DP Patterning is taking its flexible copper cladded aluminium circuits into vehicle interiors. Together with Artifex Systems, a Tata AutoComp company, and ams OSRAM, the company has built a demonstrator in which a blind spot warning light sits inside the moulded trim of a car’s A-pillar. The circuit is patterned in DP Patterning’s new plant in Norrköping, and every step of the chain apart from the LEDs takes place in Sweden.
Lighting built into a curved interior part is a demanding task for a flexible circuit. The demonstrator proves DP Patterning’s process in an application close to series production, and shows what the same process can do for simpler ones.
Made with Dry Phase Patterning
The circuit is made with Dry Phase Patterning, DP Patterning’s patented process that cuts the circuit pattern dry and mechanically, roll to roll, in solid metal, replacing chemical etching and printed silver. Aluminium instead of silver lowers material cost, and the process uses no etching chemistry and no water.
Since September 2026, DP Patterning has been producing in a new 3,500 square metre plant at Hammargatan 41 in Norrköping, with capacity for over ten million square metres of flexible circuits a year. The same single-layer aluminium process is already used for flexible heaters and antenna structures, where vehicle interior lighting is a new application area.
Artifex, which moulds interior parts such as door panels and pillar trims for the automotive industry in Sweden, started the project to integrate electronics into its components. DP Patterning patterns the circuit on laminate from a Swedish supplier, and ams OSRAM supplies the LEDs, LED driver ICs and lighting design, building on a collaboration with DP Patterning in vehicle lighting that began in 2025.
“The hardest thing for a new manufacturing technology is not making it work. It is getting customers to trust it in production. A light built into a car pillar is a demanding application, and we have built it with almost the whole chain in Sweden. That gives companies with simpler applications a good reason to trust us. European automotive is under pressure, and this shows that new technology can make local production competitive,” says Erik Berggren, Business Development Manager, DP Patterning.
“Vehicle manufacturers want interiors that do more without adding weight, cost or complexity. Building the electronics directly into the parts we mould is a natural next step for us, and doing it with partners a short drive away makes it a stronger offer to our customers,” says Amir Hodzic, Electronics & Systems Manager, Artifex Systems.
Thin, flexible cirucits enable surface lighting
The demonstrator uses ams OSRAM’s AS1163. “Lighting is moving from separate modules into the surfaces of the car, and thin, flexible circuits are a key part of that. This demonstrator shows how our complete lighting solution – including both LEDs and LED drivers – can be integrated into an interior part with a local supply chain, and it continues the work we started with DP Patterning in 2025,” says Andrea Maria Saraceno, application engineer, ams OSRAM.
The demonstrator will be on display at DP Patterning’s stand at electronica in Munich, 10 to 13 November, Hall A1, Stand 403. It will also be presented at the DVN Sweden Workshop in Gothenburg, 18 to 19 November, stand S6.