from Hacker News

Printed Electronics (2016)

by barelyusable on 5/9/17, 4:33 AM with 51 comments

  • by devrandomguy on 5/9/17, 6:22 AM

    Imagine if this technology was available as inkjet cartridges. The potential for decentralization of electronics manufacturing, is staggering. So is the potential of electronics at the price of fancy photo paper. We would finally be in a position to begin replicating the open source software revolution, in electronics. The power of the hardware manufacturing giants would melt away.

    High performance, nanometer-scale silicon would obviously still have to be manufactured the classic way, because, nanometers. But, instead of buying a precious tablet, you order a ribbon of of peel & stick wafers, of commodity CPU and RAM chips. You then stick them onto a printed, flexible nv-mem + screen to enable it to compute at modern speeds.

    As people get used to disposable, custom electronics, they learn that for most of what they do with a single sheet of "paper", they actually need very little computing power. Rugged, cheap, micrometer-scale CPUs make a comeback. Kids study them in grade school, using an ordinary optical microscope. IC designers start to optimize for readability. The general public begins to take responsibility for their hardware and software stack, the way they take responsibility for their vehicle and their home.

    /dream

  • by ChuckMcM on 5/9/17, 6:33 AM

    Wow, this is pretty much 90% of the value of the old Plastic Logic business (are these guys related?)

    Sad that they are spinning it as a physical products DRM although I certainly understand how that it is unique there. Cheap challenge/response authentication that even if you have all the materials and the printer you can't duplicate without the crypto secrets. Its a much better gizmo that a hologram sticker.

    That said, I'd love to see them add OLEDs so that you can print a 'picture' and drop it on a table and have it light up. The signage options there would be pretty awesome too.

  • by sgt on 5/9/17, 7:48 AM

    So how far we from being able to use this technology on a prototype basis and quickly (and cheaply) print electronics at home or at the office?

  • by leggomylibro on 5/9/17, 5:53 AM

    Huh. The site isn't completely clear; could this sort of technology cheaply print custom silicon layers, like ICs and some types of components? If so, that would be amazing. If I could print a to-spec FET, a 555 die, some BJTs, a handful of film resistors to +/- 1%...

    Well baby, you got yourself a stew!

  • by Leynos on 5/9/17, 8:19 AM

    Here are details (from 2015) of the collaboration with Xerox mentioned on the Thinfilm page: https://venturebeat.com/2015/01/21/thinfilm-teams-with-xerox...

    They describe being able to print memory, with logic planned in the future. They also talk about commercializing and scaling the process.

    Rights management for physical goods seems to be the most commonly touted usecase for this. Another example usecase I have heard mentioned is a thermometer and an indicator that changes colour to indicate spoilage that can be printed into the label of temperature sensitive goods.

  • by tiredwired on 5/9/17, 7:48 AM

  • by swampthinker on 5/9/17, 5:24 AM

    If this is cheaper than RFID tags, I'm seriously considering starting a company around selling a fridge device that could keep track of food that had a tag printed on them.

    The Jetsons fridge that has always been promised, but never made. A fridge that could buy your food for you!

  • by PinguTS on 5/9/17, 6:44 AM

    There are other companies in this field too. Right next town here is PolyIC who does printed circuits for years for use as touch buttons, printed RfID, and alike. http://www.polyic.com/

  • by ChefDenominator on 5/9/17, 2:18 PM

    TPM?

    Standard critique of TPM includes pointing out that manufacture is a black box of trust. The ability to completely control both software and hardware seems like it would make this scheme more desirable.

  • by jlebrech on 5/9/17, 9:34 AM

    now if the top layer could be a display and the other 6 layers are the rest of the computer.

    I'd create a cube of all those sandwiched together.

  • by amelius on 5/9/17, 5:42 AM

    What is the pitch of this technology?

  • by tmaly on 5/9/17, 2:29 PM

    It must be too early, but I am failing to see the major benefits here.

    Is it cheaper and more durable?

  • by Animats on 5/9/17, 5:13 AM

    The application seems to be cheaper RFID tags.

  • by Kliment on 5/9/17, 6:40 AM

    Fucking terrible that what they considered the number one item to mention on that page is how many patents they hold, rather than what the thing is, does, or is good for.

  • by runeks on 5/9/17, 5:25 AM

    > Xerox opening 1.3Billion unit plant in early 2016

    Sounds like the site needs an update.

  • by khoury on 5/9/17, 12:02 PM

    test