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Sci Tech
Inkjet printed light-emitting devices created
UNIVERSITY OF Arizona scientists are developing a new inkjet printing process that produces such light-emitting devices as pictures and such photovoltaic devices as solar cells from digitised images on a computer.
Inkjet printing is a versatile printing process that can be applied to almost any size surface— from postage stamps to building wraps. Images are formed by the precise placement of extremely small droplets of ink fired at high speeds from the nozzles of computer-controlled print heads.
According to a press release from the University of Arizona, optical sciences Professor Ghassan E. Jabbour is able to inkjet print an organic solution onto electrically conductive surface producing a self-illuminated photo. "We came up with a new process using inkjet to vary conductivity of conductors. We can do some chemistry with the inkjet printer that allows us to control where we want to allow a lot of electrons and where we don't want to allow a lot of electrons," Jabbour said.
"There's a lot of science and technology involved, but basically, we take a picture, or design an electronic circuit, scan it to computer, then send it to the printer.
We already have programmed the printer to interpret colours and convert them to a chemical reaction, so the printer prints images just like it was printing on paper," he said.
A photo could be printed on plastic so it glowed LED green. But using different materials, they could have printed the photo to emit in other visible colours or in the infrared, wavelengths which are invisible to the naked eye.
Printed in the infrared on plastic, silicon or glass, light-emitting images have interesting security applications, for starters.
The ability to continuously vary electrical conductivity in materials could be useful in such hot-topic areas as micro fluidics and other micro technologies, Jabbour added. "We might build very tiny heaters that can vary heat from one place to another, or micro filters that can filter ions from a solution, which is not easily done otherwise," he said.
Inkjet printing is only one project in Jabbour's broad research program, which focuses on fundamental understanding, as well as practical applications, of photonic and electronic materials and devices (Photonic materials are materials that interact strongly with light.
What electrons are to electronics, photons are to photonics.)
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