Searching for a Tinkerer Replacement for Silicon
July 6, 2022
Complex control systems need density, restoration, gain, switching, and repeatable interconnection. Silicon photolithography supplies those properties today, yet it keeps serious fabrication far from the tinkerer’s bench.
Brian Greenforest searches across magnetic amplifiers, ferroelectric capacitors, micro-PCB vacuum devices, conductive pastes, 3D printing, and hybrid processes for a locally manufacturable active element.
The Replacement Must Do More Than Conduct
A useful logic medium must restore signal levels, isolate stages, switch reliably, preserve state when needed, and connect into large regular structures. Manual soldering cannot reach the density of the systems Brian builds.
The central question therefore joins materials and architecture: which device family can support dense, repeatable control circuitry with tools that a community can own?
Bring Device Physics to the Maker Fab
Magnetics, ferroelectrics, vacuum microstructures, printed conductors, and additive manufacturing each contribute part of the answer. A hybrid process may combine their strengths.
Device physicists, process engineers, and makers can test candidate elements against the full requirement. The winning path will let builders fabricate, measure, revise, and scale active circuits locally.
Build the Fabrication Path Behind Searching for a Tinkerer Replacement for Silicon
The Missing Maker Fab carries this work into the tools and processes required to fabricate fast active devices locally.
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Does inventing an alternative to semiconductors to realize Verilog at home makes your brain melt too? Magnetic amplifiers, ferroelectric capacitors, micro PCB vacuum tubes, conductive pastes, 3D printing.... I still am in search of how a tinkerer (or a maker!) can replace their dependency on silicon. You see. I'm a complex systems builder. You can't manually solder any of the designs I tinker with. Not from discrete components. Not even with scanning printing. Only photolithography can withstand that scale.
But can we find something easier to achieve than silicon chips?????????????????