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Xerox Claims Printable Electronics Breakthrough
adeelarshad82 writes "Xerox announced a new silver ink that it's calling a breakthrough in printable electronics, a leading-edge concept that's generated a lot of discussion but few actual products to date. Why? Precisely because of the issues that Xerox claims to have addressed. In concept, printable electronics is just what it sounds like: using a printer, basically an inkjet, to print electronic circuits. If this can be done reliably, electronic devices can be printed for far less than current methods cost. One can also print the devices on a variety of new materials. The possibilities range from printing on flexible plastic, to paper and cardboard, to fabric."
So, how long till people start downloading designs to print them out at home?
I can replace my racks with a three-ring binder!
Set your phasers on "funky"!
I think it would be great if we can attach an electronic version of a printed document so that we can verify its authenticity using digital signatures.
Until the end of the 20th century, a major market for silver was photography. The digital camera and the inkjet printer have slowly destroyed that market and replaced it with digital imaging. Now there's a new use for the silver which, presumably, had digital imaging not come along would have been much more expensive. (Although color photography ends up more or less silver free and there was considerable recycling, there was still a steady consumption of silver, and as the photography market democratised, the amount of silver in use at a given time was steadily increasing.)
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
Electronics are going to be even more of a pain in the ass to service.
I can't see it being terribly reliable either.
Sent from my PDP-11
When I saw the sentence starting "The possibilities..." I mentally filled it in with "are endless".
I was surprised (and a little gratified) to see the summary actually enumerating some of the possibilities instead of hyping it as is normally done. That's good!
I can't wait to have a working circuit printed on as a tattoo, with the components inserted as piercings. I'm thinkin' 2 stage amp.
Printing like a inktjet is not fast enough, we need rotogravure like speed.
I'd love to prototype on something like this. But I doubt if the actual output off an inkjet would work beyond the first time I sneeze over it.
Honestly, in some sense I got into software rather than electronics because it was so hard to experiment with electronics freely. This could lower that barrier for hobbyists & more importantly, kids. It needn't last through the weekend, but if it works and you can see it work, it's enough.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur
.... or am I missing something??
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
From the article:
Great, just what I want: Having my clothes turned into a spamming device.
There are certainly countless examples of how wearable electronics could be put to good use, but the first thing they think of is advertising. Very telling, I'd say.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
A couple of interesting links to (short) videos about the process there also. http://www.xerox.com/go/xrx/template/inv_rel_newsroom.jsp?ed_name=NR_2009Oct27_Xerox_Scientists_Develop_Silver_Ink&app=Newsroom&view=newsrelease&format=article&Xcntry=USA&Xlang=en_US
You may be able to print barcodes and antenna's - but this will not do ordinary electronics - like say a switching power inverter , or an ipod amplifier. You will not get the density of a PGA or memory. Maybe a bus pass or something - if you were lucky.
If you look at a disk drive head ribbon, you will see they have already been making very flexible circuits on a plastic ribbon. But don't fold it up, as heat dissipation and cross capacitance is still a problem. The density needed for Schotties will not come out of an inkjet.
Being able to print the circuit is all well and good, but presumably it's literally just the underlying circuit and components still need to be attached? I'm guessing you can't just print a resistor, a transistor, an IC chip or something?
If I'm correct in this assumption, presumably this technology doesn't really open any new doors in terms of what can be created, only makes the process for testing and eventually producing circuit designs cheaper and possibly quicker?
I'm a long way from Einstein, but even I know that.
I admit, it does sound very cool; and maybe on plastic (or polymer) it might have some chance of working. Paper, cardboard, or fabrics however are not a good idea.
I see a use in wearables, devices built into your clothes ..
..
.. have several different tables, a group for Windws XP and Vista, a group for 2000, a group for NT, Me, 95, 98, etc. that just errors out, and one for LINUX.
