Creative Materials, Inc.

United States

Creative Materials' extensive line of conductive silver inks, in standard and custom formulations, encompasses a wide range of markets, including consumer electronics, medical devices and alternative energy solutions. The superior conductivity of Creative Materials' silver inks enables our customers to print narrower and longer circuit trace lines without compromising overall maximum ohm values, which can result in significant cost savings. Silver ink applications include EMIRFI shielding of polyimide flexible circuits, polymer thick-film circuitry, membrane switches and coatings for tantalum capacitors. Our silver inks can be applied by screen-printing, pad-printing, flexography and rotogravure and they feature high electrical conductivity and are resistant to abrasion, scratching, flexing and creasing. Our silver conductive inks adhere to a wide variety of substrates including Kapton, Mylar, glass, polycarbonate, polyimide, polyester, ITO-coated surfaces, Teflon and silicone surfaces.

Creative Materials' carbon inks and adhesives play an increasing role in applications including printed resistors, polymer thick film circuitry, membrane switches, electrical attachments, heaters, and static elimination. We can configure carbon inks to obtain a range of electrical conductivity values by blending them with silver inks and adjust conductivity to a specific level. Creative Materials can also blend carbon inks with silver inks to reduce cost for some applications. Carbon inks are lubricious, providing low friction and excellent thermal stability. They are also chemically inert, with low reactivity to solvents and other chemicals. Our carbon inks can be applied by screen-printing, dipping, and syringe dispensing and feature excellent adhesion to Kapton, Mylar, glass and a variety of other substrates. Unlike conventional conductive materials, carbon inks are very resistant to abrasion, scratching, flexing and creasing. Creative Materials' waterborne carbon inks are environmentally friendly, while offering the same characteristics of high printability and varying electrical conductivity as our solvent-based carbon inks.

Creative Materials' dielectric inks and coatings play an important role in protecting and enhancing conductive materials. When designed to be compatible with specific electrically conductive inks, our dielectric coatings create an insulating layer and can provide crossover links that make printed silver inks more durable. Our range of standard and custom formulated dielectric coatings offers highly customized features for specific applications, including insulation on polymer thick film conductive inks in the manufacture of membrane switches and flex circuits. Creative Materials' innovations include a color-matched dielectric and conductive carbon ink system for use in touch screen applications. Featuring an indiscernible difference in color and hue, these inks can conceal conductive features or hide insulated regions within conductive features. We also developed low-haze dielectric coatings that provide an exceptionally clear coating.

Creative Materials' electrically conductive adhesives play an extensive role in manufacturing across a wide-range of industries, including electronic, solar cell, medical instrument, aerospace, and automotive components. Our innovative formulations of electrically conductive adhesives include highly conductive, lower-cost products that can be substituted for silver-filled adhesives. Electrically conductive adhesive applications include electrical and mechanical attachments for stress-sensitive devices, bonding electronic components to lead frames and circuit materials to heat sinks, and solder replacement. Our electrically conductive adhesives are extremely resilient, featuring excellent conductivity, and are less sensitive to thermal cycling. Our standard and custom formulations of electrically conductive adhesives are versatile, with one- and two-part epoxies that can be applied by stenciling, pad printing, and syringe dispensing, as well as via direct write and jetting systems. They feature excellent adhesion to copper, aluminum, ceramic, and tinlead solder terminated components, as well as some types of Teflon® surfaces, silicone and gold-plated substrates and surfaces.