Sensor Films has been awarded a multimillion-dollar contract from NextFlex, America’s Flexible Hybrid Electronics Manufacturing Institute. Sensor Films, a manufacturer of large-format, multi-material inkjet deposition systems, solicited the grant in order to develop an inline prototype and production-scale system for delivering drop-on-demand deposition of functional inks with seamless integration of surface-mounted semiconductor components on flexible substrates, according to a release.
Sensor Films has been awarded a multimillion-dollar contract from NextFlex, America’s Flexible Hybrid Electronics Manufacturing Institute. Sensor Films, a manufacturer of large-format, multi-material inkjet deposition systems, solicited the grant in order to develop an inline prototype and production-scale system for delivering drop-on-demand deposition of functional inks with seamless integration of surface-mounted semiconductor components on flexible substrates, according to a release.
The award is part of a US Department of Defense-funded partnership with NextFlex to establish a Manufacturing Innovation Institute for Flexible Hybrid Electronics in San Jose, California. The contract amounts to $75 million in federal funding over 5 years in addition to nearly $100 million in cost sharing from a number of non-federal sources, the release continues.
Sensor Films will work in tandem with NovaCentrix and Universal Instruments to develop the SFI Starlight FHE 3000 Digital Manufacturing System. President Peter Hessney says the system “will be the first platform to provide digital drop-on-demand deposition of functional electronic materials on cut-sheet substrates and incorporate inline photonic curing and seamless integration of surface-mounted components.” The goal for end use is rapid prototyping and economic short-run production of flexible hybrid electronic devices, he adds.
“Flexible Hybrid Electronics has the potential to reshape the world we live in, from the electronic wearable devices to medical health monitoring to the ubiquitous sensing of the world around us – often referred to as the Internet of Things,” says Jason Marsh, NextFlex director of technology.