Litho-printed Chips

Semiconductor startup Semp-rius developed a method to reproduce chips on flexible material using lithography. The innovation could open the door to new market applications for printers.

While Semprius, a spin-out of the University of Illinois, takes the traditional first step in creating chips on semiconductor wafers, a “wet etching” process using chemicals removes the transistors from the wafer. They are then transferred or printed on sheets of material through the use of a silicone rubber stamp.

The key feature of this approach is that the demanding process steps necessary to fabricate high-performance electronic systems are performed on the host substrate and not on the final plastic substrate. As a result, the inherent mechanical or chemical instabilities of the final receiving plastic substrate do not limit the choice of semiconductor manufacturing processes for fabricating the devices. www.semprius.com