Palo Alto Research Center Creates the First Jet-Printed Plastic Transistor Arrays; Printing Expected to Lead to Low-Cost Display Backplanes.Business Editors/High-Tech Writers PALO ALTO Palo Alto, city, California Palo Alto (păl`ō ăl`tō), city (1990 pop. 55,900), Santa Clara co., W Calif.; inc. 1894. Although primarily residential, Palo Alto has aerospace, electronics, and advanced research industries. , Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 28, 2003 The Palo Alto Research Center Palo Alto Research Center - XEROX PARC (PARC (Palo Alto Research Center Incorporated, Palo Alto, CA, www.parc.com) Founded in 1970, PARC is a Xerox subsidiary involved in high-tech research and development. Although Xerox's headquarters are in Stamford, Connecticut, and manufacturing and marketing are in Rochester, New York, PARC is ) has developed the first plastic semiconductor transistor array Transistor arrays are used for general purpose applications, function generation and low-level, low-noise amplifiers. They include two or more transistors on a common substrate to ensure close parameter matching and thermal tracking, characteristics that are especially important entirely patterned using jet printing. Jet printing will lower the cost of active-matrix display backplanes by replacing vacuum deposition and photolithography in current manufacturing. The technology is also expected to open up new markets for wall-sized TVs, unbreakable cell phone displays, rollable displays, and electronic paper. "PARC contributed greatly to the amorphous silicon transistor that is at the heart of all active-matrix liquid crystal displays. With this breakthrough, PARC is well positioned to revolutionize display technology yet again," explained Mark Bernstein, president and center director of PARC. These arrays are printed using two techniques -- an additive and a subtractive sub·trac·tive adj. 1. Producing or involving subtraction. 2. Of or being a color produced by light passing through or reflecting off a colorant, such as a filter or pigment, that absorbs certain wavelengths and transmits or method -- on either flexible or rigid substrates. Polymer inks are jetted directly onto substrates just where they are needed -- the additive process. Other materials are deposited everywhere and a mask is jet-printed on top. The material is then dissolved away except where protected by the printed mask -- the subtractive process. Both methods require precise layer-to-layer registration. The PARC printer is controlled by a patent-pending computer vision system to ensure proper alignment of the layers, even if the substrate warps or deforms during processing -- a well-known complication with flexible substrates. "The process is analogous to color registration. The printer correctly positions each layer of color with respect to the other layers, even if the paper or substrate has shrunk or warped. In this case, the layers to align are metal, dielectric and semiconductor, which create the transistor arrays," said Dr. Raj Apte, research scientist at PARC. The scientists at PARC perfected the technique of jet-printing polymer semiconductors to make high-performance transistor arrays. This advancement builds on the invention of polythiophene-based semiconducting polymer ink developed at the Xerox Research Centre of Canada XRCC is Xerox's materials research center. Founded in 1974, XRCC involves in materials design, synthesis, characterization, evaluation and scale-up to deliver materials and processes that support higher-quality and lower-cost colour and monochrome products for both office and production (XRCC XRCC Xerox Research Centre of Canada XRCC X-Ray Repair, Complementing Defective, in Chinese Hamster ) by Dr. Beng Ong. It is one of several joint research projects conducted within the Xerox Innovation Group. As Dr. Bob Street, research fellow at PARC, described, "These printed transistors have exceptional performance for polymers and meet all the requirements for addressing displays: high mobility, low leakage and good stability." Under a National Institute of Standards and Technology National Institute of Standards and Technology, governmental agency within the U.S. Dept. of Commerce with the mission of "working with industry to develop and apply technology, measurements, and standards" in the national interest. grant, scientists from PARC and XRCC are collaborating with teams at Motorola Labs and Dow Chemical to "develop novel organic electronic materials and processing technologies to enable the fabrication fabrication (fab´rikā´sh  n),n the construction or making of a restoration. of large-area electronic devices, such as displays, using relatively inexpensive printing technologies in lieu of semiconductor lithography." About PARC The Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), a subsidiary of Xerox Corporation, conducts pioneering interdisciplinary research in physical, computational, and social sciences. Building on its three-decade tradition of innovation, PARC works with Xerox and other strategic partners to commercialize technologies created by its renowned scientists. As the birthplace of technologies such as laser printing, Ethernet, the graphical user interface graphical user interface (GUI) Computer display format that allows the user to select commands, call up files, start programs, and do other routine tasks by using a mouse to point to pictorial symbols (icons) or lists of menu choices on the screen as opposed to having to , and ubiquitous computing, PARC has an established record of accomplishment for transforming industries and creating commercial value. See www.parc.com. About Xerox Xerox Corporation, one of the world's top technology innovators, operates research and technology centers in the United States, Canada and Europe that conduct work in color science, computing, digital imaging, work practices, electromechanical The use of electricity to run moving parts. Disk drives, printers and motors are examples. Electromechanical systems must be designed for the eventual deterioration of moving components that wear over time. The first TVs were electromechanical systems (see video/TV history). systems, novel materials and other disciplines connected to Xerox's expertise in printing and document management. For more information, visit www.xerox.com/innovation. NOTE TO EDITORS: High-resolution photos are downloadable at www.parc.com/pressroom. PARC is a trademark of Palo Alto Research Center, Incorporated. |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion