'Drawable' Electronic Circuit Technology Creates Radical Possibilities For Flexible Gadgets (ibtimes.co.uk) 43
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.
again (Score:3)
Re:again (Score:4, Informative)
I own something called a CircuitWriter pen (though it has probably dried out by now after a decade and a half). The resistance was too high, and I had trouble making traces narrow enough to be workable, so it couldn't do what I needed, but there's certainly nothing new about the concept.
Circuitwriter (Score:1)
Buy a pen on amazon (Score:4, Informative)
https://www.amazon.com/CAIG-La... [amazon.com]
this is not new.
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
I think the real problem with this ink will be the cost. Same as the low resistance conductive inks which are already available, they are too expensive.
Re: (Score:2)
Japanese electronic toilets are standard here in the Western world yet - we've a long way to go.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/w... [wikimedia.org]
What is old is new? (Score:3)
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.
Re: (Score:1)
Their pitch is bullshit and this is HOW YOU CAN KN (Score:2)
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 b
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Can we also take issue with the idea that "printed" circuits use sintering?
PCB stands for PRINTED circuit board. Sintering is not used in the normal PCB manufacturing process at all.
For the record I had a pen containing conductive ink way back in 1988, and it wasn't remotely new then.
Wrong definition (Score:1)
"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.
Re: (Score:2)
"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.
Came here to say the same thing. Been working in electronics for over 4 decades, and it's not the concept of 'drawing' a printed circuit trace that's new here.
What TFS gets wrong and what TFA doesn't get around to saying until 2/3rds through the article, is that it's the fact that this method results in traces that are both much lower in electrical resistance than previous iterations, and also can be applied to a flexing material and not quickly degrade and/or sever the electrical path.
The gold and silver p
Re: (Score:2)
heck combine a circuit writer pen with a PENCIL and you have a better setup than this overhyped gizmo
(the trick is you get to draw RESISTORS using the pencil)
hmm hey SlashMind any way to draw caps??
What decade is this? (Score:1)
Old stuff, new patents (Score:1)
Damn, L Ron Hubbard predicted this (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
No, if I recall correctly (its been 25 years) that device molecularly aligned or unaligned the molecules in the substrate which made it conductive or non-conductive.
some other setting was used for cutting, which is what J.GB.T used to cut his leash and escape Terl.
The book was actually a fun read (for a 15 year old) Shame they made the movie.
Print a CPU in 3D? (Score:2)
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.
Sure (Score:2)
If you thought ink was too expensive, you ain't seen nothing yet.
Graphite (Score:1)
Right out of L.R. Hubbard's "Battlefield Earth" (Score:1)
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.