Another printed electronics milestone

Venture capital backed Kovio, Inc. this week laid claim to the world’s first all-printed, high-performance silicon thin-film transistor (TFT). With a declared mobility of 80cm2/Vs, their TFTs exceed the performance of previously reported printed TFTs using either organic or inorganic semiconductors. According to their recent press release, Kovio’s “functional electronic inks include silicon, doped silicon, metals, and insulators. Combining functional electronic inks with high-resolution graphics printing technologies, Kovio has printed high-performance silicon TFTs at a fraction of the cost of conventional lithography-based silicon technology. The significantly lower cost is possible as a result of additive digital printing processes, lower capital expenditures and faster cycle time.” Find out more about Kovio’s technology at Semiconductor International and read about similar printed electronics milestones in my recent EDN article entitled “Printed electronics: ink on the brink“.