Intrinsiq Materials Launches Innovative Inkjet Printable Copper Ink

With immediate availability, Intrinsiq Materials announces the launch of Intrinsiq CI, a stable, cost effective 12wt% copper ink formulation designed for photonic curing at room temperature in air.

The ink is the first product in a range of ink formulations for use with industry standard commercial inkjet systems on a variety of substrates including paper, polyimide and FR4, producing conductivities typically comparable to commercial silver inks with significantly higher metal loadings.

Pack sizes ranging from 50ml upwards are available directly from Intrinsiq Materials, Farnborough.

“There has already been substantial early interest in the ink, with numerous end users already assessing trial quantities in a wide range of applications, including military, aerospace, RFID, PV metallization, printed circuit boards and packaging,” Ian Clark, sales and marketing director, said. “The potential for using low cost copper with high speed industry standard inkjet printing and low cost photonic curing is a highly attractive combination.’’

Larger production quantities will be available from mid-2010 as production scaling is implemented. Intrinsiq’s COO, Richard Dixon, will oversee the process.

“Intrinsiq’s strength here is our proprietary plasma production system which gives us the ability to design, manufacture and functionalize the nanoparticles together with our expertise in dispersion and ink formulation – control over all the production steps is key,” Dixon said.

Intrinsiq’s technical team is on hand to answer queries relating to the printing and photonic curing of the new ink. Custom ink formulations are also possible and functionalized nanoparticles are available for customers who wish to formulate their own inks. Intrinsiq CI is the first in a range of inkjet printable inks with additional inks under development that will see the launch of nanoparticle silicon, nickel and aluminium formulations in 2010.