Carbon nanotube thin-film transistors running at 5 Gigahertz were recently demonstrated at the University of Massachusetts in cooperation with Brewer Science, Inc. Using an ink-jet-like printer from Optomec called the "Aerosol Jet", the carbon transistors were printed at room temperature on a polyimide substrate, promising ultra-low costs compared to traditional high-temperature processes using silicon substrates.
BOTTOM LINE: Spray on transistors are revolutionary, because they can be fabricated much more cheaply than silicon transistors that require high-temperature processing and expensive monocyrstalline silicon substrates. Unfortunately, most spray-on transistors are dismally slow. Optomec's Aerosol Jet printer, on the other hand, can use fast carbon-based materials to combine high speed with low cost. They can't compete with CMOS yet, but the future of printable electronics is bright. Look for wide scale applications in three to five years.
