-
- News
- Books
Featured Books
- smt007 Magazine
Latest Issues
Current IssueProduction Software Integration
EMS companies need advanced software systems to thrive and compete. But these systems require significant effort to integrate and deploy. What is the reality, and how can we make it easier for everyone?
Spotlight on India
We invite you on a virtual tour of India’s thriving ecosystem, guided by the Global Electronics Association’s India office staff, who share their insights into the region’s growth and opportunities.
Supply Chain Strategies
A successful brand is built on strong customer relationships—anchored by a well-orchestrated supply chain at its core. This month, we look at how managing your supply chain directly influences customer perception.
- Articles
- Columns
- Links
- Media kit
||| MENU - smt007 Magazine
Real Time With... IPC APEX EXPO 2025: Best Student Technical Paper Winner—Attila Rektor
April 10, 2025 | Marcy LaRont, I-Connect007Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
We conducted an audio interview with Attila Rektor, a Ph.D student from Boise State University who won the best technical paper award at IPC APEX EXPO 2025. His paper explores enhancing the conductivity of laser-induced graphene for flexible circuits. The research, funded by SAIC, involved modulating surface energy to enable effective copper plating. This breakthrough has potential applications in flexible printed circuit boards, sensing, and biomedical devices.
TRANSCRIPT:
Marcy LaRont: Hi, this is Marcy LaRont with Real Time with… IPC APEX EXPO, and I am here with Attila Rektor. He is the student winner for the best technical paper at IPC APEX EXPO. He is a Ph.D student out of Boise State. Hi, Attila. Thanks so much for talking to me.
Attila Rektor: Hi. It's good to be here.
LaRont: Congratulations on your award.
Rektor: Thank you.
LaRont: I'm going to say the full title of your paper, because it's quite a mouthful, then I'll ask you a few questions. Your paper is titled, “Flexible Hybrid Electronics Created from a Multi-component System of Electric Copper on Laser-induced Graphene.” Tell me a little bit about your paper and how you came to that topic. I'm assuming it's part of your Ph.D study.
Rektor: Yes. I remember the email. My funding source for a lot of this research is SAIC and the chief scientist there in charge of the research group recommended it over email.
He said, “Hey, I wonder if we can put palladium in the laser-induced graphene and if that would work for plating.” And that was it. It was that casual, just a very simple email: “Hey, would this work?”
LaRont: Sometimes the best topics come out of something like that.
Rektor: That led to about a year’s worth of looking at this and putting things together, and it did work. Very simply, laser-induced graphene is a graphitic material. Then you form it by exposing a laser onto a carbon rich substrate. That's about it. You make something similar to bulk graphite but it has mono-layer regions and multilayer regions of graphene, which has all these very interesting properties.
So, you get fairly good conductivity, but it's not anything like bulk metal. If you want to use this for a circuit application, then it should probably have higher conductivity. So, the entire process has been looking at how can we put down copper or some metal to metalize this and make it conductive enough for a flexible circuit, essentially.
LaRont: And you did.
Rektor: Yes, with a lot of experimentation. We found a process to do that.
LaRont: Was there anything surprising in the course of your studying this?
Rektor: Yes. Technically, the surface energy of laser induced graphene can be tuned between hydrophobic and hydrophilic depending on how you form this material. Palladium is critical for providing the reduction of copper ions in the plating. But if you have the wrong surface energy, regardless of how much palladium you have, it will not plate. We found that we had to modulate the surface energy to get it to plate even with palladium. It was just astounding because the way we did that was the difference between one laser pass and two laser passes. One just absolutely did not coat and one coated very well.
LaRont: How did you modify the surface?
Rektor: As the laser rasters, it forms your pattern that makes the laser induce graphene. But as you laser in an ambient environment, you tend to functionalize the surface. With oxygen, for example, the carbon oxygen bond is very polar, so it becomes more hydrophilic the more that you functionalize it. If you laser over the same pattern multiple times, you can make the pattern more hydrophilic. If that is going into an electrosolution with water as a solvent, you now have a much better interface. The short answer would be that you laser the pattern multiple times, at least twice, in this case.
LaRont: You're studying material science?
Rektor: Yes, that's correct.
LaRont: We sure need great material scientists right now, so that's great to hear. I'm not an engineer, so if this should be obvious, I apologize, but what kind of applications would this process be used in?
Rektor: Very broadly it would be flexible printed circuit boards, but LIG as a candidate material is great for sensing, joule heating, capacitive for energy storage purposes. Biomedical, it finds use. I believe there were LIG based COVID sensors during COVID. More specifically for PCB production, anything that you could really accomplish in a single or maybe two layers as far as circuit design.
In our case, we made just a demo circuit that has switching behavior between two LEDs. It was something easy to visibly see that the circuit is functioning, but I guess you could get as complex as you wanted in that regard.
LaRont: Well, I want to say congratulations again. It's a pretty big deal to be chosen in any of the categories. But I think, as a student, winning best technical paper is pretty impressive. So, Attila, well done, and congratulations again.
Rektor: Thank you. It's a great honor. I’m very grateful.
LaRont: This is Marcy LaRont with Real Time with… IPC APEX EXPO, here with Attila Rektor, the technical paper student winner this year at the IPC show. Thanks for tuning in.
Testimonial
"Your magazines are a great platform for people to exchange knowledge. Thank you for the work that you do."
Simon Khesin - Schmoll MaschinenSuggested Items
StenTech Strengthens Precision Parts Platform with AME Acquisition
10/17/2025 | StenTechStenTech, North America’s leading provider of SMT printing solutions and precision manufacturing, has announced the acquisition of Advanced Metal Etching, Inc. (AME), a recognized specialist in chemically etched and laser cut precision parts.
MKS’ Atotech, ESI to Participate in TPCA Show & IMPACT Conference 2025
10/17/2025 | MKS’ AtotechMKS Inc., a global provider of enabling technologies that transform our world, announced that its strategic brands Atotech (process chemicals, equipment, software, and services) and ESI (laser systems) will showcase their latest range of leading manufacturing solutions for printed circuit board (PCB) and package substrate manufacturing at the upcoming 26th TPCA Show 2025 to be held at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center from 22-24 October 2025.
indie’s Narrow-Linewidth Visible Lasers Drive Quantum and Automotive Innovation
10/14/2025 | indie Semiconductorindie, an automotive solutions innovator, has released a new Visible Distributed Feedback (DFB) gallium nitride-based (GaN) laser diode from its Photonics BU product line, enabling next-generation quantum, a wide range of automotive applications, including LiDAR and sensing, and Industrial Raman applications with ultra-stable, sub-MHz linewidths at wavelengths from the near-UV (375 nm) to green (535 nm).
LPKF Joins productronica’s 50th Anniversary, Showcasing Laser Technology for Electronics Manufacturing
10/10/2025 | LPKF Laser & ElectronicsLPKF Laser & Electronics invites visitors to productronica 2025 in Munich from November 18 to 21. At booth 305 in hall B2, the company will present its portfolio of modern laser technologies for the electronics industry live – from prototyping systems and high-performance depaneling to laser plastic welding for electronic housings and thin glass processing for advanced packaging.
25 Years ProtoLaser: From Vision to Precision Revolution in Electronics Manufacturing
10/06/2025 | LPKFWhat began in 1989 as a research project between LPKF Laser & Electronics SE and the University of Hannover has developed into one of the most successful product series of the German laser technology company: