NESS ZIONA, ISRAEL – There is increasing demand for in-house prototyping for research and product development, according to a recent Nano Dimension survey of printed circuit board designers and manufacturers, electrical engineers, OEMs and others interested in 3D-printed PCBs.

While more than 9 in 10 respondents said their companies rely on off-site prototyping facilities, nearly two in three said they believe their intellectual property is at risk when they do so. Many would like options for printing their own PCBs internally.

The interest is particularly keen among companies that spend as much or more than $100,000 each year for prototyping services, the firm says.

Of more than 975 respondents – representing 31 industries and disciplines and 25 countries – 70% spend up to $50,000 and 14% spend more than $50,000 each year on PCB prototyping. Additionally, 16% pay more than $100,000 to outsourced prototyping vendors annually.

Most respondents said prototyping costs were high because they require the fabrication of complex, multilayer PCBs, with 66% of those surveyed saying their designs involve multiple layers.

“Designers and engineers clearly want faster turnaround times and reduced risk when sending out their design files for prototyping,” said Simon Fried, Nano Dimension’s chief business officer and a company co-founder. “But with nearly all of the manufacturing houses located in Asia, timeliness is rarely an option. In fact, sometimes they end up with PCBs for production that are not optimized as much as they would like due to long lead times. And sending out designs always increases the odds that IP could be copied or stolen.”