Electronics Production |
Thin Film & Xaar demonstrate<br>printed ferroelectric memory array
Thin Film Electronics has AB presented an electronic memory device entirely manufactured by industrial scale inkjet printing techniques and equipment. The work is carried out in collaboration with Xaar, a world-leading manufacturer of inkjet printheads, based in Cambridge, UK and with a manufacturing and development site in Järfälla, Sweden.
The current breakthrough demonstrates the feasibility of using inkjet printing methods for manufacturing electronic devices. Real printed electronics have recently started to evolve at a research and development stage. Now, Thinfilm and Xaar are adding a non-volatile random access memory as well as a manufacturing technology to this rapidly growing field. Thinfilm's ferroelectric memory technology is based on organic polymer materials. Therefore, it is highly suitable as a memory in printed electronics applications.
The new process has been developed following earlier successful print work during the spring of 2005 with non-industrial scale techniques and memory cell properties. Thinfilm has a solid background in developing polymer based ferroelectric memories manufactured by conventional microelectronics methods, and make use of the long experience from that field in the emerging field of printed electronics. Xaar brings expertise in the development of compatible fluids, and the optimisation of those fluids to ensure precise drop volume and placement accuracy.
