Printing Circuit Board with Home Printers

Japan-based AgIC ( Ag Inkjet Circuit) announced its newly invented inkjet printing technology, which enables printing circuit boards on bits of paper by home printers.

As is shown on AgIC’s Kickstarter page, home printers are transformed into circuit board manufacturing equipment, after they are filled with an extraordinary ink made from silver nanoparticles and that can undergo chemical sintering to become conductive.

“In short, a chemical reaction happens when the ink is dried on the surface of the paper,” said the company’s technical adviser, Yoshihiro Kawahara. “This small advance makes a huge difference as a practical tool.”

“Currently we are targeting mainly people who have experience in circuit design as users have to design circuits to use our circuit printer,” noted Shinya Shimizu, CEO and Co-Founder of AgIC. “But we would like to expand the user segment to other spheres of people. In order to realize that, we would like to build infrastructure, such as a web-based circuit pattern sharing platform where you can just download and print circuits, and hobby kits that include sample patterns and procedure to play with them.”

Also, the Kickstarter page states that the firm is going to develop an affordable kit that allows users to transform a home inkjet printer into a circuit printer, and develop further functions, including circuit pattern sharing platform, double-side circuit, and insulation coating.