"If a startup wants to develop hardware, it is generally more difficult to find a circuit designer than a programmer." Shinya Shimizu wants to change all that by printing circuit boards on bits of paper. If you're wondering what that looks like in action, check out his company AgIC Inc's Kickstarter page and a video showing what happens when you make a paper plane using the technique. It flies in perfect circles.
That plane has been put through an ordinary printer, filled with an extraordinary ink made from silver nanoparticles. Normally, a circuit board made using the substance would need to be sintered in an oven at around 150C for a few hours for the minuscule metal particles to bond. Considering it's being printed on paper and the team didn't want people setting fire to their homes, AgIC opted for ink that can undergo chemical sintering to become conductive. "In short, a chemical reaction happens when the ink is dried on the surface of the paper," says the company's technical adviser, Yoshihiro Kawahara. This is the novel part of the project, the part that can take home printing circuit boards from being a concept, to actually being in everyone's home. "This small advance makes a huge difference as a practical tool."
Last year the team received an award for a paper describing the process, and shortly afterwards formed AgIC with the founder of a mobile software developers Tomy Kamada onboard as an angel investor. When it comes to printing with silver nanoparticles, they're pretty sure they've nailed it. "Backers can sit back and relax," Kawahara tells us.
As they see it, there is only one main problem that stands in the way of total world domination. And that's infrastructure. It's easy to introduce the ink to any home inkjet printer -- you just use one of AgIC's supplied syringes to inject it into an empty cartridge. And additional components can be added simply using conductive tape. Convincing a public perhaps unfamiliar with circuitry, however, is another matter on the road to democratising electronics.
Shimizu believes by enabling easier and faster prototyping of circuit design, more people will try it, but that's only half the battle. "Currently we are targeting mainly people who have experience in circuit design as users have to design circuits to use our circuit printer," he admits. "But we would like to expand the user segment to other spheres of people. In order to realise that, we would like to build infrastructure, such as a web-based circuit pattern sharing platform where you can just download and print circuits, and hobby kits that include sample patterns and procedure to play with them." Just as Thingiverse has become a place for 3D-printing enthusiasts to share product ideas, along with CAD files, AgIC wants to create a platform that brings together ideas and a community, to show the possibilities.
On its Kickstarter page, the team talks about the kit being a simpler, more beautiful alternative to breadboards, and a quick way to prototype PCB designs before sending a design to the factory.
But it's also interested in the creative possibilities -- wiring as a part of art; making paper planes with embedded ink circuits. It makes sense, because this is how you build a community. And there's a creative one out there already growing that AgIC is connected to.
Kawahara has worked closely with Chibitronics, a company that wants to get people excited about electronics by telling stories using home made circuits, for instance.
Like Chibitronics, by not just appealing to one subsection of society that already works with PCBs on a daily basis, AgIC has a chance of getting the kit into the mainstream and, one day, classrooms. "We believe this is cost effective enough to have one in every classroom," says Shimizu. "It provides a much more intuitive learning environment for students. Each teacher can easily make a workbook with conductive printed patterns and update the workbook along with the advancement of students' skills without purchasing any additional components... all the teacher has to buy are paper and ink."
The final obstacle will be getting the circuits to the same level -- or as close as possible -- to real PCBs. The main two targets are making double-sided printing and insulation coating designs easier -- these are additional Kickstarter goals of $100,000 (£59,000) and $300,000 (£180,000) respectively. The team has already reached $24,999 of its total funding $30,000 (£18,000) goal.
For anyone feeling a little unsure about hacking their printer and creating a CAD file, but interested in supporting the campaign, donations of $19 or greater get a silver nanoparticle pen in return, for a simpler take.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
