When you think of printing flexible and hybrid electronics, the first thought goes to screenprinting, as that remains the most used printing technique, with inkjet printing also becoming more common.

Then there is 3D printing/additive manufacturing, which is perhaps one of the greatest possibilities for printed electronics. Much like inkjet, additive manufacturing allows the user to place the material exactly where it is needed while dramatically speeding up the production process. This makes it ideal for prototyping.

Voltera is one of the leaders in the area of additive manufacturing for printed electronics. A specialist in direct-ink write printers for electronics projects, Voltera introduced its V-One system in 2015. The V-One dispenses solder paste, conductive ink and reflowing components. This dramatically reduced prototyping time for PCBs to days or even hours, and was a huge success.

Now, Voltera has released its NOVA platform, an innovative benchtop machine that allows the user to print flexible, soft, and stretchable electronics. NOVA gives users the capability to rapidly prototype at their desk and in their labs, and the extrusion technology is capable of extremely fine, precise, high resolution prints.

Matt Ewertowski, product manager at Voltera, noted that Voltera was founded in 2013 with a mission to create products that drive change in the additive electronics industry, and NOVA is a natural extension for the company.

“Our first product, the V-One desktop PCB printer, was one of the first direct-ink write printers for traditional, rigid electronics,” Ewertowski noted. “We wanted to develop a multi-functional tool that brought rapid prototyping to electronics, giving product developers and educators the means to print traces with conductive ink, dispense solder paste, and reflow components right at their desks.

Ewertowski observed that the need for rapid prototyping has grown dramatically due to supply chain concerns.

“Over the last few years, as supply chain issues plagued the electronics industry and lead times got longer for overseas PCBA, we saw an influx in interest from product developers looking for a rapid prototyping solution like the V-One,” said Ewertowski. “Earlier this month, Voltera released NOVA, the world’s first direct-write printer designed for creating soft, stretchable, flexible, and conformable electronics. NOVA enables users to print anything from on-skin biomedical sensors to clothing that can measure your heart rate (yet go through the gentle cycle in your washing machine).”

“One of the driving factors behind NOVA was creating a machine that bridges the gap between what we can do and what we wish we could do with electronics,” he added. “NOVA is a first-of-its-kind platform that provides users with the freedom and ability to experiment with screen-printable materials and an almost limitless number of substrates.”

Ewertowski pointed out that Voltera makes tools for every electronics project.

“The V-One enables product developers to design innovative solutions for traditional circuit boards and helps students learn the fundamentals of electronics,” he noted. “NOVA provides a solution for researchers and academics who are exploring the materials and methods of the future — from flexible to in-mold electronics and everything in between. Voltera enables iteration and innovation — quickly — on the desks and in the labs of organizations all over the globe.”

Product design for NOVA began in 2019 and continued into the early part of 2020, and Voltera bet on themselves and added people during the pandemic to see the project through to commercialization.

“Voltera was still a relatively small, single product startup at that time,” Ewertowski said. “As our aspirations for NOVA grew, so did our team. We knew how significantly a platform like NOVA could disrupt the flexible hybrid electronics industry, so we invested in ourselves and, despite the pandemic, our team doubled in size between 2020 and 2021. This positioned us to bring NOVA — and future Voltera products — to market faster.”

Ewertowski pointed to a number of key advantages of NOVA, starting with NOVA’s ability to make additive electronics accessible by letting the user print any screen-printable material onto nearly any substrate, without needing a materials science PhD.

“The semi-automated calibration routine can take anywhere between a few minutes to a few hours to complete. That means it no longer takes months to dial-in print settings, letting you focus on creating high-resolution prints with a variety of new materials,” he observed.

“The Vacuum Table and custom fixturing elements allow you to directly print onto soft, flexible, 3D printed, and unevenly shaped materials. The Vacuum Table is made from porous titanium, applying uniform airflow to substrates like PET and TPU. The Vacuum Table can be removed for rigid substrates like glass, or traditional FR4 boards, which are held in place with the custom fixturing elements.”

NOVA uses a Smart Dispenser to sense the pressure, temperature and viscosity of any ink or screen-printable material inside it.

“Basically, NOVA is so precise, you can print anything on everything,” said Ewertowski. “An intelligent integrated vision system allows you to align and inspect prints quickly using an onboard camera with an AR print overlay. Built to be modular, NOVA grows with you and for you. Two modules — the Smart Dispenser and Smart Probe — are included with the base platform at launch, with additional modules on the product roadmap.”

Ewertowski reported that Voltera is receiving excellent feedback regarding NOVA.

“There was an immediate surge of traffic to our website after NOVA launched on October 4,” he said. “Orders have been coming in steadily from universities, research institutes, and even consumer electronics companies with R&D departments.

“Customers who are working in the materials science space really appreciate the ease of the material calibration process,” Ewertowski continued. “Because of the novel technology built into the Smart Dispenser, ink calibration is taking drastically less time. Our slogan for NOVA is ‘print anything on everything’ because you really can load any screen-printable ink into NOVA and print on just about any substrate. Whether you use the vacuum table or the custom fixturing, the days of hacking or fumbling over ways to secure flexible substrates are gone. NOVA allows its users to get to proof of concept faster.

“Furthermore, our customers who are prototyping consumer-facing products love NOVA because it’s highly scalable and simple to transition to screen-printed mass manufacturing methods, by leveraging the same material set in the R&D phase as you will use in mass production,” he added.

Ultimately, Ewertowski said that Voltera believes that technology shouldn’t be a limiting factor in bringing ideas to life, and with NOVA, it isn’t.

“Researchers in academic institutions around the world — like MIT, Western University, and York University — are using NOVA to experiment with new materials and methods in fields like biomedical technology, aeronautics, wearables, and more,” said Ewertowski. “Industry leaders and electronics companies — like smartphone manufacturers, sportswear companies, and national space agencies — are using NOVA to build the future, from exploring deep space to designing the consumer electronics of tomorrow.”