nTact offers economical slot die coating as organic electronics moves to pilot production

US equipment manufacturer nTact is reporting an increase in interest in its line of slot die coating machinery.

As a number of nTact's customers are looking to take plastic electronics production from the R&D to pilot line production, the economic case for slot die coaters is becoming more evident.

Slot die advantages Miguel Friedrich, vice president of sales and marketing at nTact, says: 'Slot die coating is becoming more and more popular because it is typically significantly less costly than vacuum machinery. Big organisations are getting interested and they are starting to move toward pilot production.'

Slot die coaters are versatile and offer very high material utilisation rates. These are important advantages as companies across the world assess the commercial viability of scaling up production of OLEDs, organic photovoltaic cells and other printed electronics.

New techniques
Texas-based nTact has developed its slot die coating technology to meet the demands of the nascent printed electronic industry. This has included improving the uniformity of deposition of thinner films, and evolving specialised macro-patterning and selective area coating capabilities on its machines.