Nanoident Technologies claims to have opened the world’s first manufacturing facility for printed semiconductor-based optoelectronic devices.

Located in Linz, Austria, the fab, called OFAB is fitted for volume production of plastic semiconductor devices such as sensors and has a a class 100 cleanroom.

Nanoident is the first of a number of companies moving so-called plastic or printable  semiconductor technology from the development stage to full production. Plastic Logic is building a $100m facility in Dresden, but Polymer Vision is likely to be the next in production at a facility in Southampton for its flexible polymer display technology.  

“Printed semiconductor-based optoelectronics devices will usher in an era of new application types, traditionally not well suited for silicon, which will improve healthcare, enhance personal and homeland security, as well as drive new industrial applications,” said Klaus G. Schroeter, CEO of Nanoident.

A feature of printable semiconductor fabrication is that it can make use of some traditional semiconductor development tools while applying them to a lower cost printing process rather than traditional lithography to manufacture ICs, sensors and displays.

According to Nanoident, printed electronics uses many of the same electronic design automation (EDA) tools as conventional IC design, The finished layout is translated into files that are read by the printing equipment.

The “printing inks” used in the fab process consist of conducting and semiconducting conjugated polymers and/or other nanomaterials that are formulated into solvents, which serve as the functional layers for the printed electronic device.

Printing is done one layer at a time (semiconductor, conductor, insulator, resistor, and dielectric), each deposited using an advanced printing system. With feature sizes as small as 10µm, the layers must align precisely for the device to function properly. Each layer must be dry before subsequent layers are printed.