Modern business trends call for miniaturization of electronic systems. One of the major impedances in this miniaturization is the conductive and inductive components in chips and circuit boards. Direct Write Technology can write these soft magnetic materials, thus allowing for further miniaturization of inductor devices. Another obstacle in electronics fabrication is the size limitations of thick screen-printing and the material limitations in ink jet printing. Direct Write Technologies address both of these limitations by providing feature sizes less than 20 microns with a wide range of materials possibilities. A discussion of the application of these nano-particulate materials by Direct Write Technologies will be presented.

Laser Powder Deposition (LPD) is a technology capable of modifying a metallic structure by adding the appropriate material to perform a desired function. LPD offers a unique fabrication technique that allows the use of soft (tough) materials as base structures. Through LPD a hard material can be applied to the base material with little thermal input (minimal dilution and heat-affected-zone {HAZ}), thus providing the function of a heat treatment or other surface modifications. These surface modifications have been evaluated through standard wear testing (ASTM G-65), surface hardness (Rc), micro-hardness (vickers), and optical microscopy.