Andreas Frölich, CEO, Horizon Microtechnologies
Germany company Horizon Microtechnologies (Horizon) is a specialist in template-based 3D microfabrication, a post-printing technology that allows new areas of industry to benefit from the power, flexibility, agility and design freedom of additive micromanufacturing.
In recent years, additive manufacturing (AM) technologies have developed into cost-effective, relatively quick and highly precise production technologies that can build to micron level tolerances and do so repeatably. However, the materials that can be processed by the various additive micromanufacturing technologies available today are almost exclusively polymers, and as such, manufacturers looking to embrace the power of additive micromanufacturing but requiring conductive or environmentally resistant microparts have been left frustrated. Horizon developed its template-based 3D microfabrication technology to bridge this gap.
The company’s technology is a suite of processes that add material and functionality to a microstructure (the template). These processes work with a range of template materials and nearly independently of the template’s shape. Hence, they are especially suited as a post- treatment for additively micromanufactured templates.
There is no doubt that AM and additive micromanufacturing have disrupted the ways in which various sectors produce end-use parts for an array of applications. The dawn of ultra-precise additive micromanufacturing technologies recently opened up the advantages of AM for micromanufacturers; and Horizon’s microfabrication technology increases again the number of areas in which AM can have a positive influence. Using additive micromanufacturing can, in many instances, be cheaper and quicker than using conventional manufacturing processes, and stimulate design freedom, allowing the production of geometrically complex parts hitherto impossible.
Template-based 3D microfabrication enables conductivity and environmental resistance to be added to additively micromanufactured parts, properties of particular interest to manufacturers of electrodes and electrical connectors, 3D microfluidic devices, and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and optics packaging.
Conductivity is also a necessary property for parts that cannot be allowed to exhibit static discharge. This is important, for example, in the automated assembly of optoelectronic components, such as bare laser diodes, where it is necessary to handle components that are small, mechanically delicate, static-discharge sensitive and have several no-touch areas. This calls for a component-specific gripper (end-effector), combining tight mechanical tolerances and freely placeable internal channels for vacuum on one hand and sufficient conductivity to prevent any build-up of static electricity on the other. Polymer additive micromanufacturing delivers the tight mechanical tolerances and freely placeable internal channels, and Horizon’s template-based 3D microfabrication process introduces the necessary conductivity.
A polymer, additively manufactured integrated circuit (IC) socket. Polymer additive micromanufacturing has made it possible to produce parts requiring tight tolerances, in customised design variations, such as the central freeform wire, and at economically attractive throughput. Horizon Technologies (Horizon) has developed template-based 3D microfabrication to introduce beyond-polymer properties such as conductivity to such parts.
In the case of environmental resistance, additively micro manufactured templates can be coated in, for example, metal-oxides, allowing parts to withstand aggressive chemicals and, in some cases, have increased tolerance of high temperatures and mechanical stresses.
Horizon works with its customers as a product development partner, as it has in-depth expertise in the optimisation of the design of parts for additive micromanufacturing and post-processing. Considerations such as form, function and material are all considered in consultation with the customer. The additively micro manufactured template determines the (almost) net shape of the final part, whereas the final functionality is achieved via post-processing steps. The company’s post-processing technology can be used to wholly or selectively coat additively micro manufactured templates, and it can even be used to coat difficult areas such as long narrow channels and undercuts homogeneously.
Horizon opens up additive micromanufacturing for applications where it is otherwise not appropriate due to the polymer material’s properties. Using template-based 3D microfabrication to add properties such as conductivity and environmental resistance to an additively manufactured template allows the desired part functionality as well as form to be achieved, despite the polymer.
An illustration of the capabilities brought about by template-based 3D microfabrication: The LED is supplied with power via two bent channels traversing the part produced using Horizon's template-based microfabrication technology. Note that neither metallic nor polymeric microprinting alone can deliver such a part, as the entirety of the part would be either isolating or conductive, effectively short-circuiting the LED.
Horizon Microtechnologies