DALLAS — CalcuQuote, a supply chain solution provider for the electronics industry, will exhibit at the 2023 IPC APEX EXPO, scheduled to take place Jan. 24-26, 2023 at the San Diego Convention Center in California. The CalcuQuote team looks forward to meeting with customers in person in Booth #1217 to discuss how digital engagement can improve business processes.

CalcuQuote works with OEMs and EMS companies to solve complex problems with industry-leading solutions. The company optimizes the supply chain process by enabling customers to make more informed decisions, work faster, be more accurate, and ultimately, be more competitive. CalcuQuote’s investment in machine learning is helping to bring clarity to disjointed part numbering across the industry.

Additionally, CalcuQuote and IPC are raising awareness surrounding the quantity of excess components in disuse presently. Seeking to alleviating supply chain constraints across the electronics industry, they are sharing information on StockCQ at the EMS Leadership Summit. StockCQ is an online component marketplace built exclusively for OEM and EMS companies to trade components. The solution was created based on the feedback of OEM and EMS companies who wanted to offload their excess while making use of excess stock of their neighbors. StockCQ participation is limited to OEM and EMS companies. CalcuQuote CEO, Chintan Sutaria, will also be a panelist in the IPC EMS Leadeship Summit, speaking on the topic of “Supply Chain Outlook Today and Near Term.”

CalcuQuote’s software solutions offer seamless integration with supply chain partners, ERPs and other information systems. To learn more about CalcuQuote, visit www.calcuquote.com

NASHVILLE — KYZEN, the global leader in innovative environmentally friendly cleaning chemistries, will exhibit at the 2023 IPC APEX EXPO, scheduled to take place Jan. 24-26, 2023 at the San Diego Convention Center in California. Visit KYZEN in Booth #1545 for answers regarding electronics cleaning challenges. Cleaning experts will be in the booth to provide a total cleaning solution.

KYZEN will be highlighting their award-winning combination of chemistry and process control. For more than 30 years, KYZEN's focus has been to look at the complete process and work with them to improve that process. Their aim is to ultimately increase yields, advance reliability and help to realize cost savings along the way. KYZEN’s newest aqueous cleaning chemistry, AQUANOX A4626 paired with the KYZEN PCS accomplishes that goal.

A4626 is easy-to-use and control, environmentally friendly, and has a long tank life that makes it safe for multi-pass applications. The KYZEN PCS has been an essential part of KYZEN’s success since its introduction over 20 years ago. With over 200 units installed around the world, and several original units still in service.

Using AQUANOX A4626 with the KYZEN Process Control System (PCS) to monitor and automatically react to the dynamic changes in the wash bath concentration completes the process. AQUANOX A4626 paired with the PCS is the perfect combination – Chemistry and Control are hard at work.

To keep up with all the latest news regarding KYZEN at the IPC APEX EXPO and more, visit https://www.kyzen.com/about-kyzen/events/

EINDHOVEN, NETHERLANDS — EFFECT Photonics, a leading developer of highly integrated optical solutions, announced today that it has selected Fabrinet (NYSE: FN) as its manufacturing partner for its integrated optical sub-assemblies.

Fabrinet is a global leader in high-precision optical, electronic and mechanical manufacturing services, and a proven partner for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) worldwide. As a manufacturing partner, Fabrinet will perform sourcing, procurement, assembly, test, and calibration of EFFECT Photonics’ integrated optical sub-assemblies.

Increased optical bandwidth is needed more than ever before due to a wide range of cloud and cloud edge applications and the increased access speeds enabled by 5G and beyond. Photonics are ideally suited to serve this need, but production currently plays an important role in bringing integrated optics technology to the masses. By leveraging Fabrinet’s leadership in electro-optical and electronics manufacturing, EFFECT Photonics can adapt and scale its integrated optical solutions to meet ever-changing market demands and high-volume requirements.

