Orbotech Inkjet Marketing Managers, Guy Alon and Ron Ellenbogen, answer a few questions posed by PCB007 about the status and latest advancements in inkjet technology

PCB007: Inkjet printing technology has advantages for PCB production. What have been the challenges in bringing a stable, proven solution to the market until now?

Orbotech: Although almost everyone has an inkjet printer on their desk, printing legend inks on circuit boards presents an entirely different set of challenges from those of the routine deposition of water-based inks on absorbent paper. It's not as easy as it might at first have appeared. The challenge has been to achieve accuracy in image placement while maintaining tight registration, managing the flow of heavily-pigmented, high viscosity inks through industrial piezo electric print heads, controlling the interaction of ink with substrate, whilst achieving good adhesion, hardness, color consistency and overall quality.


Orbotech's Sprint-8 Inkjet printer.

PCB007: Can inkjet now be considered a mature, production technology?

Orbotech: Yes, much has changed recently in the progress of inkjet technology for PCB applications. Inkjet suppliers have learned from their, and others', experiences, new print head technologies are now available, there is a greater variety of inks and new, more robust system designs have all helped to advance inkjet performance for PCB production.

It takes a high level of commitment and competence to sustain inkjet activities. At this time, it can be said that inkjet for PCB has reached a mature status and there now exists a new generation of reliable and production-ready systems. Strong performance and justification for quick-turn applications is well-proven now in terms of material and cycle time savings. Inkjet is also making its mark as an enabling solution for advanced PCB production where the miniaturization of legend characters makes traditional screening with accurate registration and acceptable yields nearly impossible. As inkjet technology continues to rapidly develop, its widespread utilization in volume production will also be fully realized.

PCB007: In real terms, what are the benefits of inkjet over traditional screen printing?

Orbotech: An Inkjet printer eliminates the need for stencils. This results in significant savings in stencil preparation (time, money and skilled manpower). It also eliminates the need for the tedious scaling and alignment required with screen printing, resulting in higher yields. Further, it enables the printing of even the most challenging jobs (small characters) with tight registration on advanced applications that is not possible with conventional screening techniques.