MicroPen Technologies

The origin of Micropen Technologies Corporation was a DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) project in 1979 whose objective was to create a rapid prototyping system for making thick film hybrid microcircuits. The project culminated in the development of a system that dispensed electronic inks in precisely controlled line widths and thickness onto cermet surfaces. At the time, screen printing was an effective process for long production runs of hybrid circuits, but very costly and labor intensive in the design and prototyping phase. A new "direct writing system" was the solution. The Micropen® direct writing system was born. A patent was filed and, subsequently, granted.