3D printing plastic Electronics

The history of printing spans centuries and it’s one that is rich in breakthrough innovations and societal impact – from block printing to movable type to xerography to PARC’s own invention of the laser printer.

What is not widely known is that all of these new printing innovations take advantage of the same technologies used in actual printers, such as the printheads; ink, particle, and materials management capabilities; and printhead control. Instead of the familiar ink on paper, it’s an all new “ink” printed on plastic, or glass, or really almost anything. Using semiconducting and conductive inks and materials, we can now print transistors, sensors, circuits, batteries, and displays. Advanced materials can be engineered to behave as a semiconductor, emit light, or sense analytes. In other words, we can now print electronic functionalities and PARC has been exploring a variety of printed components and circuits that are now finding themselves in applications from smart labels to flexible devices to wearable sensors. We are even working on making tiny silicon chiplets into inks, each containing entire circuits.

And, of course, we’ve all heard of a little advancement called 3D printing. With the emergence of 3D printing suddenly it becomes accessible to design and build both objects and (for now, fairly simple) devices. It’s the same type of process as we use to edit and print a document, and it’s all happening now. lectronics has the potential to expand additive manufacturing to make things that contain intelligence. Ultimately the transition is more of an evolution – from editing and printing a document (traditional printing) to designing and printing a plastic part (3D) to designing and printing devices that include intelligence (printing electronics or integrated objects).

These new advancements hold incredible innovation and business-changing opportunities for many sectors, including printing companies and presses. With business diminishing due to digital distribution and e-books, there are new value chains and models for organizing manufacturing and distribution. The printing industry has the potential to re-tool their own existing set-ups and replace books with electronics. The idea of printing electronics can extend to both a large press or even the personal desktop – much like the equivalent of commercial printers and home desktop printers available today.