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54 PCB007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2025 Table 4: Liquid metal and MOD inks/pastes: Materials, use-case, and differentiation 2 Metal-organic Decompositions (MOD) Inks/Pastes e liquid metal inks and MOD inks/metal- lic conductive pastes are popular with newer additive processes for printed electronics. eir wide variety of materials and sources are seen in Table 1. e Ormet TLPS pastes have been around for a long time. I used them in the early 1990s, as did many other fabricators. ese conductive pastes were commonly used in Japan to develop HDI substrates with- out the need for electroplating. ere were many processes developed, but all have fallen by the wayside as laser-drilling and various xSAP and AP have become dominant. Newer HDI processes, like VeCS3, which are true 3D in structure, are gaining popularity, especially in Asia. e newer MOD metallizations have sev- eral advantages over older, traditional copper reduction chemistry: • Significant size and weight reduction com- pared to current processes • Improved reliability achieved through reduced layer count, microvias, and lami- nation cycles • Reduced costs, specifically for complex, high-performance substrates • Improved RF performance over traditional subtractive-etch processes • Biocompatibility advantages of utilizing gold as a conductive metal e ORMET-TLPS (OrmeLink) metallic paste has been used for the last 30 years to con- nect various multilayers to form HLC complex stackups. Newer Methods of Metallization Application Four of the newer methods, some still in devel- opment, are: laser ablation, direct printing, aerosol jet printing, and electrohydrodynamic