IDTechEx recently interviewed Dycotec, a provider of printed electronics materials.
Dycotec is an advanced materials company developing and manufacturing electrically and thermally conductive, insulator, adhesives and overcoat products. It sells over 50 standard products globally from low to high volume. It sells both directly via its on-line website or through global distribution channels in the US, Far East and India.
It is a profitable, privately owned company that has grown significantly since being founded in 2015. It now employs approximately 20 people, mainly in R&D and advanced manufacturing engineering and production positions. In addition to their standard range of products, Dycotec also works with customers to tailor materials specifically to meet their requirements, ultimately seeking to supply materials in high volume.
The company sees many opportunities in the market to be a provider of functional materials, including emerging markets such as IoT sensors, wearables and in-mold electronics. It claims to offer a very rapid and flexible service with materials being shipped usually within 5 days.
Dycotec also offers a broad range of products to support, in many cases, the full range of functional materials required for the product, aiming to be a one-stop shop for all printed electronic materials.
Technology
Dycotec has a strong complement of experienced scientists, many of whom previously worked together developing nanotechnology-based systems at Oxford University. The founders were previously at Intrinsiq and led the development of the copper ink on which Intrinsiq was based. They, therefore, have extensive experience in the printed electronics industry and functional material manufacture. Intrinsiq however only focused on one product - copper ink - which was limiting. In contrast, Dycotec offers a diverse range of materials which it ships to organizations around the world. These include:
- Electrically conductive inks: Silver, carbon, copper, graphene and transparent products (silver nanowires)
- Insulator, reflective and overcoats
- Adhesives
- Thermally conductive materials
All the materials can be printed. Most are formulated for screen printing and syringe dispensing but inkjet versions are also available. The company offers materials in quantities from grams to hundreds of kilograms and are in the process of moving to larger premises to support demand.
Recent innovations include stretchable silver formulations for wearable applications, with their material showing it can be 140% stretchable. The company also offers a compatible dielectric, encapsulant and silver adhesive - all of which are stretchable. Other applications showing strong demand for the company are touchscreens utilising their screen printable silver nanowire systems with transparency >97% at <40 Ω/□ and semiconductor assembly using their copper paste systems for die-bonding and printing redistribution layers.
The following image shows RFID antennas printed on rubber: demonstrating Dycotec's stretchable silver paste and adhesive - which can be used on a wide variety of substrate materials including textiles.
Source: Dycotec
Business Model and Market
The company has been funded internally and is already a profitable business. The main revenue streams are from the sale of their standard material products, custom material products, and joint development agreements.
The company aims to be a one-stop shop of printable, functional materials and a volume producer.
Watch the IDTechEx interview with Dr Ian Clark, taken at Printed Electronics Europe 2019, below.
Top image source: Dycotec
