Slashdot Mirror
'Drawable' Electronic Circuit Technology Creates Radical Possibilities For Flexible Gadgets (ibtimes.co.uk)
drunkdrone quotes a report from International Business Times: Who said pen and paper was dead? German scientists have developed a new type of ink that allows fully-functioning electronic circuits to be "written" directly onto a surface from a pen. The technology could provide an inexpensive means of manufacturing printed circuits suitable for flexible smartphones, tablets and other radical gadget designs. The circuits are ready to be used as soon as the ink dries and requires no additional processing, claim researchers from the Leibniz Institute for New Materials (INM). Printed electronics are usually created through a process called "sintering," whereby powdered metals are heated to form conductive electric circuits. Sintering is used to remove organic materials and fuse metal components in electronic inks, but because of the heat involved it can damage materials that are sensitive to high temperatures -- for example paper and certain types of plastic. The new hybrid inks remove the need for sintering altogether, allowing the electronics to quite literally be drawn on to the material. The report notes that the hybrid inks are "made of gold and silver particles coated with conductive polymers," which, among other things, allows the circuits to be bent without losing electrical conductivity. The researchers will demonstrate their findings at this year's Hannover Messe industrial fair on April 24-26.
I'm pretty sure I've seen similar inventions demo'd at trade shows
Nullius in verba
https://www.amazon.com/CAIG-La...
this is not new.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
I guess this might be a bit more fine grained and suited to computer circuitry, but I know people that have been drawing/painting electrical circuitry into models of all sorts for several decades now. Granted, those are generally just simple electronics like LEDs, basic speakers, or small mechanical things, but the principle is still the same, and has been around for a very long time.
Z
"An electronic circuit is composed of individual electronic components, such as resistors, transistors, capacitors, inductors and diodes, connected by conductive wires or traces through which electric current can flow." These pens dispense conductive traces, not circuits.
I'm seriously having a flashback from the early 90's when this was a big deal.
Boy, am I feeling old today....
This is in L Rob H's 1982 novel "Battlefield Earth". Who knew?
Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of congress. But then I repeat myself. -- Mark Twain
Could this be combined with origami, so that a CPU layout is printed in a true 3D structure rather than a small series of layers? Get the folds in the right place and logic units that are normally far apart would be right next to each other.
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
If you thought ink was too expensive, you ain't seen nothing yet.
#DeleteFacebook
Japanese electronic toilets are standard here in the Western world yet - we've a long way to go.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/w...
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
I'm surprised that they don't use some form of modified graphite. It's cheaper than expensive metals.
Their pitch is bullshit and this is HOW YOU CAN KNOW.
Because of the PEN. they chose a pen because it is easy to demo to audience and it can't fight the already existing inkjet flexible circuit processes. The pen is an useless way to draw tiny circuits , but it does provide them with a foolproof way to get enough width to have the demo circuits done - then demo it to some journalists and boom you have some free pr( even if essentially same demo could have been done with a product you could have essentially bought from china for 1 buck. the journalists doesnt care or know that of course, because he wants a hipster story).
if the product was worth it's salt, it would go into compete in the field of inkjet printed circuits - if it was cheaper (and better) than laying copper and taking out some copper, they would have gone that route.
If it is more flexible than other circuits, they would have gone the inkjet way anyways. if it would work with thin enough traces for high pitch smd chips, they would not have used a pen for demonstrating.
you're not going to be drawing your own circuits and gluing chips on them. they know that.
same thing with conductive filaments for 3d printing - they work for a demo but thats almost shit all they are good for unless you want to have a led light up and have it waste 95% of electricity as heat and cost 100 more than just designing the print to accommodate a hole for the copper wire which you could lay down mid-print. also it's a lot easier to design to have the wire than it is to get the conductive filament get bonded with the other filament.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Read "Battlefield Earth", where the human protagonist discovers that this is how the aliens make their circuit boards. Similar, anyway. Pen drawn across surface changes the insulating material, creates a raised line that now conducts. Not in the lame movie. Read the book.
I remember buying one of these from Radio Shack in the late 80's. It was meant for drawing on perf board (PCB) so maybe it wasn't flexible...but I'm surprised this is news, and that it didn't already exist.