Company
Portfolio Data
Back to Company SearchELECTRONINKS INCORPORATED
UEI: C1NGHPR66AY5
Number of Employees: 45
HUBZone Owned: No
Woman Owned: No
Socially and Economically Disadvantaged: No
SBIR/STTR Involvement
Year of first award: 2014
11
Phase I Awards
10
Phase II Awards
90.91%
Conversion Rate
$1,087,969
Phase I Dollars
$10,513,722
Phase II Dollars
$11,601,691
Total Awarded
Awards
Electroninks CircuitJet: The All-in-One Printed Circuit Board Maker for Obsolete Parts and Prototyping
Amount: $1,249,907 Topic: AFX245-PCSO1
The F-35 is made of 300,000 parts from 1,700+ suppliers — including a small magnet found in September 2022 that originated in China, suspending a $6.5B shipment of F-35s from Lockheed Martin. According to an investigation by the Senate Armed Services Committee , up to 15% of all spare and replacement parts bought by the Pentagon are counterfeit or in some way compromised. In addition to blatant counterfeit parts, the DoD is also facing a supply chain crisis in managing obsolete spare parts, particularly electronic components that have a short lifecycle. As a result, the DoD spends $10 billion a year managing and mitigating electronic-part obsolescence. This perfect storm in our military supply chain for spare and obsolete parts has led to record-low mission-capable rates across the Air Force. The average mission capable rate for all USAF fleets in FY2024 was just 67.15%, down from 69.92% in FY2023 and 71.24% in FY2022. The electrical components of the DoD’s vast inventory are at particular risk. Every electronic device the Air Force uses has a printed circuit board (PCB) as part of its core electrical system, ranging from facilities, HVAC systems, vehicles, alarm systems, and communication boards to F?35 jets and missile guidance systems. The manufacturing process to produce PCBs, which are tailored to individual applications can take weeks or longer. Often, the only solution for mission-critical parts is custom assembly, which costs substantially more than $1,000 for a SINGLE integrated circuit. This is where Electroninks, the world leader in particle-free conductive inks and a frontrunner in domestic electronics components production, can help restore America’s manufacturing advantage with its all-in-one CircuitJet PCB printer. The CircuitJet line of on-demand PCB printers uses Electroninks’ metal-based inks, which create pure metallic films that are up to 10x more conductive than other inks and metal pastes on the market, reducing the amount of space, weight, and required precious metals in electronics. Because of this striking competitive advantage, Electroninks has already partnered with companies like Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman and has nearly $24M in funding through series A and B rounds from Applied Materials, InQTel, Fujifilm, Merck, and others. Electroninks has a customer base that includes Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, GE (Healthcare), Samtec (cabling), Qualcomm, and Applied Materials with over $7M in revenue for all revenue streams in 2024. For this Phase II effort, Electroninks has partnered with the 58th Maintenance Group at Kirtland AFB to add features to the next-generation CircuitJet IV, including solder dispensing, laser etching/soldering, and pick-and-place capabilities. Additionally, Electroninks will improve the physical form factor of the CircuitJet IV to ruggedize the machine to withstand significant transportation and movement.
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase II
2025
DOW
USAF
Circuit Jet Innovation
Amount: $249,974 Topic: A244-P058
Electroninks plans to develop a technology demonstrator for an all-in-one printed circuit board (PCB) prototyping platform, CircuitJet. This platform, designed for use during Army operations in garrison or while deployed, will enable the rapid fabrication or repair of damaged or missing printed PCBs in a ruggedized and man-portable format with low power consumption. The tool, using copper-clad laminates (CCL) as a substrate, will swiftly create one-to-one replacement boards that match the fit, form, and function of traditionally manufactured PCBs. The CircuitJet's implementation is expected to significantly enhance the operational efficiency of Army warfighting systems and facilities.
