Tech New discoveries
Researchers from the University of Cape Town (UCT) have used nanotechnology to create printable semiconductors, which can be applied to flexible surfaces at a low cost.
Professors David Britton and Margit Härting, from the physics department at UCT, have produced silicon nanoparticle-based inks without the need for the usual high-temperature processing.
“We produced silicon nanoparticles with particular characteristics, which allow them to be turned into semiconducting ink,” explains Britton. Using a novel printing technique, they can print “electronic ink” on substrates like paper, which they say exhibits performance quality comparable to silicon thin film transistors.
Britton explains that semiconductor fabrication usually involves a highly complex procedure, whereby a crystal wafer has to go through several stages with different layers being deposited and etched away, all in an ultra-high vacuum using expensive and high-temperature processes.
“By looking at the basic science, we understand enough about nanoparticles to produce particles which don't require this high-temperature processing,” he notes. “We use novel printing processes to print directly onto any substrate,” explains Härting, adding that the preferred material at the moment is paper. “With printing, what you see is what you get,” says Britton. He explains one can design a print and print it using different semiconductor inks.
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