Researchers at the University of Illinois, the United States, have developed a pen to draw the circuits and electrical connections. The ink of the pen is composed of silver, which, after drying, maintains conductivity even if it is bent or folded. This pen opened up a new manufacturing style which is freer, more flexible and much cheaper than the cost to the circuits in the technology using metallic ink.
We can also use this pen to create circuits on paper, wood, plastic and other surfaces. The researchers have used the pen to create a flexible LED display on paper, conductive text and three-dimensional radio-frequency antennas. They now plan to expand the palette of inks to enable pen-on-paper writing of other electronic and ionically conductive materials.
"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. This is an important step toward enabling desktop manufacturing (or personal fabrication) using very low cost, ubiquitous printing tools."
Source: IPP
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