JAPANESE BOFFINS reckon they’ve discovered a quick and cheap way to manufacture flat-panel computer displays using inkjet printing equipment.

Researchers have been faffing around trying to find ways of building electronic devices with printers for years now with little success. This is probably due to the fact that standard printers can, at best, produce features 50 microns across. But new research carried out in the University of Tokyo details a fresh and more flexible approach to the technique.

According to the BBC, the Japanese technique, which has already been tested, has produced delicate wiring and tiny components useable in flexible screens. By employing a new inkjet head that can make drops up to 1000 times smaller than normal printers, the boffins reckon they have a good chance of being able to improve the performance of printed circuits.

Apparently the research could come in particularly useful in the field of organic electronics, which uses organic polymers (think bin bags and solar panels). Building circuits with these would be significantly cheaper and would eliminate many of the difficulties that arise from producing silicon devices at high temperatures.

The system works by applying a high voltage to the print head, making the drops in the inkjet to explode into tiny one micron droplets. The ink is made of silver nanoparticles held in a solvent. This enables the printing of continuous lines two microns wide and components only one micron across. That is still considered a bit too big by today’s microprocessor standards, but the Tokyo University researchers reckon that, although a bit too slow for commercial uses, it will be good enough for use in TFT screens.

Dr Peter Harrop of research firm IDTechEx told BBC News that printed electronics could be much bigger [Eh? - Ed] than silicon as they have relevance to other applications such as lighting and photovoltaics.

Also, say the researchers, the technique can be applied for patterning high-purity electrically functional materials without preparing original patterning masks.

They propose using the new technique to pattern precise and critical features of circuitry, leaving the rest of the work to lower resolution printers. µ

L'Inq
BBC