January 9, 2003	Thursday	Ziqa’ad 5, 1423

LONDON, Jan 8: Printers could soon be pumping out remote control devices, electronic toys and radios if engineers in California have their way.

Scientists at the University of California in Berkeley are devising technology that will enable ink-jet printers to produce fully assembled gadgets.

“Instead of creating a casing and then laboriously filling it with electronic circuit boards, components and switches, the game plan is to print a complete and fully assembled device,” according to New Scientist magazine.

The Berkeley researchers have already figured out how to print electronic components including transistors and semiconductor components.

“The trick is to print layer upon layer of conducting polymers in such a way that the circuitry the device requires is built up as part of the bodywork,” the magazine said.

John Canny, who is heading the Berkeley team, believes the technology can be further developed so that ink-jet cartridges can deal with the polymers needed for the casing and circuit printing.

“This merging of flexible materials with electronics has been dubbed flexonics and could do away with the conventional print circuit board,” the magazine said.

The electronics are embedded into the device instead of being soldered to it but if the gadget breaks it can’t be fixed because the embedded components cannot be replaced so it must be thrown away.—Reuters