I like the idea of faster and smaller devices but dislike the idea of expensive production methods that are only realizable with heavy capital investment and large volumes of products.
Like I can realize a PCB prototype in my apartment (or rather, my parking lot without telling my landlord), or rent a CNC machine at a makerspace/public library to do it. If I need the thing fabbed with a nice solder mask and silk screen, I can have it made for < $20 domestically with under two weeks lead time. Component sourcing is even easier.
But where do I go to have the chiplets I need for the circuit? Organize the logistics to ship them to the clean-room where they can be packaged on this fabric? How many widgets do I need to ship for this to be viable, or for the contract fab to not laugh at me? How do I prototype? How long is the lead time?
It just seems like there's a lot in the way of this being viable for run of the mill projects.
Increasing capital costs and consequent dependence on huge volumes have been a defining feature of the semiconductor industry since the invention of the integrated circuit.
AFAICT this technology will have no impact on the low end hobbyist end of the market, but rather (if all works out) enables those $zillion behemoths to produce ever faster systems since they won't be as bottlenecked by off-chip bandwidth as they are with today's PCB's.
You’ll need $2 million, just for the mask. And if you want to fab yourself, the machines cost in the range from $10 to $50 million. For one machine. And you will need many.
As the article states, you will not make those at home any time soon, unless ”maskless“ fabbing becomes a thing.
Like I can realize a PCB prototype in my apartment (or rather, my parking lot without telling my landlord), or rent a CNC machine at a makerspace/public library to do it. If I need the thing fabbed with a nice solder mask and silk screen, I can have it made for < $20 domestically with under two weeks lead time. Component sourcing is even easier.
But where do I go to have the chiplets I need for the circuit? Organize the logistics to ship them to the clean-room where they can be packaged on this fabric? How many widgets do I need to ship for this to be viable, or for the contract fab to not laugh at me? How do I prototype? How long is the lead time?
It just seems like there's a lot in the way of this being viable for run of the mill projects.