Low-Cost Trimmable Manufacturing Methods for Printable Electronics

While printable electronics (PE) has the potential to provide a low cost means to manufacture electronic solutions, it suffers serious levels of component variations. While many of the problems facing PE are early technological development yield-related problems, some are more fundamental to its manufacturing nature. In this work, methods to construct PE circuits that compensate for these variations will be described. These methods include a combination of printing, severing, and ink deposition techniques that are performed both during and after manufacturing. Data obtained from working prototypes made using the PE technology at the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada will be described.