-------
Making (microsoft) ACPI not work with Linux
"Foxconn
The one for Linux points to a badly written table that does not correspond to the board's ACPI implementation, causing weird kernel errors, strange system freezing, no suspend or hibernate, and other problems"
'You are incorrect in that the motherboard is not ACPI complaint. If it were not, then it would not have received Microsoft Certification for WHQL', Foxconn
'One thing I find myself wondering about is whether we shouldn't try and make the "ACPI" extensions somehow Windows specific ', billg Jan 1999
davecb5620@gmail.com
I can see this making the 3D printer *truly* revolutionary...! So what if next year you can create your own 64mb stick (block?) of ram that is 6x6 inches... in 5 years it will be 10 times as much ram, and one-half the size! Cheaper than buying silicon? Who knows... Technology only improves - as long as the world's economy doesn't collapse.... http://www.collapsemovie.com/ Cheers! ;)
Hmmm, if Xerox gets its way with a monopoly razor-blade like business in printable solder, ink won't be cheap.
There are dozens of patents, going back to 1940, for printing conductors on a surface.
IBM based their 360 line of computers on a set of circuit modules which had the conductors (probably silk-screen printed) onto a ceramic wafer.
So there is nothing remotely new about printing conductors. Or resistors.
You can't print semiconductors-- transistors, diodes, FETs or LEDS-- they have to be very pure crystalline solids with definite junctions, so that's a big roadblock.
How much is this magic conductive PCB ink and printer going to cost though? If it is anything like the magnetic ink you need for printing checks, I think they just raised the entry bar a fair bit. BTW you can already print your own PCBs, you just need a regular laser printer and some acid to etch out the pattern. There are numerous guides on Google about how to do this on the cheap.
Well your silver "lane" will have a certain resistance. Printing a thin wiggely line will make a nice resistor. Two lines just next to each other a capacitor. Obviously you will be limited in the range of Ohms / Farads available, but some basic components should be possible.
10 ?"Hello World" life was simple then
So it's a real leading-edge breakthrough concept for the space age, eh?
Oh gosh, don't keep me waiting for the answer!
Are you sure it's precise? And what are these issues?
Thanks for that intro. I was really scratching my head as to what it meant, since "printable electronics" just doesn't bring to mind anything clear.
And if we can develop a cheaper alternative to oil, we'll be able to have a cheaper alternative to oil. Oh, right, there's the question of how. How will these printable electronics be done reliably? And I'm sure that's the problem that everyone's trying to solve.
So in summary, this will impact everything from watch making to watch repair? OK sorry, had to end this critique on a light note.
I waited to see if anybody would take my (off-topic) point. I think that "Photography", literally drawing with light, does properly apply to the silver process. The digital process is quite different and has a different mindset. I'm a former RPS member who used to do landscape and portraits in medium format. I had to plan carefully, expose carefully and process carefully so as not to waste film. Nowadays, people just seem to point and click endlessly hoping that one of the results will be good, then fix stuff in Photoshop. I call it digital imaging because it is a different trade with different skills, just as I don't call helming a powerboat "sailing". (And my attempts with digital cameras are still nowhere near as good as my old MF photos - just knowing you can point and click seems to do something to my skill level.)
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
All you need is a standard sheet with pin holes in standard grid configuration. You print out the circuit, and insert your components through the holes, them clip them in place underneath,( or solder if the substrate can handle the heat!). I envision something like the clip on the back of an earring to hold them in place.
It's going to be very hard to start a fire on the typical 1 to 5V potential used in everyday electronics. I don't suppose that kind of thing will be used for power electronic. And yeah, I know lithium batteries can easily start a fire but they don't need paper PCBs to do that.
Einstein wouldn't have known that. He was a mathematical theoretical physicist, not an engineer. But you are wrong for another reason. Most low end PCBs are actually printed on a polymer-loaded paper substrate not that far from cardboard. Most modern paper burns very badly because a major component is clay - it's extremely hard to burn a magazine as they tend to have very highly loaded paper to allow full color printing. A modern mechanically polished paper substrate printed with a thin layer of UV cured polymer - which is basically what a full gloss brochure typically is made from - would be a "good enough" substrate for short life printable electronics.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
Now I can print a silver etched paper hat antenna which will magnify the signals into my brain. Oh, listen to all the sweet voices!
