My colleague, Martin Rowe, forwarded a link to this National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) news item about printable transistors. As he says in his e-mail, “This is just plain cool.”
The news item describes a research project at the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), a Xerox subsidiary, that has successfully created a transistor array of the type used to control a flat-panel display using a modified ink-jet printer and semiconductor “ink.” Using a semiconducting polymer ink they sucessfully built a prototype flat-panel display.
While the first application will be to manufacture cheaper displays, think of what we will be able to do with this technology once it gets cheap enough for hobbyists to use. We’ll be able to design circuits on the computer, simulate them, and then print them and test them. Want to experiment with DSP circuits? Just print one out! It didn’t work quite as expected? No, problem, just toss it into the recycle bin and try something else.
I think this is going to be an incredible boon for hobbyists.
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