Electroninks announces a breakthrough copper metal-organic decomposition (MOD) ink that cures in ambient air at 150°C, eliminating the need for nitrogen ovens in additive PCB metallization and enabling cost-effective copper patterning on flexible substrates.
Electroninks, a Texas-based company specializing in metal complex inks for additive manufacturing and semiconductor packaging, has announced an advancement to its copper metal-organic decomposition (MOD) ink platform: a copper metallization technology capable of curing under ambient conditions — open to air, without inert gas infrastructure.
The development, announced in early June 2026, addresses a long-standing limitation of copper ink technology: the requirement for nitrogen or forming gas atmospheres during thermal curing to prevent oxidation.
The new Cu-MOD ink achieves conductive copper film formation through:
Preliminary results indicate resistivity performance comparable with existing copper metallization approaches, with full performance data expected in Q3 2026.
Traditional PCB fabrication creates copper patterns through subtractive processes — laminating copper foil to substrate, then etching away unwanted copper. This generates significant chemical waste and limits pattern resolution to what lithography and etching can achieve.
Additive copper metallization deposits copper only where needed, offering potential advantages:
The key barrier has been that copper oxidizes instantly at elevated temperatures in air, requiring expensive nitrogen ovens that negate the simplicity advantage. Electroninks’ ambient-cure technology removes this barrier.
The immediate target applications include:
“While silver and gold will remain key materials in many applications, for large-area and full-film metallization, the rising cost of precious metals has renewed interest in cost-effective alternatives,” said Kazutaka Ozawa, Technical Director at Electroninks.
This technology sits at the intersection of several industry trends:
Silver conductive ink (the current standard for printed electronics) has become increasingly expensive as silver prices have risen 40%+ over the past two years. Copper ink at 1/50th the material cost of silver becomes economically compelling for large-area applications.
The semiconductor-inspired modified semi-additive process (mSAP) already uses thin copper seed layers for fine-line HDI. Air-curable copper ink could potentially replace the sputtered or electroless seed layer, simplifying the process chain.
The PCB industry faces growing pressure to reduce chemical waste, particularly from copper etching and wastewater treatment. Fully additive copper patterning could eliminate the etching step entirely for certain product categories.
Electroninks acknowledges the technology is still in development:
