評論
打印
Science and technology
科學技術
3D manufacturing
3D制造
Print me a phone
給我打印一部電話
New techniques to embed electronics into products
新技術直接把電子元件嵌入產品中
OPEN up any electronic device and inside there are circuit boards, components and bundles of wire.
拆開任何一個電子設備，你都會在里面發現電路板、電子元件和一束束電線。
Assembling these items into a product like a phone can be a tedious, labour-intensive process, and one that is often subcontracted to low-wage countries such as China.
把他們組合在一起做成產品的過程是很乏味的，這個勞動密集型的過程常常被分包給低工資的國家，比如中國。
Now new ways of printing electronics in three dimensions are being developed.
現在三維電子印刷術已經比較成熟，
This makes it possible to incorporate circuitry and components into the material the product is made from, such as the phone's case.
這種新方法使得在原材料上把電路和原件一體化成為可能，
It could revolutionise the way electronic goods are made.
這將徹底改變電子產品的生產方式。
Printing electronics is not new; screen printing, lithography, inkjet and other processes have long been used to manufacture circuit boards and components.
印刷電子技術并不新鮮，絲網印刷、光刻、噴墨印刷和其他技術用于生產電路板和元件已有很長時間，
But the technologies are improving rapidly and now allow electronics to be printed on a greater variety of surfaces.
由于該技術正飛速發展，現在已可以在各式各樣的表面進行印刷。
In the latest developments, electronics printing is being combined with additive manufacturing, which uses machines popularly known as 3D printers to build solid objects out of material, one layer at a time.
在最近進展中，已經把電子印刷和快速成型制造結合在一起，快速成型制造就是使用機器對原材料進行逐層加工成型。
Printing electronics requires inks with electrical properties that can act as conductors, resistors or semiconductors.
印刷電子技術需要帶有電氣性能的墨水，這些墨水能扮演導體、電阻或半導體的角色，
These inks are becoming more versatile.
并且變得越來多才多藝，
One example comes from Xerox, an American firm which makes office equipment and commercial printing systems. Its research centre in Canada has developed a silver ink which can be used to print flexible electronic circuits directly onto materials like plastic or fabrics.
就拿施樂公司的例子來說，它開發的一種銀質墨水能夠直接在柔性材料上打印出電路，比如塑料和纖維織物。
Silver is a better conductor of electricity than copper, which is typically used in circuits, but silver is expensive and tricky to print because it melts at 962°C.
銀的導電性要比銅好，所以常用在電路中，但銀不僅昂貴而且很難用于印刷。
However, by making silver into particles just five nanometres in size, Xerox has produced a silver ink which melts at less than 140°C.
然而實驗室研究主管Paul Smith說，施樂公司通過把銀制成僅有5納米的小顆粒，生產的銀質墨水就能在低于140°C熔化，
That allows it to be printed using inkjet and other processes relatively cheaply, says Paul Smith, the director of research at the laboratory.
這樣的墨水能夠通過噴墨方式或者其他比較廉價的處理方式進行打印。
Only minuscule quantities of silver are used and there is no waste, unlike chemical-etching processes.
與化學蝕刻處理法不同，這種方法不僅銀用量極少，并且不會浪費。
Xerox's PARC research centre in Palo Alto, California, is developing ways to use such inks.
施樂公司位于加州帕洛阿爾托的PARC研究中心正在研發使用此墨水的技術。
These can print circuits for various components, including flexible display screens, sensors and antennae for radio-frequency security tags.
這些技術能夠為不同的電子元件打印電路，包括柔性顯示器、傳感器和經安全認證的射頻天線。
With the emergence of additive-manufacturing techniques, it starts to become possible to print such things directly onto the product itself, says Janos Veres, the manager of PARC's printed-electronics team.
PARC的電子印刷技術小組主管Janos Veres說，隨著快速成型制造技術的出現，直接在產品身上印刷出電路開始變得可能。
That includes products with complex shapes.
這還包括具有復雜形狀的產品，
Optomec, based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, has developed additive-manufacturing systems for a variety of industries.
總部位于新墨西哥州阿爾伯克基的Optomec公司已經為多個行業開發了快速成型制造系統：
It can print electronics directly onto a pair of glasses, for augmented reality; it can make a plastic water tank that uses embedded electronics to measure how full it is and turn pumps on or off; it can print sensors on military armour; or an antenna on the case of a mobile phone.
