saral Copper 200, I’d like to briefly elaborate on why copper ink and how it addresses the gaps in current solutions in the mainstream antenna market.
1. Huge market potential
The smart labeling market is rapidly growing. In 2023, the global market for NFC and UHF tags was valued at 7 billion euros, and it’s projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 15%. Despite this growth, most RFID antennas are still made through unsustainable, subtractive etching process. IDTechEx says that only around 1.5% of antennas are produced by additive manufacturing processes. This highlights a significant opportunity for innovation in the Printed Electronics industry.
2. Additive printing vs. conventional subtractive electronics manufacturing
Etching, the dominant antenna production method, is unsustainable. It wastes materials and relies on corrosive chemicals. Additionally, this process can only produce high-volume standardized antennas. Printed Electronics offer a sustainable, additive manufacturing alternative that allow for the production of customized antenna tags and inlays. However, current printed electronics solutions rely on silver conductive inks, that brings up the challenge of cost.
3. Copper microparticle conductive ink to deal with the cost issue
While antennas including RFID inlays, NFC tags, etc. play a central role in smart labelling and retailing applications, cost has remained to be the key challenge for vast commercialization of Printed Electronics antennas. Up until today, printed antennas have primarily used costly silver-based materials making them less viable for large-scale adoption.
Due to the rising and volatile silver prices, Printed Electronics community recognizes the pressing need to develop conductive inks made of lower cost underlying materials. In addition to being more affordable, such an alternative must provide comparable conductivity while ensuring ambient stability over time, and easy processability using conventional printing technologies (i.e. screen printing).
Saral Copper 200 is a thermal curable copper microparticle based electrically conducting ink, suitable for paper and different plastic substrates. The ink is simply screen printable and thermally curable. Processed due to the instructions, a sheet resistance of 17 mΩ /sq/25 μm is easily accessible for printed and dried Saral Copper 200 with excellent ambient stability over time. In short, main advantages of Saral Copper 200 include:
Dramatically lower cost
Simply screen printable and hot air curable
Low sheet resistance and excellent ambient stability
Significantly lower carbon footprint compared to silver
Saral Copper 200 is the revolutionary solution for the Printed Electronics industry to overcome cost challenges, particularly in the high-volume markets of smart labelling and RFID antennas which are currently dominated by conventional electronics that depend on unsustainable etching methods. Saral Copper 200 allows for the additive manufacturing of smart labels directly near the end-use markets. This will significantly reduce both costs and emissions associated with long-distance transportation.
The demand for RFID tags and smart labeling is strong, the enthusiasm is present, and the opportunity is within reach. We’ve developed Saral Copper 200 with a product-market fit mindset to empower Printed Electronics industry in terms of cost effectiveness, performance, sustainability, and easy processability.
I am Speaking
Printed Electronics Innovation Day - 11 December 2024
This is a free-to-attend online conference and exhibition organized by TechBlick. It is co-located with TechBlick Display Innovation Day (online). We invite you to attend and listen to our talk.
