Technology Discriminators

Applications for APT's Focussed Field Deposition (FFD) cut across broad sectors of the world economy, producing conductors and circuits whose designs and functions are inconceivable with conventional processes – at any price. Where functionalities have been constrained by substrate, size, weight, adhesion, conductivity, integration, manufacturability, environmental considerations or cost, APT's technologies enable them.

Compared with other processes for producing conductors, e.g., wires, etching, stamping, conductive or sintered inks, vapour deposition, etc...

  • Up to 80% lower cost and weight per unit of conductor production = lower costs → competitive advantage.

  • Environmentally benign: >90% less waste than conventional methods of producing conductors with <50% of the energy.

  • Discrete fixed diameter wires, cables and harnesses are heavy and cumbersome, with specialist labour intensive assembly and customisation and/or changes particularly risky, time consuming and expensive. FFD produces lightweight compact 'printed' conductors where customization and/or changes are predictable, risk free, quick and inexpensive.

  • Produces complex, virtually unlimited length, low cost, high performance conductive planar structures requiring no lamination.

  • With feedback up to ten times every millisecond, FFD maintains tightly controlled deposition, the greater of ± 2% of nominal or 250nm.

  • Conventional  slow electroplating requires a bath and is substrate constrained.
    FFD:  No bath.  Virtually substrate neutral.  For RFID/NFC, the process supports the realization of electroplated antennas, using carbon seed, inclusive of any IC, directly on paper as specified.

  • Etching is done on petroleum based PET. It is slow, wasteful and environmentally irresponsible.
    FFD is high speed and fully additive (with rising global commodity prices, depositing only the amount needed).

  • Conventional  processes: Complex, multi-process mask and photo-lithography based, labour intensive, time consuming, costly.
    FFD: Additively produces conductors and patterns on-demand direct from computer CAD files; testing in real time, economical.

  • Conventional processes: Require costly anisotropic conductive adhesives with greater ohmic contact resistance.
    FFD: Connection directly to the pads of single-crystal CMOS and evolving printed ICs and sensors is via molecular bond for maximum robustness and conductivity.

  • In development and at prototype:  Direct Write system to electrodeposit copper conductors/circuits onto and conforming to 3-D surfaces (no separate substrate), and repairs, in-situ, reducing cost and weight.