Yissum and Vaxan to collaborate for development of novel nanoparticle ink for printed electronics

JERUSALEM: Yissum Research Development Co. Ltd, the Technology Transfer Company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Vaxan Steel Co. Ltd., a leading Korean company in the field of innovative printing, signed a licensing and research agreement for the development of silver nanoparticles and silver-coated copper nanoparticles for conductive inks.

These inks can be utilized in a variety of printing technologies, including inkjet printing. The novel conductive inks were invented by Professor Shlomo Magdassi, Dr. Alexander Kamyshny and Michael Grouchko from the Institute of Chemistry at the Hebrew University.

According to the terms of the agreement, Yissum grants Vaxan a license to commercialize the technology exclusively in Asia, excluding Israel and former Soviet Union countries, and will receive in return research fees and royalties from future sales.

One of the exciting fields of the present and near future is printed electronics – the ability to print electric circuits on almost any surface, including paper, plastic, silicon and ceramics. Printed electronics are in use, or are considered for use in multiple applications, including displays and thin-film photovoltaics, radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, OLED lighting and sensors.

Conducting printing for the electronics industry is traditionally achieved by lithography and screen printing technologies. However, these methods are usually time consuming and expensive. Therefore, during recent years the printing electronics industry trends towards digital printing, with inkjet printing as the most appealing technology. In this printing technology, droplets of ink containing metallic nanoparticles are jetted from a micron size orifice, onto the substrate which can be a plastic sheet, a glass or a silicon wafer.

Silver nanoparticles are particularly appealing for inkjet printing, since silver is the most conductive of the metals, and in contrast to other metals, oxidation does not harm the conductivity of the final film. For this reason, silver was the first material used for inks and conductive printing on a wide scale. Copper, on the other hand, is much cheaper than silver (at about 1/100 the cost of silver), but is readily oxidized by air, thereby becoming non-conductive.

Prof. Magdassi and his colleagues invented copper nanoparticles that are covered by a thin layer of silver, thereby producing cheap, conductive, air-stable particles that can be readily used as conductive ink for a variety of applications.

"We are proud that the Hebrew University has had the opportunity to take part in this collaboration, and hope to strengthen our ties with the Korean industry in the future," said Yaacov Michlin, CEO of Yissum. "We are confident that our new partners will help us in introducing this invention to the market."

Duek Chi Lee, CEO of VAXAN, said: "The nanotechnology application which we have licensed from Yissum will be applied to semiconductors, IT, LED, and OLED industries. We are certain that this technological innovation will be an international success in electronic markets of the future. Once again, I would like to thank Yissum, Prof. Magdassi and GlobalTech Korea who helped promote this collaboration between Korea and Israel."

Hyunsung Kim, from GlobalTech Korea, said: "We are very excited with this agreement, which marks the first commercial collaboration between an Israeli university and a Korean company. We at GlobalTech Korea's Tel Aviv office will continue to do our best to advance future R&D collaboration between the two countries."