Stretchable Circuits

Scientists have created a stretchable form of electronic circuit that might hold the key to new applications including wearable devices to monitor a person's health and systems. These could be wrapped around aircraft wings or fuselages to monitor structural stability.

Experiments involving electroconductive plastics are under way with a view to creating flexible circuitry.   What makes these devices, invented at the University of Illinois, Northwestern University and the Singapore Institute of High Performance Computing, remarkable is that they are based on silicon. "The notion that silicon cannot be used in such applications because it is intrinsically brittle and rigid has been thrown out of the window," said John Rogers, of the University of Illinois' materials research group.

The silicon circuits can be compressed, folded or wrapped around a shape such as a sphere without affecting their electrical performance. The silicon circuit is laid down on rubber and plastic materials, which buckle during manufacture to yield wavy shapes that can be stretched and deformed.

[compiled from the online and print edition]

Stretchable Circuits Advance
Alan Cane
28Mar2008

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b4c89f90-fc68-11dc-9229-000077b07658.html

Comments

[ce399]

A completely unnecessary waste of time and money - just like 99.9 percent of everything else these capitalist fascists say, do and 'produce.' Leave it out.