Micro-Electronic Printing: The State of the Art, Current Research Activities and the Future Potential.

The development of printable microelectronics is opening new markets for the skills resident in the printing community and the opportunity to add value to existing products such as packaging. This paper reviews the latest published research in what is a rapidly advancing science. The potential markets for printed flexible electronics are discussed, before examining the printing processes and materials that are being developed. Issues relating to the quality assurance are discussed as when printing a functional product, print integrity is essential. The realisation of micro and nano technology is likely to rely on printing. In order to realise its full potential ther are still many areas, such as ink rheology where the impact on the process and the fundamental science is poorly understood.