Rapid Prototyping with a $100 Inkjet Printer
Conventional electronics prototyping requires milling machines that have limited speed, are noisy, cannot process flexible substrates, and require regular maintenance. One way to overcome these issues is to transform your inkjet printer to print electronics.
The real magic in this prototyping technique lies in the ink. Thes e inks are formulated to have the right particle size so that the nozzle is not clogged and have the right viscosity for printability. Moreover, functional inks usually require heat or photonic (high-intensity light) treatment to make the printed pattern conductive. However, Mitsubishi Paper Mill’s ground-breaking ink utilized chemical sintering to make silver conductive instantly after printing without the need for further treatment. This ink is currently not available for purchase but there are some alternatives.
Although inkjet printing electronics was demonstrated decades ago, it was brought to the public eye by AgIC in 2014. The company used Prof. Yoshihiro Kawahara‘s research with Mitsubishi’s special silver ink to launch a successful Kickstarter campaign. Prof. Kawahara et. al. demonstrated several applications ranging from touch sensors to capacitive liquid level sensors in their award-winning 2014 paper.
