Proof-of-concept work on each of the system components: Component inks, circuit design software, component deposition, and circuit wiring (~18-24 months).Projects to “derisk” the most existential threats to the technology: Ink stability, component contamination, and circuit routing (~12-18 months).The program would occur in three phases and require roughly 5 years and $10 million: If the history of general purpose technologies is a guide, nanomodular electronics could have impact far beyond their obvious near term applications like tamper-resistant electronics with unique identifiers, physically implemented neural networks, and myriad low-volume applications that depend on custom circuits. Both synthetic biology and VLSI electronics became widespread because immature tools were put in the hands of creative and energetic students. It ensures the system will be flexible and consistent enough to accommodate unexpected ideas and non-expert users. However, changing how we make transistors requires an entirely new process for creating microelectronics.ĭevelopments in nanotechnology, colloidal chemistry, precision additive manufacturing, and computer vision suggest that this new process is possible!Ĭreating nanomodular electronics needs a research program that coordinates several parallel component-focused projects towards a single goal: a student competition to explore the possibility space of nanomodular electronics and uncover compelling uses.Ī student competition is a powerful “forcing function” for creating a general purpose technology. If you could create transistors and other circuit components in the same way, making microelectronics could be as ubiquitous as writing software. At roughly $10 billion per kilogram, transistors cost thousands to millions of times more than even drugs, which are created in bulk chemical processes that scale with volume. Figure: Price per mole for bulk productsĮven the transistors at the core of microelectronics are still shockingly expensive compared to other manufactured goods. Incremental improvements to the current system are possible, but won’t get around the fundamental limitations of the underlying process paradigm – the planar process. The process of using light and chemicals to construct microelectronics from a single piece of silicon has both enabled Moore’s Law and created many unfortunate downstream effects: industry consolidation in volatile parts of the world, fragile supply chains, high overhead for making custom circuits, and large barriers for innovating on the process because everything is so tightly coupled. These nanomodular electronics could enable a "fab in a box" and make fabricating microelectronics as straightforward as printing this document. Using a 3D-printer-like machine to create circuits by placing and wiring the components.Synthesizing modular, nanometer-scale components – transistors, sensors, and other devices – and suspending them in a liquid “ink” for storage or transport. It may be possible to reinvent how microelectronics are made using a two step process:
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