Flexible roll-up television screens and computer displays are one step closer to reality with the Semi conductive ink and new materials revealed by Xerox Corporation. The company spends $1 billion annually on research and development and employs 1,100 researchers and scientists.
This new research is also likely to help manufacture low-cost RFID radio frequency identification chips apart from providing an alternative to the more expensive CMOS technology which is used to build most chips today.
Other companies are working on ways to print chips using inkjet printing technology or other methods of depositing liquid on a surface. But unlike materials developed by researchers from other organizations which require processing at high temperatures and under inert atmospheres, Xerox Claims that it has developed high performance, semi conductive ink that can be used to print the semiconductor channel's of transistors at low temperatures and in open air - a requirement for low cost manufacturing says Beng Ong, a Xerox fellow, in a press release.
The new research satisfy's both the elements for low cost manufacturing: 1. Materials that can be processed in ambient conditions. 2. Compatible printing techniques.
The new technique builds on a polythiophene semiconductor (Organic compound that resists degradation in open air better than other semiconductor liquids and also exhibits self-assembling properties ) developed by Ong's team as well as on the Palo Alto Research Center's(wholly owned subsidiary of Xerox) method for creating a plastic semiconductor transistor array using inkjet printing last fall.
Ong's team has now found a way to take the polythiophene semiconductor and process it into a liquid that can form ordered nanoparticles. When the particles are put into liquid form, they form an ink that can be used to print the three key components of a circuit: a semiconductor, a conductor, and a dielectric, Xerox says. He believes that products based on these or similar materials will be available commercially in the near future.
The finance for this research carried out by Xerox which is working with Motorola Inc and Dow Chemical Company was provided Under a National Institute of Standards and Technology's Advanced Technology Program grant.
"Without the sharing of financial burden through the ATP grant, Xerox would not have been able to aggressively pursue this high-risk research endeavor," said Hervé Gallaire, president, Xerox Innovation Group.
Xerox Corporation operates research and technology centers in the United States, Canada and Europe that conduct work in color science, computing, systems, novel materials and other disciplines connected to Xerox's expertise in printing and document management. Xerox concentrates on R&D in key areas: marking systems, materials, digital imaging and solutions and services.
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