Microchips from Printers; thanks to NANOIDENT
Few months back, I had written about a graduate student who had created printed circuit boards using a DeskJet printer. That merely remained a PhD project but here is a company that actually implements the idea on a commercial basis for all their semiconductor needs; that too at an intricate level.
NANOIDENT Technologies based in Austria produces organic semi-conductor chips using a printer that uses a conductive ink printed on layers of polymer foils. The special printer has a 128 nozzle cartridge that sprays on the foil in a certain pattern as designed by engineers. Different parts of the microchip are printed on different foils and pressed together to form the needed microchip.
Here’s a news clip – NANOIDENT was able to manufacture a large-area photo detector array—a device that converts light into electrical signals—by depositing thin layers of conducting and semi-conducting “inks” onto a plastic foil substrate using state-of-the-art printing techniques. By using printed semiconductor based technology—which enables
unique mechanical, electro-optical and structural properties—the company was able to deliver an array 18×12cm in size, and could easily produce detectors up to 50×50cm or larger. With large-area, ultra-thin, flexible devices that incorporate application specific spectral properties, customers are able to eliminate expensive optical filters and develop an entirely new class of application types. Sample applications for large-area photo detector arrays include industrial measurement and test, medical imaging and security screening.
Organic semiconductors are not preferred in devices such as computers and cell phones as the clock speed is relatively slower than inorganic semiconductors and more importantly they degrade faster too. They find applications in devices that don’t depend upon the clock speed and probably have use for it for a brief period.
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