USB flash drives are already common accessories in offices and college campuses. But thanks to the rise in printable electronics, digital storage devices like these may soon be everywhere—including on our groceries, pill bottles and even clothing.
Duke University researchers have brought us closer to a future of low-cost, flexible electronics by creating a new "spray-on" digital memory device using only an aerosol jet printer and nanoparticle inks.
The device, which is analogous to a 4-bit flash drive, is the first fully-printed digital memory that would be suitable for practical use in simple electronics such as environmental sensors or RFID tags. And because it is jet-printed at relatively low temperatures, it could be used to build programmable electronic devices on bendable materials like paper, plastic or fabric.
"We have all of the parameters that would allow this to be used for a practical application, and we've even done our own little demonstration using LEDs," said Duke graduate student Matthew Catenacci, who describes the device in a paper published online March 27 in the Journal of Electronic Materials.
To read more, click here.