“Fabrinet is recognized worldwide for its best-in-class expertise in the field of optical product manufacturing and its ability to support the most demanding markets, technologies, and business models,” said Roberto Marcoccia, CEO, EFFECT Photonics. “By leveraging their proven capabilities and longstanding manufacturing prowess, EFFECT Photonics is able to offer our customers increased supply, reliability, efficiency and cost-effectiveness.”

“We are pleased to have been selected by EFFECT Photonics as their manufacturing partner to provide production at scale for their optical subassemblies,” said Edward Archer, Executive Vice President Sales & Marketing at Fabrinet. “As a leader in advanced optical packaging and precision manufacturing for complex devices, we are well positioned to support EFFECT Photonics in achieving their business goals.”

CAMBRIDGE, UK — How can advanced functional materials such as conductive inks be developed more quickly? Anyone who has spent time in a laboratory knows that material development can be a laborious process. By utilizing an AI platform to optimize experimental parameter selection and reduce the number of iterative steps, materials informatics promises much more efficient material development pathways.

In a recent press release, particle-free conductive ink company Electroninks announced a partnership with material informatics company Citrine to develop a new conductive ink with reduced resistivity (3.2 µohm cm-1) and curing temperature (80°C). This is a more desirable set of properties than existing materials and should facilitate adoption for printed electronics and especially electromagnetic (EMI) shielding. The collaboration clearly illustrates the benefits that material informatics (MI) can provide to expedite improvements in the properties of pre-existing materials with clear industrial applications.

What Is Particle Free Conductive Ink?

Conductive inks are a longstanding technology that underpins printed electronics. Conventional conductive inks comprise micron-scale metal flakes suspended in a solvent with polymeric binders and are widely used in applications ranging from solar panel busbars to printed/flexible sensors.

In contrast, as the name suggests, particle-free conductive inks do not contain any metal particles. Instead, a transparent solution of solvated metal salt is chemically converted in situ to produce a metal. The chemical reaction is induced by heat, light, or plasma, resulting in a smooth conductive metal layer. This particle approach brings three main advantages: high conductivity, low viscosity, and a smooth surface.

What Is Materials Informatics?

Material informatics describes the utilization of data-driven methods, including machine learning, in materials R&D. It can help design new materials or select the right material for a given application, optimize material processing, and more. While this can take various forms, including literature/patent analysis and sourcing data via computational chemistry, one approach (and that used to develop particle-free inks) is to facilitate experimental design and parameter selection via supervised learning algorithms.

MI can accelerate the 'forward' direction of innovation (properties are realized for an input material), but the idealized solution is to enable the 'inverse' direction (materials are designed given desired properties). If integrated correctly, MI will become a set of enabling technologies accelerating scientists' R&D processes while making use of their domain expertise.

Compelling Advantages

Particle-free inks typically have higher conductivities than their more conventional particle-based counterparts. Since the metal is formed in situ, and the proportion of binder materials can be very low, conductivity can be as high as 80% of the bulk metal. This, of course, means that less ink can be used, with the additional benefit of there being less solvent to evaporate away during curing.

The low viscosity of particle-free conductive inks reduces the risk of nozzle clogging, making them ideally suited to aerosol and electrohydrodynamic (EHD) printing. Both of these techniques have nozzles with very small apertures and are capable of printing at lines as thin as 10 and 1 um, respectively. Depositing lines this narrow enables printed electronics to compete with subtractive methods such as photolithography and thus be used for semiconductor packaging.

Additionally, the smooth surface produced by particle-free conductive inks makes them highly desirable for radio frequency (RF) applications since, as signal frequency increases, surface roughness rather than bulk conductivity increasingly dominates impedance.

Key Questions Answered

If you would like to learn more about the opportunities enabled by the many types of conductive inks and material informatics, IDTechEx offers comprehensive and recently updated market research reports on both fields. These draw on company interviews and conference attendance to provide market forecasts, technology analysis, player profiles, investment details, roadmaps, company lists, and more, giving a clear picture of the technological and commercial landscape. To find out more about IDTechEx's technical and commercial analysis across a wide range of emerging technologies, please contact research@IDTechEx.com