為了增強現實，它能直接在眼鏡上進行電子印刷；它能運用嵌入電子技術測量塑料水箱里的水有多滿，并控制水泵的開關；能在軍用盔甲上印刷傳感器；或在手機外殼上直接印刷天線。
In a recent three-way tie-up, Optomec worked with Aurora Flight Sciences, an American producer of unmanned aerial vehicles, and Stratasys, a 3D-printing company based in Minneapolis, to make a smart wing for a small drone.
在最近三方合作中，Optomec公司與極光飛行科學公司和Stratasys公司合力為小型無人機打造了智能機翼。
The wing was made from a thermoplastic material using a Stratasys 3D printer.
該機翼由熱塑性材料制造，并由Stratasys的3D打印機成型，
Optomec then used a process it calls Aerosol Jet to print circuits, sensors and an antenna on the wing.
然后Optomec采用名為氣霧噴射的技術在機翼上印刷出電路、傳感器和天線。
The idea is that such technology would allow lightweight drones that can be customised for specific missions and printed on demand.
采用這種技術的方法能夠讓輕量級無人機根據任務和需求進行定制和印刷。
Optomec's Aerosol Jet works very differently from inkjet printing, in which a print head positioned barely a millimetre away deposits a droplet of ink on a flat surface.
Optomec公司的氣霧噴射技術與噴墨印刷術有很大不同。
Aerosol Jet at first atomises nanoparticle-based print materials into microscopic droplets, which are then focused, using a sheath of gas, into a precise jet stream directed by a nozzle.
后者打印頭僅僅在一毫米遠的位置把墨水微粒匯集在打印平面上，而氣霧噴射技術會先把打印材料霧化為納米級別的微小液滴，在氣體護層下通過噴嘴進行精確聚集噴射，
The nozzle can be held five millimetres or more away from the surface, which allows irregular shapes to be coated.
這種噴嘴距離打印面5毫米或者更遠，所以可以在不規則外形上進行打印。
Both the nozzle and the tray holding the item being printed can be manipulated through different angles to work on three-dimensional structures.
不管是噴嘴還是支撐被打印物體的托盤都可以在三維結構上通過改變角度進行操作，
The system can print electronic features smaller than a hundredth of a millimetre wide from a variety of materials.
比起動輒上百毫米的電子產品，該技術可以在多種材料上打印出更小的產品。
Instead of assembling an item from many separate components, 3D-printed electronics make it possible to print an entire product in a single machine, says Dave Ramahi, Optomec's chief executive.
不必把多個單獨的組件裝配到一起，3D電子印刷術使得用單一機器打印出整個產品成為可能，Optomec 首席執行官 Dave Ramahi說到。
However, for the technology to take off he believes it needs to be commercialised in an evolutionary way.
然而他認為該技術的使用還需要經歷商業化的發展，也就是說在目前大批量生產的過程中只在特定階段采用該技術，
This means applying it at certain stages of existing mass-production processes, such as printing antennae onto mobile-phone cases. Many phones use a number of different antennae to connect to different radio networks, so this would make more room for conventional electronics inside.
比如在手機制造過程中印刷天線，因為很多手機采用不同的天線來接入不同的無線網絡，這在傳統電子產品內部會占用較大的空間。
Some commercial applications of the technology are less than a year away, adds Mr Ramahi.
他又補充說到，該技術的商業應用會在一年內實現。
So how difficult would it be to print a phone complete with all its electronic gubbins?
打印一部電話到底有多困難？
Optomec is developing applications which could provide some of the necessary steps.
Optomec正開發一些應用程序，它們可以提供一些必要的步驟。
Besides antennae these include edge circuits for the screen, three-dimensional connections for chips, multiple-layer circuits and touch-screen parts.
除了天線之外，它們還可以打印屏幕的邊緣電路和聯通芯片、多層電路板、觸摸屏的三維連接器，
It would also be possible to print the battery.
甚至電池也可以被打印。
The biggest challenge would be to print the chips that are the brains of the phone.
但是最大的挑戰來自于芯片的打印，
These contain millions of transistors in a square millimetre and are at present made in silicon-fabrication plants costing $10 billion or more.
這里每平方毫米包含上百萬個晶體管，并且目前可制造它的硅加設備價值100億美元甚至更多，
Yet embedding even some circuitry means phones could be made slimmer, as well as reducing the costs of materials and assembly.
而植入電路意味著手機可以做的更加纖薄，同時也減少了原材料和裝配的成本。
