DISQUS

VentureBeat: Xerox develops silver ink for wearable or throwaway electronics

  • Mayank · 1 month ago
    Am I missing something here? They can route metal on plastic, so? Big deal. A freshman will tell you that an electrical circuit is not just metal routing, it is active and passive elements like capacitors, inductors and off-course the transistors, which still seems a long way out.
    Can Mr. Takahashi mention when these are coming?
    Thanks
  • bokubob · 1 month ago
    Mayank: In the article it says "Xerox says it has now been able to fabricate cheap and lightweight components that are necessary to print circuits on plastic: a semiconductor, a conductor and a dielectric element"

    I'm guessing that the "semiconductor" and "dielectric" parts would be at least part of the "big deal".
  • chrisw · 1 month ago
    In circuit design for RF at frequenceis past a few GHz we rarely use "real components" instead we create inductors, capacitors and complex filters direct on PCB - active divices will be a little harder, but have you looked at the typical component count in modern devices? This is a huge step forward believe me.
  • johnbeans · 1 month ago
    I think the value of this is directly related to the ability to find reflow solder pastes for surface mount components that work below these temperatures. None of the ones that I currently use would work (~200C), but there are exotic ones that look like they might. Assuming you could find one, you'd be able to print a circuit board on your printer, drop SMT components on it, and bake it in a toaster oven to create your own circuit boards. Right now, that first step (making of the board) is (for all practical purposes) best done outside. Yes, there are etching kits, but nothing as handy as single step printing. I'd buy a dedicated printer for this if all the details could get worked out.
  • johnbeans · 1 month ago
    Oh, on second thought it should also be noted that single layer boards aren't all that useful. Very hard to even drop a minimal microcontroller on a board without needing at *least* vias to the other side.
    Although... I wonder if it would be possible to cover the nanoAg with non-conductive ink and build up "layers" in ink? Perhaps if you stayed below the melting point of the inks during processing, you could actually use even *more* layers than on a typical board. Hmmm.... Okay, *then* it would be interesting.
  • Name · 1 month ago
    The idea isn't to replace PCB's, it's to replace IC's. The idea is that with semiconductive, conductive, and dielectric inks you can replicate fabricated circuit components on a flexible substrate, AND you can do it at low temperatures with much cheaper equipment than is used for silicon fabbing.
  • johnbeans · 1 month ago
    Well, yeah, I hear ya. I suppose I was reacting to the picture shown in the article, which appears to contain footprints for conventional components. Seems to be two choices right now: 1) using this technology as rapid-print circuitry for conventional components (thus impacting the board fab step, but not the others), or 2) printing both circuits and components. But at printing resolutions, we can't really make very interesting components, can we? So maybe a hybrid is inevitable (some printed, some not). ChrisW mentioned that the simpler passive components could be printed; that would be a help, though those are sub-penny components...
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  • Florist · 1 month ago
    Its very nice information you given to us
    i agree with you
    -----thanks-----
  • airsome · 1 month ago
    maybe we have spent more time an d energe on throwaway electronics?!
  • abdulmajeedtahir · 4 days ago
    I need to make pcb with a silver ink without copper clade sheet