Add this one to our ever growing list of uses for inkjet printers.

Nanoident Technologies, a company in Linz, Austria is producing organic semiconductors (microchips) by spraying intricate patterns of specialized ink onto layers of foil and polymer. How does it work?

A modified printer uses 128 inkjet nozzles to spray a pattern onto different layers of foil or polymer. They layers are then put together. Pretty simple!

Using this technology the company is capable of producing 40,000 square meters of semiconductors a year. Traditional methods can also produce 40,000 square meters a year, but at a much greater cost. It would cost about $1.3 billion and require 5,000 employees. The Nanoident printing method only costs $10 million and requires 50 people. Printed semiconductors also have larger features than the traditional silicon chips. They can be printed with more than 100 times the features inserted in to silicon chips.

Despite the advantages, the organic chips will not be put to use in computers. They are far slower and degrade faster than silicon chips. They will instead be used for single use applications.