The Present and Future Perspectives of Moulded Interconnect Device (MID) Technologies

With the advent of the concepts like the Cyber-Physical Systems, Internet of Things, Big Data, etc. the demand for smart electric and electronic devices will be drastically increased. In this context the Moulded Interconnect (MID) technology can be a key technology to fulfil future industrial and societal needs. MIDs can combine electrical and mechanical functions on the same device and allow an efficient adaption of conductive patterns to the geometric form of the products. The past decade has witnessed significant advancement in the MID processes and materials, finding application areas like automotive, mobile phones, sensors, medical devices, household electrical appliances, etc. But the future of the MIDs lies on the printing based technology. Printing based MID technology can improve the design flexibility, bypass the cost intensive tooling process, eliminate the need for special resins, plating process etc. and can offer environmentally friendly solutions compared to the traditional processes. It can even be possible to produce multilayered MIDs by the direct printing process. This presentation will focus on what the MID technology can offer for future industries by highlighting the latest developments in the technology. The presentation will find some of the challenges and opportunities ahead of MID technology and share some recent research in the MID areas.