SI2 Proprietary

SI2 Technologies, Inc.

Printed Electronics and Sensors

Presented to DoD Printed Electronics Workshop

June 3-4, 2014

ISO-9001:2008 Certified Quality Management System

SI2 Technologies, Inc.

267 Boston Road

N. Billerica, MA 01862

www.si2technologies.com

Joseph M. Kunze, Ph.D.

President and CEO

Erik S. Handy, Ph.D.

Principal Scientist

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SI2 Technologies, Inc.

• SI2 Technologies, Inc.

– Founded in 2003

– Small business in the metro-Boston area

• Design, development and manufacture of antennas, arrays, sensors and

absorbers for military air, land, sea and space applications

– RF apertures and sensors focused on SWAP-C constrained platforms

– Structural absorbers and honeycomb for aircraft applications

– Frequency Selective Surfaces (FSS) focused on flexible and conformal printed

products for radomes and sensor applications

• Contract R&D directly with multiple Government agencies

• Product revenues from multiple prime contractors

• Management and lean technical staff with diverse technical and business

backgrounds; supported by qualified vendors for specialty services and

contract manufacturing

SI2 provides responsive, innovative and affordable solutions

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SI2’s Additive Manufacturing Techniques

• Key attributes– Digital process

– Low temperature, ambient environment

• Enables manufacture of conformal and large area flexible electronics

– Printing of electronic materials onto composites, plastics, thin films and structural materials

– No etching or vacuum operations

• Same process from prototyping to production

Micropen Dispensing for

Printing onto Curved

Surfaces

Inkjet Roll-to-Roll System for

Manufacturing on Flexible Substrates

Direct Write (aka digital printing, additive

manufacturing) is the ability to “write” or

print electronics directly onto curved and

flexible substrates from a computer file

without tooling, masks, etc.

Printed

Substrate

Drying Oven

Direct Write

Inkjet Printer

Flexible

Substrate

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MATURE

SI2’s Digitally Printed Electronics Roadmap

Use of hybrid digital + conventional techniques

can shorten time to maturity

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Printed Coatings and Patterns

• Direct Write (digitally

printed) inkjet coatings are

mature

– E.g., SI2 absorber products

• Ability to print on a variety of

substrates

• Ability to mix and grade ink

types

• Additional material and

process modeling needed

– Predict system performance

from large number of

materials/process variables

• Continue development of

additional inks for specific

applications and markets

Carbon printed rolls of para-

aramid and glass/phenolic

(>10 miles printed to date)

Silver - Carbon 50/50 blend on

Rogers 4350 Dielectric

Carbon - Silver

nanoparticulate Inkjet filmsSample 010510-A, 120 Limit

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

1.00 1.20 1.40 1.60 1.80 2.00 2.20 2.40 2.60

Conductive ink to resistive ink mix ratio (unitless)

Avera

ge s

heet

resis

tan

ce (

OP

S)

Sample 010510-A, 120 Limit

Silver to carbon mix

ratio evaluation

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Printed Flexible Power Sources - Ultracapacitors

Supported by U.S. Army-ARDEC

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Conformally Printed Electronics – Helmet Sensors

Example: Blast Dosimeter integrated with military Advanced Combat Helmet– Lightweight, low-profile “hybrid” electronics (printed circuitry + conventional circuitry)

– Dosimeter detects conditions which might lead to traumatic brain injury (TBI) – pressure/accelerometry

– May also be applicable to protective gear for first-responders, athletes, etc.

Supported by DARPA

8Proprietary Use or disclosure of data contained on this sheet is subject to the restriction on title page of this document.

Low-Cost, Printable Brain Recording System

Project Tasks:

– Develop dry, printed EEG electrodes

– Demonstrate collection of research-

quality EEG data

– Demonstrate wireless relay of EEG

data to mobile device

– Demonstrate that $30 price target can

be reached

Future Business Models:

– Sale of printed EEG kits

– Web-based “foundry” (customizable

EEG kits)

– Sale of digital printers for desktop

EEG system production

Supported by DARPA

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Summary

• SI2 is developing printed electronics per its technology roadmap– Roll-to-roll printing of electronic materials coatings and patterns

– Recent: Wearable, unobtrusive sensors (brain monitoring)

– Current: Printed, flexible power supplies (ultracapacitors)

– Future: Printed switches, memory, low-power electronics

• Identified future printed electronics industry needs

• Potential materials and process development– Scalable, high resolution 2-D printing

– Integration of 2-D and 3-D printing

– Low-T-cure metallic inks

– Conductive inks based on silver alternatives

– Printable optical materials (low loss, high k, high/tunable n)

• Potential device packaging development– Ruggedization/harsh-environment packaging

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SI2 Technologies, Inc.

Thank You!

www.si2technologies.com