Innovative Technologies ceimig.com
Precious metal deposition, Semiconductor applications, Printed electronics,
Platinum ink, Dimatix printer, Optomec printer, Glycerol conversion

Ceimig Limited was established to exploit a range of novel and patented gateway chemical technologies discovered by its Scientific Director, Dr James Thomson. The related IP was assigned to the Company and forms the basis of its technology portfolio.

Ceimig Limited has an ongoing commitment to research and development and we continue to strive to bring new technologies to the marketplace. Our own in house research is very much focused on moving technology forwards and below are just a few examples of how we are providing new chemical solutions to existing industries:

1) Solvent free thin film precious metal deposition for semiconductor applications.

Ceimig Limited supplies proprietary enabling technologies for the deposition of nanoscale platinum and other precious group metal features in a diversity of applications across the semiconductor, electronic, fuel cell and sensor manufacturing industries. The resultant metal features exhibit excellent conductivity and high adhesion, offering new technical possibilities to the semiconductor and emerging nano-technology industries. The unique features of the technology are:

• It allows the deposition of metal features as small as 20 nanometres wide on substrates as diverse as glass, oxided silicon, alumina and fuel cell electrodes.
• This is about 1/10th of the size of metal features that can be laid down using current technologies and is a requirement of the semiconductor road map.
• Ceimig’s process consists of three steps compared with the industry’s current six steps (see figures 1 and 2).
• This dispenses with the need for acids or solvents in the process and is thus more environmentally friendly than the current practice.

The annealing process converts the exposed pgm precursor to a pure crystalline metallic feature which, owing to its purity, continuity and lack of inclusions has virtually the same conductivity as the pure metal. The final conductivity achieved is a function of the length of the annealing cycle.

For further information please contact Dr James Thomson at Ceimig Ltd on +44(0)1382 624127 or email jzt@ceimig.com

2) Particulate free inks for printed electronics
Printed ink for electronic and biotechnology applications is developing at an incredible speed. Conductive platinum inks are currently formulated from particulate platinum derived from platinum black. As the technology advances the nozzle dimensions installed on industrial printers are reducing in volume in order to achieve higher resolution. As such there is a miss match in the requirements of these two technologies and the ink formulation needs to be improved in order to achieve the desired printed features.

Ceimig Limited has developed its own platinum ink formulation based on a solvated platinum precursor. No particulate matter is formulated into the ink allowing delivery by Dimatix printer or via the atomisation process with Optomec printers. Ceimig has demonstrated its ink capability to deliver highly conductive features with its high platinum loaded ink.

For further information please contact Dr James Thomson at Ceimig Ltd on +44(0)1382 624127 or email jzt@ceimig.com

3) Biodiesel waste glycerol conversion
Ceimig Limited has successfully demonstrated that glycerol, a major by-product from biodiesel production, can be catalytically converted to acrolein, acetone, acetaldehyde and methanol. A single pass over a palladium based catalyst at 1 atm in nitrogen carrier gas in a mixture steam and hydrogen at 4000C gives 100% conversion of glycerol. It has also been demonstrated that the catalyst maintains 100% conversion over three days. The catalyst loading for the demonstration was scaled to process 55 Kg glycerol/h.

The selectivity of a typical run are; acrolein at ca 20%; acetaldehyde at ca 15%, methanol at ca 15% and acetone at ca 15% (see below).

The catalyst used in the process has been developed by our Scientific Director, Dr James Thomson and its structure and formulation are IP protected.

For further information please contact Dr. James Thomson at +44(0)1382 624127 or email jzt@ceimig.com
Ceimig are actively seeking interested parties to invest and develop this exciting “green” technology.