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase I
2025
DOW
ARMY
Spectrum Control for Marine Uniform Textiles Using Embedded Particle-Free Metal Inks
Amount: $139,815 Topic: N241-003
Detection, recognition, and identification are critical components of naval missions. Imaging sensors have evolved to detect a wide range of the electromagnetic spectrum, from visible light (VIS) to long-wave infrared (LWIR). Controlling these critical aspects is key to improving the effectiveness and safety of Marine operations. Integrating this capability into uniforms, portable devices, or other wearable platforms offers benefits such as minimal visibility and on-demand capabilities. Current state of the art (SOA) developments have enabled wearable textiles capable of mitigating detection within the VIS to short wave infrared (SWIR) ranges. However, these innovative textiles have limited durability due to their specific storage and laundering requirements and tend to degrade over time. In addition, users have cited problems with the comfort and practicality of these wearables in harsh conditions, which could impede their missions. Additionally, the challenge of avoiding detection in the mid wave infrared (MWIR) to long wave infrared (LWIR) ranges has not been resolved with current SOA technologies. Electroninks Incorporated (EI) has developed a facile process to fabricate conductive textiles or “e-textiles”. Utilizing EI’s extensive expertise in both formulation and processing of metal complex inks (ranging from copper to silver), EI is able to infuse the desired textile with the ink and fabricate a continuous, intercalating silver network within the textile. The application of reactive ink to fibers ensures an even dispersion of silver throughout the material. This even distribution may ensure consistent IR blocking properties across the entire fabric, unlike irregularities in reflectivity and emissivity seen in fabrics with woven metallic threads or external metallic coatings.
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase I
2024
DOW
NAVY
All-in-One Printed Circuit Board Maker for On-Demand Manufacturing of Obsolete Parts
Amount: $74,913 Topic: AFX245-PCSO1
Electroninks is leveraging their position as a world-leader in providing particle-free conductive inks to provide an economical, rapidly deployable and portable additive manufacturing solution to Printable Circuit Boards (PCBs). Electroninks brings a versatile, domestically produced, all-in-one (hardware, substrate, software, inks, cartridges) additive manufacturing solution, CircuitJet, that can print PCBs on demand and with a 90% reduction in the cost of custom assembly circuit boards.
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase I
2024
DOW
USAF
Advanced Materials for Soft Robotics Assisted Non-Destructive Inspection
Amount: $1,878,644 Topic: AF20C-TCSO1
AFRL/RX develops materials, processes, and advanced manufacturing technologies for aircraft, spacecraft, missiles, rockets, and ground-based systems and their structural, electronic and optical components. Many applications of these advanced materials are on critical infrastructure or products that require nondestructive evaluation/inspection (NDE/NDI), especially on parts in extreme operating environments where NDE/NDI is done through autonomous, robotic methods. Air Force product centers, logistic centers, and operating commands rely on the directorate's expertise in materials, nondestructive inspection, systems support, and advanced manufacturing methods to solve system, expeditionary deployment, and operational challenges. Electroninks is the world leader in providing particle-free conductive inks, which provide 10x higher conductivity relative to conventional conductive inks - reducing the amount of space, weight, and required precious metals in electronics resulting in significant cost savings and design improvements. These inks are pure metallic films with no binders (unlike competitors’ inks), resulting in plated-metal properties, excellent ink stability, high printing yield, and film reliability at low cost. Electroninks currently has a range of standardized commercial inks and offers semi-custom composition for individual customer needs that are available on the commercial market today. The main goals for this Sequential Phase II /TACFI proposal are:Electroninks will develop new conductive materials platforms specific to soft materials that are utilized in soft robotics, where conventional metallization is typically not possible; Enabling next generation needs for inspection tools capable of withstanding extreme environments (temperature, space) and conditions (high degrees of freedom, excess stress/strain conditions) identified by AFRL’s Materials and Manufacturing DirectorateElectroninks will develop standard operating procedures and ink deposition processes (inkjet/digital printing, soft lithography) that better meet manufacturing requirements of AFRL/RX. This includes handing off a complete tooling system (manufacturing system) that can either be housed at AFRL, or an appropriate 3rd party, that is designed to handle, print, cure and process parts with these metal complex inks into various circuitries and sensors that are compatible with soft, elastomeric substrates Electroninks will develop all-in-one 3D circuit sticker modules/sensors for use in soft body robots. This would be actual full-product prototypes with the metalized circuits and sensors directly on the soft materials that could withstand various actuation modes: expansion, compression, 180° bendsElectroninks will provide materials toolbox for NDI/NDE for future manufacturing platforms, either as a fundamental materials set (metal complex inks + compatible soft, elastomeric substrates + manufacturing suggestions) and/or printed, sensor, sticker modules
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase II
2024
DOW
USAF
Ink Additive Manufacturing Solution for EMI/RF Shielding and Conductive Textiles
Amount: $74,660 Topic: X224-OCSO1
Electroninks is leveraging their position as a world-leader in developing and manufacturing particle-free conductive inks to provide an economical, rapidly deployable and portable additive manufacturing solution to EMI/RF shielding of critical Air Force infrastructure. Electroninks’ unique inks are able to produce conductive coatings on a variety of materials, including existing textiles such as tents and uniforms. And because the inks produce pure metal films without binders and fillers, they can produce results at up to a 90% reduction in metal usage compared to other metal inks and shielding options. Integrated EMI/RF shielding technology is critical to ensuring strategic communication in all types of environments, particularly as the threat of electronic warfare makes constant and redundant communication capability absolutely essential on the battlefield. Combined with the Air Force’s move to Agile Combat Employment, which will require lightweight, mobile facilities, Electroninks is the perfect solution to create and enhance EMI/RF shielding or conductivity in the field using existing materials such as existing non-shielding uniforms or tents.
