Dave Savastano05.19.11
NovaCentrix announced that the PulseForge processing tools were awarded the prestigious 2011 Frost & Sullivan North American Technology Innovation Award for Advanced Curing Systems for Printed Electronics. NovaCentrix director of engineering Dr. Steve McCool accepted the award on behalf of the company at the 2011 Excellence in Best Practices Awards Banquet held recently at Marco Island Marriott Resort and Spa in Florida.
In the award notification, Frost & Sullivan observed “PulseForge tools can help facilitate a new generation of flexible electronics by expanding acceptable substrates and lowering overall costs.“ PulseForge tools use the Photonic Curing process to heat thin films on low temperature substrates using novel flash lamp and power supply technology to deliver continuously adjustable, megawatt intensity, microsecond resolution pulses of broad-spectrum light. Unlike traditional oven technologies, the transient nature of the patented process heats thin films to a high temperature on low-temperature substrates, such as polymers, without causing damage. By adjusting the pulse attributes using the touch-screen interface, temperature profiles in the film and substrate can be closely controlled and optimized for drying, sintering, annealing, and modulating chemical reactions in thin films to achieve high-performance properties at high-speed roll-to-roll processing rates.
“NovaCentrix was the first entity to demonstrate the sintering of nanoparticle copper inks in open air with a flash-lamp and has the seminal patent on doing so”, the notification continued. Additionally, research analyst Sunanda Jayanth commented, “Customers prefer the company’s solutions since they either require a faster process that improves their throughput, higher performance, or manufacture entirely new products that cannot be produced by other technologies.”
In the award notification, Frost & Sullivan observed “PulseForge tools can help facilitate a new generation of flexible electronics by expanding acceptable substrates and lowering overall costs.“ PulseForge tools use the Photonic Curing process to heat thin films on low temperature substrates using novel flash lamp and power supply technology to deliver continuously adjustable, megawatt intensity, microsecond resolution pulses of broad-spectrum light. Unlike traditional oven technologies, the transient nature of the patented process heats thin films to a high temperature on low-temperature substrates, such as polymers, without causing damage. By adjusting the pulse attributes using the touch-screen interface, temperature profiles in the film and substrate can be closely controlled and optimized for drying, sintering, annealing, and modulating chemical reactions in thin films to achieve high-performance properties at high-speed roll-to-roll processing rates.
“NovaCentrix was the first entity to demonstrate the sintering of nanoparticle copper inks in open air with a flash-lamp and has the seminal patent on doing so”, the notification continued. Additionally, research analyst Sunanda Jayanth commented, “Customers prefer the company’s solutions since they either require a faster process that improves their throughput, higher performance, or manufacture entirely new products that cannot be produced by other technologies.”