Ink-Jet Technology for Manufacturing and Instrument Applications Paper ID : 223 (Page 1 / 5) Main topic : Process -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Vaporizer (Heater) Air Flow Sensor Under Test Fluid Drops Heated Wall Jet Figure 1: VaporJet™ schematic Ink-Jet Technology for Manufacturing & Instrument Applications David Wallace, Patrick Cooley, Bogdan Antohe, Don Hayes, Ting Chen MicroFab Technologies, Inc. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Abstract In the last decade ink-jet printing technology has come to be viewed as a precision microdispens- ing tool. Today, this tool is being used in a wide range of manufacturing and instrument applica- tions. Manufacturing applications include electrical (solders & nanometal conductors) & optical (mi- crolenses & waveguides) interconnects; sensors (polymers & biologicals); medical diagnostic tests (DNA, proteins, cells); drug delivery (micro- spheres, patches, stents); scaffolds for tissue engi- neering; nanostructure materials deposition; and MEMS (Micro-Electrical-Mechanical) devices and packaging. Instrument applications using ink-jet technology have received less notice than manufac- turing applications, but represent a growing class. Applications include protein identification (peptide mass fingerprinting, ion mass spectrometry tissue imaging) and structure analysis (protein crystalli- zation); laser surgery and machining; medical diagnostic instruments; extreme ultra-violet (EUV) radiation generation; and explosive detector cali- bration. This paper illustrates some of the manufac- turing and instrument applications of ink-jet tech- nology. Keywords : ink-jet, microdispensing, printing, mi- cro-optics, manufacturing, instruments I- Introduction Historically, the use of ink-jet technology has been divided into two distinct printing markets. The older of the two, commonly referred to as industrial ink-jet printing, began with the use of continuous mode ink-jet technology to print mailing labels and personalize magazines; data onto shipping cartons; and date and lot codes onto pharmaceuticals, beve- rages, and other human consumable items. Demand mode ink-jet was eventually adopted in this market and applications expanded to marking wire, metal products, auto parts, counterfeit protection, or just about anything that is manufactured and shipped. Today’s “factory floor” applications of ink-jet tech- nology, such as display, medical diagnostic, and electronics manufacturing, have many similarities to the industrial ink-jet market and can be viewed as a natural outgrowth or evolution of this market, in many cases using the same printing hardware. Application of ink-jet for manufacturing a broad range of products has expanded tremendously in the last ten years, to the point that equipment is under development or in production on six continents. Office ink-jet printers serve a distinctly differ- ent market from industrial ink-jet printers and thus there is little overlap in the printing hardware used to serve these two markets. Instrument applications of ink-jet technology are more analogous to the office printer market and represent a smaller but growing field of use for ink-jet technology. II- Calibrators for Vapor Detection The need to detect very low levels of chemical and biological agents, drugs, and explosives has become a priority for governments worldwide. 1 However, the lack of an accurate and repeatable calibration source has held back both development and deployment of detection systems. Ink-jet can be used to fill this need by its ability to delivery very minute quantities of very dilute solutions of explo- sives (or drugs or chemicals) which are rapidly vaporized by a miniature, low power heater. 2 Figure 1 shows a schematic of a VaporJet™ system, Fig- 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 Amount of TNT dispensed [femtograms] Detector response 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Number of drops Detector response Number of drops Figure 2: Detector response to VaporJet™ input Proceedings MME 09 September 20-22, 2009, Toulouse