Populating With Conductive Glue
One less popular but easy-to-handle method of populating your AME structure is using conductive glue.
Step-by-Step Guide How to Use Conductive Glue
Equipment
- Silver nanoparticles-based conductive glue such as H20E paste
- High temper oven
- Manual dispenser
- Tweezers
- Rubber eraser/fiberglass pen
Step 1: Cleaning the Pads
In order to clean the pads and remove oxidized silver use a simple rubber eraser. Since the silver pads of the AMEs manufactured on the NNDM DragonFly IV printer might be very sensitive, it is important to proceed with caution. As an alternative to the rubber eraser, a fiberglass pen might be used.
Step 2: Dispense Conductive Glue Paste on Pads
Depending on the size of the pads and the viscosity of the conductive paste, either a manual dispenser can be used, or the material can be applied with a small needle.
Step 3: Manually Pick & Place Components
After the conductive paste is applied, the next step is to place the components. In case of the J.A.M.E.S Coin, this will be two capacitors, two diodes, one LED and of course the NFC chip.
Step 4: Put AME in Oven and Start Curing Sequence
To cure the conductive glue, place the populated samples into an oven for about 2-4 hours at 100°C. We use a small tempering oven from Nabertherm to provide a proper drying.
Step 5: Inspection
The last step is a visual inspection. Using a microscope, we check for shorts and proper connections. Afterwards is a functional testing.
Populating With IR-Heater
A cheap and easy way to get your AME device populated is to choose an IR-heater.
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