When we first introduced photonic curing in 2004, we were focused on the rapid sintering of nanometal inks on plastic and paper foils. As the technology has advanced, more commercial applications have emerged.

This talk will explore two new applications of photonic curing which operate in two different regimes: Photonic debond and photonic reflow.

Photonic debond uses high instantaneous radiant power to debond temporarily bonded semiconductor wafers for the semiconductor packaging industry. Photonic reflow, uses high average radiant power to solder components to boards for the SMT industry. In both cases, the pulsed nature of the process has reduced thermal budget and can outperform traditional processes. Additional applications related to batteries and photovoltaics will be discussed as well.

Dr. Kurt Schroder is a plasma physicist with degrees from MIT and UT Austin. He has seminal inventions in multiple fields and has been issued 41 US and over 65 foreign patents.

While in graduate school at UT, Kurt began to experiment with an ordinary hammer on the side. This resulted in him developing a hammer having almost no vibration and greater momentum transfer. It virtually eliminated repetitive stress disorders from hammering in construction workers. Most of the hammers sold in the US incorporate this technology. Sales have exceeded $3B.

In 2004, Kurt began experimenting with a camera flash, as an alternative to an oven, to instantly sinter printed metal nanoparticles on plastic and paper to form cheap electronic circuits. He coined the new process "photonic curing." This eventually became a standard industrial process and has been used in the manufacture of hundreds of millions of consumer electronic devices.

He has been named Austin Inventor of the Year, Texas Inventor of the Year, and is a two-time winner of the prestigious R&D 100 Award which is given for the top 100 inventions in the United States each year.

Kurt is CTO of PulseForge, Inc.