Xerox Reveals New Metal Printing Technology

Date: February 10, 2010

San Francisco, CA -- According to Stephen Shankland of PC World, Xerox developed a new technology for printing electronic circuitry on a variety of materials including clothing and roll-up computer displays. This was presented in conjunction with the Printed Electronics Europe conference in Germany in 2009.

This new technology from Xerox uses ink that contains silver metal which can be used to wire up processing circuitry. Previously the available technology made it almost impossible to do this because the plastic used could not stand up to the heat of liquid silver. What Xerox has done to combat this problem is to develop an ink compound that works at a much lower temperature. This opens the doors to a variety of applications such as e-book readers with plastic displays or RFID tags.

Xerox has tested this technology on conventional desktop printers with normal inkjet methods, but the company feels that the most likely scenario is to print on continuous feed printers with rolls instead. The silver ink technology does not require the same ultra-clean environment that silicon chips have traditionally been printed in.

The process itself involves printing in three layers on a substrate. The first layer is a semiconductor followed by a conductor, and finally a dielectric. The silver ink layer is the one which conducts the electricity. Though the technology is not widely available yet, it is being tested by outside companies now and manufacturing the materials at production volumes should be a reality soon.

BY ADAM HAIGH, Editor