Gadget Master

Here's one I meant to highlight a while ago, and thanks to Sue P. for flagging it to our attention. It involves a rollerball pen, conductive ink and flexible electronics...

In what would be a dream bit of kit for a Gadget Master, a pen drawing silver ink could be used to draw functioning circuitry on paper and other surfaces, as well as breadboards...

Essentially, say the researchers from the University of Illinois, pen-on-paper flexible electronics are fabricated using a conductive silver ink-filled rollerball pen. This approach "provides a low-cost, portable route for fabricating conductive text, electronic art, interconnects for light emitting diode (LED) arrays, and three-dimensional (3D) antennas on paper".

How cool is that?

The Register writes:

Outwardly a normal rollerball, the pen is filled with a solution of silver which dries after drawing to leave a functioning electronic pathway. Better still, the inky circuit path is flexible, allowing the surface it is drawn on to be deformed or folded without affecting performance. A little origami added to one's drafting skills allows creation of 3D or multi-level devices.

"The key advantage of the pen is that the costly printers and printheads typically required for inkjet or other printing approaches are replaced with an inexpensive, hand-held writing tool," argues [Jennifer] Lewis, who developed it alongside fellow Illinois prof Jennifer Bernhard and other colleagues.

You can read the full original article in the journal Advanced Materials (Reg. required) >>

Read the Register article >>