Semiconductors- now printed like paper

'Printed chips' could be boon for consumers

Until now, creating the microchips that power all of our electronic gadgets has been a laborious, complex and time-consuming process costing billions of dollars. But if a Milpitas, Calif.-based startup succeeds, making them could be as easy as printing a piece of paper.

And that could open up a huge market for so called "printed semiconductors," which would contain an enormous amount of data but would be cheap enough to slap on thousands of products. Imagine going to the grocery store and being able to find out what wine works best with your favorite chicken recipe.

Backed by investors who include former San Francisco 49ers Brent Jones and Tommy Vardell -- and a board that boasts Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Khosla -- privately held Kovio hopes to launch in a matter of weeks what is believed to be the world's first manufacturing plant for printed semiconductors.

By using inkjet and other types of printers, the company plans to make radio frequency identification devices -- so called RFID tags. Such tags traditionally contain microchips, but are so expensive now their use has been relatively limited.

If Kovio succeeds in keeping the price of the devices low, according to its executives and others familiar with the company, it could herald a new era for consumers and the chip business.
"If Kovio can pull that off, it's an enormous opportunity," said Carl Taussig, director of Hewlett-Packard's Information Surfaces Lab, which is exploring a different but related technology. "It's going to revolutionize that whole industry."
By using silicon-based ink, the company says it can print RFID tags on soup cans, textiles and a wide range of other surfaces. Kovio plans to especially target its tags at consumer goods.
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