Frankfurt, Germany -- FUJIFILM Dimatix, the leading provider of industrial inkjet printheads, components and systems, introduced today its new Dimatix Materials Printer (DMP), the DMP-3000, at the Large-area, Organic & Printed Electronics Convention (LOPE-C).
 
The new FUJIFILM Dimatix DMP-3000 is a non-contact, fluid deposition system capable of jetting a wide range of functional fluids using multiple FUJIFILM Dimatix fluid deposition printheads interchangeably.
 
The new DMP-3000 joins the FUJIFILM Dimatix DMP-2800 printer introduced in 2005 of which more than 400 systems have been sold worldwide. The DMP-2800 is a bench-top system designed for micro-precision jetting a variety of functional fluids onto virtually any surface. It can build and define patterns over an area of 200 x 300 mm and substrates up to 25 mm thick. It employs single-use printhead cartridges that researchers can fill with their own fluid materials.
 
Expanding upon the DMP-2800, the new DMP-3000 features a larger printable area of 300 x 300 mm and maintains a positional accuracy and repeatability of ± 5 µm and ± 1 µm, respectively. The DMP-3000 uses a temperature controlled vacuum platen to accurately register, maintain and thermally manage substrates during printing. These substrates include plastic, glass, ceramics, and silicon, as well as flexible substrates from membranes, gels, and thin films to paper products. The printer includes an integrated drop visualization system that captures droplet formation images dynamically as droplet ejection parameters are adjusted to produce a tuned printhead and fluid combination. Also, sophisticated electronics allow the printhead to be calibrated on a per nozzle basis to compensate for any channel-to-channel variability. A second camera system allows substrate measurements and alignment, observations of fluid drying behavior, and droplet measurement and placement calculations.
 
"The DMP-3000 printer from FUJIFILM Dimatix delivers a high-precision inkjet printing system that is ideally suited to meet the needs of printed electronics research and development activities," stated Vivek Subramanian, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley. "By combining high accuracy motion control with the well-established quality, reliability, and scalability of Dimatix printheads in a compact, self-contained and easy to use unit, the DMP-3000 meets the needs of researchers in the area of printed electronics and related fields, and helps usher in the era of ubiquitous printed electronics."
 
Multiple FUJIFILM Dimatix printhead models including the 1 and 10 picoliter DMP Cartridge-based printheads and the SX3 and SE3 hybrid production-worthy printhead models are used interchangeably with the DMP-3000 printer.
 
The Dimatix Materials Cartridge is a snap-in replaceable printhead used with both DMP models and is available in 1 pL and 10 pL drop volumes. Based on FUJIFILM Dimatix’ proprietary silicon MEMS technology, the 16-jet Dimatix Materials Cartridge is designed for high-resolution, non-contact jetting of functional fluids in a broad range of applications. The industry-first 1 pL cartridge can deposit features as small as 20 μm (20 millionths of a meter) to fabricate products such as organic thin-film transistors (TFTs) and printed circuits.
 
The SX3 Printhead is a highly compact, high performance hybrid jetting assembly designed specifically for micro-fluid deposition. The SX3 delivers a precise 10 pL droplet size from 128 inline jets that can be individually tuned. A silicon nozzle plate with a non-wetting coating is compatible with the aggressive fluids used in electronics and other fabrication applications.
 
The SE3 Printhead similar to the SX3 is a compact, high performance hybrid jetting assembly designed for precise drop placement of a slightly larger drop. The SE3 delivers a 35 pL calibrated drop size through 128 inline jets that can be individually tuned. The silicon nozzle plate has a non-wetting coating and is compatible with the aggressive fluids used in electronics and other fabrication applications.
 
"The DMP-3000 printer from FUJIFILM Dimatix fills the gap between experimental research and production equipment by having many printhead options from a single nozzle ultra-small drop to high performance 128 channel printheads with drop volumes up to 35 picoliters with the required accuracy. Thus, the rapid transfer of new inks and printing processes from the fundamental (academic) level to new applications can be performed, leading to a significant increase in the use of inkjet for printing of functional materials," said Prof. Dr. Ulrich S. Schubert, Chairman of the Laboratory of Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry, Director of the Institute for Organic Chemistry and Macromolecular Chemistry and Spokesman of the Center of Excellence for Innovative Materials and Technologies at the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Germany.
 
Because FUJIFILM Dimatix cartridge printheads and high performance printheads can be used interchangeably within the same unit, scale-up from development to production can readily occur. This means that initial research, sample and process developments are translatable from the laboratory and can be used to specify prototype printing system design and development.
 
“The new DMP-3000 provides an increased printable area and higher stepping accuracy and repeatability,” said Dr. Ghassan E. Jabbour, Director of the Advanced Photovoltaics at Arizona State University, Director of Research-Optoelectronic Materials and Devices at the Flexible Display Center and Professor of the School of Materials at Arizona State University. “Also, having the flexibility to interchange printheads of varying drop sizes as needed is an important and unique advancement in this area.”
 
FUJIFILM Dimatix is demonstrating both the DMP-2800 and its new DMP-3000 on booth H17 at LOPE-C 2009. The show is being held June 23-25 in Frankfurt, Germany (www.lope-c.com).