EE Times has an article on their website, “Printed ICs aim to make mark on mainstream,” that describes advances in
thin-film transistor circuits–and the broader category of printed or plastic electronics–as the next step beyond wafer-based ICs. The technology uses inkjet printers and polymer inks to print cheap, low-density ICs on a system, display or just about anything else. As such, it promises to make the IC ubiquitous, opening a host of new applications.
I can envision a time when we’ll design circuits on a computer, print them out on relatively inexpensive printers, and then test them and play with them. The ease with which we’ll be able to do this will make experimenting easy and fun again.
Not only will we be putting circuits together, but playing around with the transistors themselves. Don’t like the characteristics of the transistors in your component library? Well, then, change them! This should be a lot of fun.
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