Design World

  • Home
  • Technologies
    • ELECTRONICS • ELECTRICAL
    • Fastening • joining
    • FLUID POWER
    • LINEAR MOTION
    • MOTION CONTROL
    • SENSORS
    • TEST & MEASUREMENT
    • Factory automation
    • Warehouse automation
    • DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
  • Learn
    • Tech Toolboxes
    • Learning center
    • eBooks • Tech Tips
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
    • Webinars • general engineering
    • Webinars • Automated warehousing
    • Voices
  • LEAP Awards
  • 2025 Leadership
    • 2024 Winners
    • 2023 Winners
    • 2022 Winners
    • 2021 Winners
  • Design Guides
  • Resources
    • Subscribe
    • 3D Cad Models
      • PARTsolutions
      • TraceParts
    • Digital Issues
      • Design World
      • EE World
    • Educational Assets
    • Engineering diversity
    • Trends
  • Supplier Listings
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe

MIT Researchers Develop Printing Process for Electronic Labels

By Sheri Kasprzak | January 4, 2017

Imagine being able to read real-time electronic data on a label. For instance, your barista could print out a label so you’d know exactly how hot your coffee is as time passes. Electronic labels could prove useful in a number of applications. This technology could also make printing electronic surfaces for a wide range of functions possible.

Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a printing process for transistors that may make electronic labels and similar surfaces an inexpensive reality.

“There is a huge need for printing of electronic devices that are extremely inexpensive but provide simple computations and interactive functions,” says A. John Hart, the Mitsui Career Development associate professor in contemporary technology and engineering at MIT.

“Our new printing process is an enabling technology for high-performance, fully printed electronics, including transistors, optically functional surfaces, and ubiquitous sensors.”

Printing electronics is not a new concept. Inkjet and rubber stamping techniques have been used with lackluster results. According to the researchers’ paper published recently in the journal Science Advances, such techniques are difficult to control at small scales and tend to produce coffee ring patterns in which ink spills over the borders. Uneven prints can also lead to incomplete circuits.

The technique mapped out in Science Advances involves the design of nanoporous stamps – a type of stamp that’s spongier than rubber and about the size of a pinky fingernail. These stamps feature patterns smaller than the width of a human hair.

The porosity of these stamps allows a solution of nanoparticles, a sort of ink, to flow uniformly through the stamp and onto the desired surface. This allows a higher resolution than rubber stamp printing.

Carbon nanotubes are used for the stamp. These are strong, microscopic sheets of carbon atoms arranged in cylinders.

“It’s somewhat serendipitous that the solution to high-resolution printing of electronics leverages our background in making carbon nanotubes for many years,” Hart says.

“The forests of carbon nanotubes can transfer ink onto a surface like massive numbers of tiny pen quills.”

To make the stamps, the researchers used previously developed techniques to grow the carbon nanotubes on a silicon surface in various patterns, including honeycombs and flower shapes. These nanotubes were coated with a thin polymer to ensure the ink would penetrate the nanotube structures and that the nanotubes would not shrink after the ink was stamped. They then infused the stamp with a small volume of electronic ink comprised of nanoparticles like silver, zinc oxide, or semiconductor quantum dots.

The critical component to printing these precise, high-resolution patterns is in the amount of pressure applied to stamp the ink. This precise pressure was determined by a model to predict the amount of force necessary to stamp an even layer of ink onto a substrate. A printing machine made of a motorized roller was built for the process. The researchers fixed each stamp onto a platform attached to a spring, and they used this to control the force used to press the stamp against the substrate.

“This would be a continuous industrial process, where you would have a stamp, and a roller on which you’d have a substrate you want to print on, like a spool of plastic film or specialized paper for electronics,” Hart says. “We found, limited by the motor we used in the printing system, we could print at 200 millimeters per second, continuously, which is already competitive with the rates of industrial printing technologies. This, combined with a tenfold improvement in the printing resolution that we demonstrated, is encouraging.”

You Might Also Like


Filed Under: Industrial automation

 

LEARNING CENTER

Design World Learning Center
“dw
EXPAND YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND STAY CONNECTED
Get the latest info on technologies, tools and strategies for Design Engineering Professionals.
Motor University

Design World Digital Edition

cover

Browse the most current issue of Design World and back issues in an easy to use high quality format. Clip, share and download with the leading design engineering magazine today.

EDABoard the Forum for Electronics

Top global problem solving EE forum covering Microcontrollers, DSP, Networking, Analog and Digital Design, RF, Power Electronics, PCB Routing and much more

EDABoard: Forum for electronics

Sponsored Content

  • Widening the scope for machine tool designers with FORTiS™ enclosed encoder
  • Sustainability, Innovation and Safety, Central to Our Approach
  • Why off-highway is the sweet spot for AC electrification technology
  • Looking to 2025: Past Success Guides Future Achievements
  • North American Companies Seek Stronger Ties with Italian OEMs
  • Adapt and Evolve
View More >>
Engineering Exchange

The Engineering Exchange is a global educational networking community for engineers.

Connect, share, and learn today »

Design World
  • About us
  • Contact
  • Manage your Design World Subscription
  • Subscribe
  • Design World Digital Network
  • Control Engineering
  • Consulting-Specifying Engineer
  • Plant Engineering
  • Engineering White Papers
  • Leap Awards

Copyright © 2025 WTWH Media LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media
Privacy Policy | Advertising | About Us

Search Design World

  • Home
  • Technologies
    • ELECTRONICS • ELECTRICAL
    • Fastening • joining
    • FLUID POWER
    • LINEAR MOTION
    • MOTION CONTROL
    • SENSORS
    • TEST & MEASUREMENT
    • Factory automation
    • Warehouse automation
    • DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
  • Learn
    • Tech Toolboxes
    • Learning center
    • eBooks • Tech Tips
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
    • Webinars • general engineering
    • Webinars • Automated warehousing
    • Voices
  • LEAP Awards
  • 2025 Leadership
    • 2024 Winners
    • 2023 Winners
    • 2022 Winners
    • 2021 Winners
  • Design Guides
  • Resources
    • Subscribe
    • 3D Cad Models
      • PARTsolutions
      • TraceParts
    • Digital Issues
      • Design World
      • EE World
    • Educational Assets
    • Engineering diversity
    • Trends
  • Supplier Listings
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
We use cookies to personalize content and ads, to provide social media features, and to analyze our traffic. We share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising, and analytics partners who may combine it with other information you’ve provided to them or that they’ve collected from your use of their services. You consent to our cookies if you continue to use this website.