Polymer printed transistors

Polymer printed transistors

This is a “COOL” technology. Imagine being able to ‘print’ transistors on ‘paper’ and other materials.

The bulk of the investment in printed electronics has been taking place in the West, including many factories coming on stream in 2007. This is well reported. However, there is now a surge of investment in printed electronics in  Asia and many giant companies have entered the field for the first time. East Asian activity is poorly reported in the main but nonetheless very significant, because in East Asia they have much at stake.  Asia already dominates in OLED production, with huge production and investment. The next generation of OLEDs will be flexible and printed and  Asia must hold on to that too. China is now the world’s largest user of RFID and it will shortly be the largest supplier and these tags are increasingly printed. Indeed, even the silicon chip in them will be replaced with printed logic at one hundredth of the cost, so trillions can be sold every year.

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There are a remarkable 37 organisations working on printed transistors in Asia, with breakthroughs such as printable amorphous Ga In Zn O invented in Japan, one organization driving OLEDs with polymer transistors and another commercializing light emitting transistors. The plastic film scanner with no moving parts, e-skins, power sheets, various forms of electronics in biodegradable paper, a flexible organic battery that charges in only one minute, plastic film that acts as an ultrasonic transducer and plastic “e-paper” flexible displays are among the many new inventions being commercialized in the region.

I wonder if this type of electronics uses IC EDA tools or PCB EDA tools - - or a new hybrid of both?

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