A major order of more than €6 M for laser systems for manufacturing three dimensional cellphone antennae is the latest in a string of successful achievements that LPKF has been able to report in recent months. The client is a major international electronics group.

“This order, the biggest in our company history, marks the final breakthrough into mass production of our MID technology,” said Chairman of the LPKF Board of Managing Directors, Ingo Bretthauer. He is also convinced that, “our production method is establishing itself as the standard in specific sectors, and will push aside alternative technologies.”

In its search for new laser applications, LPKF has developed and patented the Laser Direct Structuring (LDS) method since the 1990s. It is a method for the production of molded interconnect devices (MID), which are three dimensional circuit carriers. Injection molded plastic components made of special polymer granulates are first structured using a laser beam, before undergoing a metallization process. Although the technology is primarily used today for the production of smart phone antennae, Bretthauer sees more areas of application in medical and security technologies, as well as in the automotive sector.