One of the greatest advances in human history is the ability to print words on paper. And now, thanks to Tennessee University College of Engineering Assistant Professor Anming Hu, is the technology itself to be printed on the paper.
Hu, a professor at the school of mechanical, aerospace and biomedical engineering, has found a way to print the circuit onto paper. The main impact of this technology is that: in the near future, the manufacturing cost of any electronic equipment will be greatly reduced, and the degree of portability will be significantly increased.
"To be able to design the circuits you need, and then print them out, with this capability, you can achieve a more rapid and timely circuit design, more simple control and lower costs," Professor Hu said. "The ability to print the circuit you need at the time you need to change a lot of things."
One of the greatest advances in this technology could occur in the field of medicine. At present, countless people suffer from diseases or suffering, so that they often need to see a doctor or medical testing. With diabetes, they rely on the finger prick blood daily to detect blood sugar content. The paper has a sealed circuit sheath liquid tight, the future can put the sensor into the circuit with a paper such these patients a day, then we can not only detect what when blood sugar levels deviated from the normal value, also can be in need to inject insulin signal in vivo.
"The ability to develop a system that is impermeable to liquid and has a built-in power supply will pave the way for progress in many areas of medicine." Professor Hu said. At present, the focus of the research is how to design the circuit to make the circuit smaller."
The easiest way to figure out how to operate the circuit system developed by Professor Hu is to use an ink jet printer to do the same. Professor Hu and his team tested more than and 30 different materials before they realized that standard ink-jet printing paper was as effective as any other paper, and it was the cheapest. On the other hand, the metal they use is the most common. "We use silver blocks to make nanowires," says Professor Hu. "Compared to the" normal "way of making electronic circuits, silver is still very cheap, and far more durable than copper, because it is easy to oxidize copper."
Professor Hu and his team have the ability to fold the paper thin circuit 5000 times without any damage to its high degree of functionality, without worrying about the durability of the finished product.
Although the most common influence of such circuits may be reflected in the use of medicine, but its flexibility and ease of use means that all electronic products, may benefit from it. "In the long run, the global use of this technology will promote the development process," said Professor Hu. "But for now, we will focus on improving the operating mechanism of this new type of printing technology, the development of multi jet printing."
In the future, electronic sensors on paper are likely to significantly reduce the price of a lot of medical devices, from robot to diagnostic tools. Scientists have now developed a faster and cheaper way to make sensors by directly printing conductive ink onto paper. Their findings are published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (American Chemical Society) Applied Materials & Interfaces.
Professor Hu Anming and colleagues point out that because the paper is easy to get in the world within the scope of low price, make it become the best carrier of electronic components can be folded slightly, and almost can be manufactured in any place, in any place. In fact, scientists have created a real-time diagnostic tool based on paper and portable DNA detector. However, these instruments require sophisticated and expensive manufacturing techniques. Silver nanowires are highly conductive and stable, providing a more practical solution. Professor Hu and his team hope to develop a technology, directly to the metallic ink printing paper to make such a sensor and sensor, and can respond to touch or other specific molecules such as glucose.
The researchers developed a printing system that could print a silver ink pattern on paper in just a few minutes, and then use the camera to harden it. Even if it is bent, it is folded repeatedly for 15 times, and it is repeated for more than 5000 times. The team concluded that the printed and durable sensors that they print can be used in many applications.
