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46 PCB007 MAGAZINE I JANUARY 2022 tion heads, algorithms, and controls. While the traditional industrial inkjet printer heads have trace size limitation estimated to be around 40 microns, technology is already under develop- ment that will enable micron-size trace width. is can be compared to the evolution of opti- cal lithography in the semiconductor manu- facturing industry. Some equipment includes pick-and-place for components. Schleicher: From my point of view, as described by Jaim, there are several ways to produce AME. e Dragonfly from Nano Dimension is a very important example here. But there are also other manufacturers who can pro- duce additively manufactured electronics with other processes and equipment. e advan- tage of the inkjet process is the parallel oper- ation of several nozzles per print head and the parallel operation of several print heads in one machine. But it should not be forgotten that additive manufacturing techniques can also be applied to other parts of electronics production. At SEMIKRON, we print silver sinter paste (func- tional fluid) using the inkjet process (drop on demand). Another example in printed circuit boards is solder resist, which is already printed in several layers on the base material or the copper printing tracks using the inkjet process. ere is also research in Germany in func- tionalization of surfaces on 2D or 3D shapes. Here, metal is printed onto the surface using inkjet processes and cured by using LED lasers arrays. us, for example, the application of a gold surface in the plugging area of printed circuit boards (or other applications) could be carried out without an electroplating process. As indicated, it is important not to describe the term and technology too narrowly. Devel- opment here is still relatively in its infancy. I think when we look back in about 10 years, it will be considerably easier to see what was right. Johnson: How does AME improve fabrication tolerances? Nulman: AME improves fabrication tolerances in X, Y, and Z directions. In all these directions the mechanical movement of the equipment in the process stage and the motion of the mate- rial sources is in the micron range. Simulta- neously, the materials are deposited layer by layer to micron accuracy. Hence, the toler- ances in AME are much tighter than in tradi- tional PCB fabrication. As an example, landing pads for vias can be eliminated, thus increasing the trace density. Schleicher: ank you for the question. I always have to smile a little here. Nowadays, we are used to asking about the details, where improvements occur, and where it is better than the current state of the art. e important message is that the technology allows "den- sification" of electronics in the same package space. Furthermore, a simplification in the wiring is made by omitting the different pro- cess and procedure steps. By manufacturing the entire circuit carrier within one process, the tolerances will be reduced. I would like to give an additional answer with a small example. Our 12-year-old son Michael Schleicher