Cost Analysis of Electronics Manufacturing With Inkjet Technology

Electronics manufacturing industry is about to go through a major change in the near future. Currently used manufacturing methods will be giving a way to the novel, more flexible manufacturing technologies to achieve more cost-effective production and totally different approach to electronics manufacturing. Direct material depositing techniques, such as inkjet-printing, will provide interesting future aspects in the field of electronics manufacturing. Fast modifications and user-specific product tailoring will make the technology flexible and economically viable.

It has been estimated that the market of printable electronics will exceed the current semiconductor market in next two decades. (Mansikkamäki et al. 2007, Das 2007) One of the most promising future electronics manufacturing technologies is additive technology, inkjet-printing in particular. The non-contact, fully additive direct-writing method provides very cost-effective approach to electronics manufacturing and will change the whole manufacturing philosophy in the system level. Inkjet-printing will allow fast and effective product design and volume changes due to its digital nature.

The printable materials are made from functional nanomaterials which are used to achieve conductive, isolative or other functional properties. The substrates used can also vary from conventional rigid plates to flexible polymer films, providing the totally new applications e.g. in the field of low-cost electronics. (Mäntysalo et al. 2007)

Currently, one of the biggest bottlenecks of electronics manufacturing is the subtractive manufacturing process. It is time-consuming process including very large amount of environmentally hazardous chemicals, but since the PCB is the body component for almost every today’s electronic device, it cannot be left out from the manufacturing process. Inkjet-printing can be used as a substitutive process to form electrical connections, isolations and mechanical structure to achieve the desired functionality. It will also enable novel architectures and system integration possibilities.

This technique will combine traditional electronics manufacturing methods and novel techniques to achieve the operational electronic entity in the fully additive way. (Coombs 2001) The absence of the subtractive processes will alter the whole structure of electronics manufacturing. The conventional manufacturing process, including paste printing, chip-shooting and reflow phases, will give way to new approach including few steps from traditional processes and lots of new ones. The whole value network will undergo a major change when the share of the material costs is in much bigger part of the whole manufacturing costs.

This study will introduce the methods for cost analysis of the novel electronics manufacturing technologies. Comparison between currently used mainstream methods and emerging novel additive techniques is presented and the cost-effectiveness of the inkjet-technology is proven via the technology demonstrator. The cost formation structures are brought out and discussed based on the research done in the Tampere University of Technology.

References:

Das, Raghu. 2007. “Organic & Printed Electronics Forecasts, Players & Opportunities 200-2007”. UK, IDtechEx, Summary. Referred 11.10.2007. Available at: http://www.idtechex.com/pdfs/en/U3021T7639.pdf

Mansikkamäki, P., Mäntysalo M., Kivikoski, M., Pienimaa, S., Paajanen, R. ”Industry-Academy Research Framework on Electronics Hardware Innovations”, accepted to be published at Journal of Systemics Cybernetics and Informatics.

Mäntysalo, M., Mansikkamäki, P., Miettinen, J., Kaija, K., Pienimaa, S., Rönkkä, R., Hashizume, K., Kamigori, A., Matsuba, Y., Oyama, K., Terada, N., Saito, H., Kuchiki, M., Tsubouchi, M. ”Evaluation of Inkjet Technology for Electronic Packaging and System Integration”, Published at 57th Electronic Components and Technology Conference (ECTC) in Reno, Nevada USA, May 29-June 1, 2007.

Coombs, Clyde F. Jr. 2001. “Printed Circuits Handbook”. Fifth edition. New York, McGraw-Hill. 1200 p.