Digital printing of functional materials: a step forward to green electronics - invited talk

How can we fabricate more ecological friendly functional materials and electronic devices? Nowadays, the environmental issues of electronics from both the perspectives of used materials and manufacturing process is a major concern. The usage, storage, disposal protocol and the volume of waste material continues to increase the environmental footprint of our increasingly “throw away society”. Almost ironically, that society is increasingly involved in pollution prevention, resources consumption issues and post-consumer waste management. Clearly, there exists a dichotomy between environmentally aware usage and consumerism. The current technology to manufacture functional materials and electronic devices requires heat generation in a deposition process and hence generation of harmful chemicals/radiation. Additionally, there are environmental limitations, for example, high vacuum equipment requires enormous amounts of electricity to run, thus creating a larger carbon footprint. With this background, it is imperative to explore new electronic functional materials but as well as new manufacturing pathways. This talk will encompass the potential of inkjet printing technology as an innovative manufacturing pathway for functional materials, and electronic devices as an reliable alternative to traditional manufacturing protocols.