Fujifilm Dimatix Inc., the leading provider of industrial inkjet printheads, components and systems, introduced its new D-128/1 DPN, a 1 pL drop volume printhead and companion D-128/10 DPN, a 10 pL model, for use with the Fujifilm Dimatix DMP-3000 printer, at the Large-area, Organic & Printed Electronics Convention (LOPE-C) here.

The new D-128 DPN printheads build upon the momentum and growing installed base of more than 500 Dimatix Materials Printers installed worldwide. These printers are used for an expanding range of materials deposition applications and developments. Both D-128 DPN printheads are designed to aid in the orderly progression from experimentation to scale up using the DMP-3000 printer.

The DMP-3000 is a non-contact, fluid deposition system capable of jetting a wide range of functional fluids using several options of Fujifilm Dimatix fluid deposition printheads interchangeably, including the new D-128/1 and D-128/10 DPN printheads. The DMP-3000 has a printable area of 300 x 300 mm and maintains a positional accuracy and repeatability of ± 5 µm and ± 1 µm, respectively.

D-Class printheads have been specifically designed for non-contact printing of functional fluids for applications such as displays, electronics and biotechnology. D-Class printheads are based on Fujifilm Dimatix’s proprietary silicon MEMS (Si-MEMS) technology and use robust silicon material. In addition to excellent piezoelectric properties, silicon is a desirable material with superb resistance to mechanical abrasion, tolerance to high temperatures, and excellent robustness to chemical attack.

The D-128/1 and D-128/10 DPN printheads share identical physical features for easy interchangeability. Both are further enhanced using driver per nozzle (DPN) capability, which allows compensating for any channel-to-channel variability. This trimming feature ensures drop volume uniformity, essential for dispensing applications or modifications to drop velocity for increased placement accuracy, critical for patterning applications especially when using very small drop sizes.

Developers of printable functional fluids and manufacturing development groups utilize D-Class printheads to take the next step from investigation of unique approaches for creating leading-edge technologies to production scale up and manufacturing of functional devices.

End-users can utilize the D-128/1 DPN printhead to manufacture products requiring precise feature definitions as small as 20 µm, such as silicon-based solar cells and other photovoltaic devices, small-size RFID antennae, organic thin-film transistors (TFTs) and printed circuits.

The D-128/1 DPN produces conductive lines and features that are virtually invisible or allow biomaterials to be printed at twice the previously achievable density in a true production mode, opening up new territory in the generation of specialized arrays in a manufacturing setting. The D-128/10 DPN with its larger drop size is used for coarser feature generation. Both printhead models are being demonstrated fully integrated with Dimatix Materials Printer DMP-3000 at LOPE-C.

In addition, Fujifilm Dimatix is also demonstrating its smaller DMP-2800. The DMP-2800 is a lab-top, self contained development system designed for precision jetting of functional fluids onto virtually any surface. The DMP-2800 printer system uses single-use, user-fillable 16-jet cartridges that researchers can fill with their own fluid materials to minimize waste of expensive fluid materials and reduce the cost and complexity associated with traditional product development and prototyping.

D-class printheads have a similar silicon MEMS structure as the industry leading Fujifilm Dimatix 16-nozzle cartridges used with the DMP-2800 and DMP-3000 printers. Fluids and processes developed with the Fujifilm Dimatix cartridges are now entirely scalable to the production-ready D-128 DPN printhead. With driver per nozzle feature, like the 16-nozzle cartridges, both D-128 DPN models are designed for the orderly progression from experimentation to fabrication.

Using either Dimatix Materials Printer, customers can easily test formulations and process conditions to evaluate the potential of inkjet printing as a manufacturing process and then 100% transfer the process into production using the appropriate D-128 DPN printhead.

“We are committed to providing tools to enable efficient manufacturing processes based on inkjet technology, and to continually enhance our technology in response to customer needs,” said Martin Schoeppler, CEO and president of FUJIFILM Dimatix Inc. “Our new 1 pL model printhead has the smallest drop volume in the industry for full production capability. It is one in a series of inkjet printheads specifically designed and manufactured to meet industry needs including photovoltaics, displays and printed circuits.”