Every mans' island needs an ocean; choose your ocean carefully.
You can't print semiconductors-- transistors, diodes, FETs or LEDS-- they have to be very pure crystalline solids with definite junctions, so that's a big roadblock.
TFTs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thin-film_transistor
TFTs can be made using a wide variety of semiconductor materials. A common material is silicon. The characteristics of a silicon based TFT depend on the crystalline state. That is, the semiconductor layer can be either amorphous silicon, microcrystalline silicon, or it can be annealed into polysilicon.
I would say that your knowledge of transistors is somewhat outdated.
if it can layer conductor and insulator it could make sheets layered on top possibly alternating several times. or printing a piezo, you could make a careful shaped series of piezos produce reasonably passable audio also compensating for the resonance of the shell.
ThinkGeek will have a field day.
So if this is the future...where's my jet pack?
While Stratasys® is 'printing' all my capacitors, resistors and heatsinks, I'll be busy turning this ream of photo paper into head-to-head layers for a slew of motherboards and DVDs.
There is nothing to FEAR but NOTHING itself; and I fear there is a whole lot of nothing going on. --scorpivs
Yeah, thought so.
I wonder if this means that I will eventually be able to download and print off the latest graphics cards.
I'm no engineer but I don't think the US would allow electronics to be sold where the circuitboard is made out of something flammable like paper. That's an unbelievably stupid idea!
Google's Super Secret Search Algorithm: SELECT @search_results FROM internet WHERE @search_results = 'good'
Silver already has plenty of industrial uses, however they are not what drive the price of silver.
The reason most people invest in gold and silver are different: They are a kind of money that no government can print,they are costly to mine. Compare that to the pieces of paper that come out of the printing press in a central bank, and especially the central bank that we have that just doubled their balance sheet, and it is easy to see that the amount of gold and silver remains relatively fixed to the amount of dollars (and most other fiat currencies).
Historically, gold and silver have replaced every single fiat currency in history starting from the Romans 2000 years ago. Make no mistake, they will replace our current currency as well sooner or later.
It took the central bank raising interest rates to 20% by Paul Volger back in 1980 and cause a deep but quick recession to make gold and silver go down. The prospect of 20% interest was enough to entice a lot of people to get some dollars and gain interest rather than hold gold and silver. Also, the 20% interest rates means the Central bank stopped the printing presses. Does anyone believe Bernanke and Obama have the balls to do that again?
I recall seeing an article years ago about OLED displays. Someone actually made a functional prototype using an inkjet printer. They put the chemicals in the cartridge and printed an electronic display. My first thought was being able to print light-up signs. I've always wondered why the geek hobbyists haven't done this yet.
AT&T Western Electric printed the cards for many items, including the computers for the Safeguard ABM system and their class-4 phone switch cards, in the 1970s. sprayed silver ink.
no patent forrrrr YOU.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
as water based ink and does not require sintering or secondary processing and works well on standard inkjet or copier paper:
http://www.methodedevelopment.com/whatsnew.aspx?newsitem=29
http://www.methodedevelopment.com/whatsnew.aspx?newsitem=30
Commercial inkjet systems for printing electronics on a wide range of materials has also been available for some time: http://www.onelabs.com/prntelec0000.htm
Multilayer conductive pcb traces including passive and active components are already being inkjet printed. The current geometries however for components are in the few micron range. A couple of decades behind current semiconductor processing but far ahead of current pcb fabrication techniques.
Quidquid latine dictum sit altum viditur
Remember all the great things Xerox invented during its monopoly days?
I feel a disturbance in the force ... GPLv4.
That's all I want - a watch printed on my shirtcuff - they can put the read out on the cuff, and have the guts somewhere in the yoke where the fabric is thicker.
..........FULL STOP.
Brilliant! I need a new phone, just print one!
chips with button holes so they can be sewn to the fabric
printed circuits.
Third Career: Tree Farmer Second Career: Computer Geek First Career: Teacher, Outdoor Instructor, Photographer.