MACHINING &
MACHINERY
M-SOLV
M-Solv Ltd is a manufacturing company that
employs 50 people and it is based in Oxford,
UK with an Asian support facility in Hong
Kong. Its activities target the printed, large
area and flexible electronics market.
The company has 3 main business activities:
printed electronic device manufacturing;
building functional inkjet printers and
laser materials processing machines and,
underpinning both of those, manufacturing
process development, which has led to a
wide IP portfolio.
M-Solv has a development lab with 12
processing machines including inkjet
systems with a range of printheads
and capabilities and laser processing
stations with different sources and optics:
wavelengths from 10mm to 266nm and
pulse lengths from CW to 200 fs with
processing areas up to about 1m 2 plus roll-
to-roll.
Needless to say, all these systems have
been built in-house. We believe that for a
successful development a close working
relationship is needed between process
provider, material provider, machine
developer and end user. So we have
developed an extensive network of materials
suppliers and other process providers, to
align with this philosophy.
Our passion is to help clients with printed
electronics manufacturing problem: we
listen carefully, evaluate the issues and
work in a collaborative way to find the right
manufacturing approach, recognising the
client’s knowledge while adding our own
competencies. We then use our extensive
equipment to run trials and develop
manufacturing processes.
Client IP is always kept secure. This kind of
development work can end with a defined
process or can be followed up with supply of
process machines for the client’s factory or
the process can be used in our own Printed
Electronics Foundry.
The foundry is a Class 10,000 cleanroom
with several manufacturing tools. Currently
the main product made in the foundry
is a range of industrial capacitive touch-
sensors (up to 27 inch diagonal). These are
made for our design and marketing partner
Touchnetix using the digital processing
methods typically favoured by printed
electronics innovators. The ITO electrode
structures are patterned by laser, the bus-bar
metallisation is defined by a combination
of inkjet printing and laser processing.
Protective overcoats are inkjet printed.
This passive, large area device is bonded
to conventional read-out electronics via a
flexible printed circuit. No “hard-tooling”
is needed for any of these processes, all
process steps are defined only by CAD files.
This approach allows us to go from a new
customer requirement to prototype sensors
exceptionally quickly and makes short
production runs economically viable.
As an equipment manufacturer and
integrator, M-Solv provides complete
engineered solutions for large scale
production, pilot trials, and R&D
applications. Primarily we supply products
to first and second tier companies, as well as
working with universities on R&D projects.
M-Solv Ltd, Oxonian Park, Langford Locks,
Kidlington, Oxford, OX5 1FP,
United Kingdom
T: +441865 844070
E: [email protected]
Visit website: m-solv.com
Issue 34 PECM
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