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase I
2023
DOW
USAF
Developing Novel Solar Cell Materials Technology for Resilient Space Dominance
Amount: $1,243,239 Topic: X224-OCSO1
In March 2022, Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall outlined his Operational Imperatives, number one of which was Defining Resilient and Effective Space Order of Battle and Architectures. In order to reduce targetability, DAF will be phasing out large
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase II
2023
DOW
USAF
Developing Temperature-Resilient Conductive Inks for Satellite, Space and Hypersonic Use
Amount: $748,264 Topic: AF211-CSO1
The Space Force will be building it’s current satellite architecture using an industry that has to change from assembling 35-40 billion-dollar class 15-year design life satellites that each weigh 5-7 tons, to an industry that currently assembles thousands
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase II
2022
DOW
USAF
Developing Liquid Crystal Polymers (LCPs) and Compatible Conductive Inks for Use in 3D Objects and Tunable Antenna Array
Amount: $744,618 Topic: AF20C-TCSO1
The future of the Air Force and telecommunications technology is in the development of smaller, lighter, more portable components. The Space Force’s renewed mission to develop our space capabilities, the Air Force’s move to Agile Combat Employment and eme
Tagged as:
STTR
Phase II
2022
DOW
USAF
Developing Liquid Crystal Polymers (LCPs) and Compatible Conductive Inks for Use in 3D Objects and Tunable Antenna Array
Amount: $749,566 Topic: AF21A-TCSO1
The future of the Air Force and telecommunications technology is in the development of smaller, lighter, more portable components. The Space Force’s renewed mission to develop our space capabilities, the Air Force’s move to Agile Combat Employment and emerging wireless communication and sensor applications all increasingly require miniaturization and portability. Using particle free ink in electronics, with 90% less material required in electronic connections, the Air Force and Space Force can reduce costs and weight of electronics components. Enter Electroninks, the world leader — and one of the only domestic suppliers of — particle-free conductive inks. Our metal-based inks create pure metallic films on a dizzying array of parts and components, with applications from agile printed circuit boards to chip manufacturing to EMI/RF shielding to metalization of parts. Because these patented inks do not contain binders and fillers, they are able to produce conductivity ratings with much higher than industry standards, allowing massive reductions in precious metals used and minimum layer thickness required. Our partnership with Dr. Taylor Ware and the Ware Lab at Texas A&M University, whose research interest in biomaterials, micro/nanotechnology, and polymer formation, will merge Electroninks’ expertise in high conductivity particle-free inks with the Ware Lab’s cutting edge work in liquid crystal polymers (LCPs) to develop state-of-the art antenna and communications technology. AFRL’s Materials and Manufacturing Directorate (AFRL/RX) is our committed end-user and customer on this effort. The main goals of this project are to develop a system of LCPs and compatible conductive inks, prototype their use in 3D objects, and demonstrate that the 3D circuit is robust to mechanical deformation. The mission impact of this project on the Air Force and the Department of Defense will be to create entirely new capabilities of flexible structures that are highly resistant to chemical, weather and radiation damage and can replace heavier materials like ceramics, composites, metals and other plastics. Of particular interest to AFRL/RX is the potential to use these structures as capabilities as flexible, tunable, resilient antenna applications. Objectives include conducting basic R&D/RDTE by: developing liquid crystal elastomer substrates and printing metallic inks on each substrate; by fabricating test circuits with tunable metal thickness, metal type, and resolution on liquid crystal elastomer substrates; by fabricating test circuits in a 3D forms by printing electronics on a liquid crystal elastomer substrate; by fabricating and testing circuits in a 3D form designed for extensibility; by optimizing circuit design and process parameters to increase circuit durability testing on structure(s) or devices per patterning requirements; and developing final prototypes of 1-2 circuits in user specified 3D forms.
Tagged as:
STTR
Phase II
2022
DOW
USAF