Researchers boast of progress with printed electronics
By Donald Melanson 
posted Jul 5th 2008 5:02AM
posted Jul 5th 2008 5:02AM
There's certainly no shortage of researchers working on printable electronics these days, but a group from the EU-funded CONTACT project is now boasting of a "major step" towards being able to print electronics on everyday materials. At the moment, they seem to be focused primarily on printing organic TFT displays directly onto glass plates, which apparently required the use of some aggressive solvents that "attack" the organic materials between the TFT and liquid crystal layers. Their current Labratester 1 printer (pictured above) apparently still has some problems precisely lining up each layer, however, but they say that'll be fixed with the addition of some optical cameras in the Labratester 2 machine they're now working on. Eventually, they say the system could be used to easily and cheaply print displays directly on watch faces or glasses, or even print other electronics onto paper or other fabrics.
[Via Protein Feed, image courtesy of NSMZ]
[Via Protein Feed, image courtesy of NSMZ]
should this be on a gadget site?
Yes... honestly it's a pretty legit article. Now an article on Tata going eco is something to complain about not being gadget related, but not this so much.
Ugh, now the next Macbook might actually BE the manila envelope.
Can't wait to use a MacBook Air to cut it!
I'm so happy that you will die some day. Kudos.
to fail.
If I've understood the article correctly you'll need to add a registration system I like to suggest you look to the Heidelberg for this they use a pull system that would grab the material which would allow for all the material you wish to use just add a pad of soft rubber for the glass. what about a constant feed system or are planning a single feed
For god sakes, you need to learn how to use proper punctuation! It's exhausting trying to read your post
text
text photo
Open Playstation3.doc, File, Print...
1. Rinse
2. Repeat
3. ????
4. Profit
OWO VERY GOOD
"paper or other fabrics"? Is paper a fabric in the USA?
Yes. Look it up.
I would love to see this integrated with 3D printers, just image the possibilities.
@ Echo1
That is the general idea...
They can do what now ?
That's pretty awesome. You could make a re-usable newspaper by printing a flexible display on paper and just "downloading" the day's news to it. Could even do moving images like the newspapers and signs in Harry Potter... That is an awesome concept!
We already have e-paper in use and the tech is improving rapidly.
Amazon's Kindle uses an e-paper display.
I'm surprised nobody has already compared this to the obvious - HUD's in cars. I remember some show was talking about the advancements of cars over the next few years, and showed a picture of a full car display in the windshield.. unfortunately with advertisements showing to distract the driver.
This is definitely the future of electronics. Imagine the day when they can print off motherboards on flexible polymer plastic sheets the way you can make copies of your resume in a copying machine today. CPU, solid state memory, display and all.
What do you do when you need to upgrade?
HardWarez anyone?
Someday this will be as common as printing paper used to be.
guys,guys....cut him some slack.It's is first post.At least wait til his second or third post to shut him down completely.
Awesome concept! I vividly remember my eighth grade science teacher telling our class that microbiology was the future of electronics. Assuming this paper replaces the current type what kinds of new uses will we find for it?
...How much will this change the clothing industry? If people can display advertisements on their clothes then should they be paying to wear them?
but where does the meat go?