The ability to print circuits seems even more exciting than 3D printing to me.
(now if you could combine the two...)
Inkjet-Based Circuits at Fraction of Time and Cost
11–20 of 24 posts
Re: Inkjet-Based Circuits at Fraction of Time and Cost
#12How conductive? Relatively high-resistance can be worked around for CMOS logic- and MCU-based circuits (mainly high RC constants), but analog that has to be built with high-decade resistances is likely to be noise-prone and flaky, and forget power sections, they'll have to be built on conventional glass-epoxy and hooked up with flex-edge headers.
The lack of a good gas-tight bond between component and conductor is also problematic: silver tarnishes. Silver-clad switch contacts can be made self-wiping, but not static contacts. Absent some kind of hot-weld method, I can just see SMD parts popping off of flex-circuits.
This is a promising start to a new base-level technology, but it's got a ways to go before it's ready for the R&D lab as a tool rather than a patient. I look forward to seeing these issues overcome.
Re: Inkjet-Based Circuits at Fraction of Time and Cost
#13As always, university press super hype press releases without any useful hyperlinks. This must be corrected:
Lit:
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2493486
http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20090233237
Re: Inkjet-Based Circuits at Fraction of Time and Cost
#14Been waiting for this, since the first articles like this appeared about 30 years ago.
Re: Inkjet-Based Circuits at Fraction of Time and Cost
#15This sounds very promising. If we add different inks that are semi conducting and resistive, we could actually print out whole circuits with components.
Probably still a few years before this becomes reality.
Re: Inkjet-Based Circuits at Fraction of Time and Cost
#16The ability to print circuits seems even more exciting than 3D printing to me. (now if you could combine the two...)
Re: Inkjet-Based Circuits at Fraction of Time and Cost
#17Instead of inject printers, is it possible to use a laser printer but use graphene / MoS2 nanotube in the cartridge?
Re: Inkjet-Based Circuits at Fraction of Time and Cost
#18This is handy for quick prototyping, but it seems that you can't solder on the parts and have to use "conductive double-sided tape or silver epoxy adhesive" instead. To etch a PCB, the typical process is to (1) print a photo mask, (2) transfer it using photolithography or toner transfer, (3) dissolve away the exposed copper, and optionally drill holes. The coolest hack I've seen skips step (1) and (2) by directly "pr…
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Re: Inkjet-Based Circuits at Fraction of Time and Cost
#19Conductive ink is conductive, but not very conductive: http://c1qfxugcgy0.tumblr.com/post/58354457557/girlprince-ky...
Re: Inkjet-Based Circuits at Fraction of Time and Cost
#20You guys should check out Voltera (http://volterainc.com). We are working really hard to make this a reality. :)