←back to thread

A step toward fully 3D-printed active electronics

(news.mit.edu)
183 points gmays | 2 comments | 21 Oct 24 01:17 UTC | HN request time: 0.411s | source
Show context
jayyhu ◴[21 Oct 24 01:47 UTC] No.41900019[source]▶
Reading the article, it looks like so far they only have a working resettable fuse (a passive device), and only hypothesize that a transistor was possible with the copper-infused PLA filament. So no actual working active electronics.

And from the paper linked in the article[1], it seems the actual breakthrough is the discovery that copper-infused PLA filament exhibits a PTC-effect, which is noteworthy, but definitely not "3D-Printed Active Electronics" newsworthy.

[1] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17452759.2024.2...

replies(7): >>41901011 #>>41901082 #>>41901266 #>>41901359 #>>41901714 #>>41901793 #>>41905509 #
jayyhu ◴[21 Oct 24 08:08 UTC] No.41901793[source]▶
I want to clarify that they actually did build a transistor-like device, and not just hypothesize about it. I missed section 3.2 when I initially skimmed the paper, which demonstrates and shows the results of a working “transistor”.

Unfortunately I can’t edit my original post, so apologies for causing any confusion.

replies(3): >>41904881 #>>41904898 #>>41908275 #
1. nativeit ◴[21 Oct 24 20:35 UTC] No.41908275[source]▶
It’s cool for tinkering, and I think there are lots of potential use-cases for conductive filaments and printing in electronics, but I don’t think transistors are necessary. Silicon crystal development is really already a sort of “additive manufacturing”, and I’m not sure what purpose would be served by re-inventing a method that would be starting so far behind in terms of scale, precision, and cost in relation to traditional semiconductor production (anyway, I assume this idea is broadly for learning/experimentation/the lols, rather than some earnest aspiration for using metal-bearing printer filaments to produce active components).
replies(1): >>41911112 #
2. mycall ◴[22 Oct 24 04:11 UTC] No.41911112[source]▶
What about the use of power transistors that don't too well as silicon crystals afaik.