Sala de Medeiros is an engineer at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. She and her colleagues found a way to turn an ordinary sheet of paper into a simple electronic keypad. Many teams around the world are working on paper-based electronics. But this new device is the first to power itself and also repel water and dust.
Microscope images of paper that Sala de Medeiros treated with the Teflon-like chemical reveal that the fiber structure of the paper has not changed. The chemical absorbed into the fibers without changing them. So the material still looks and feels just like normal paper.Purdue University
Smartphones, tablets, fitness trackers, headphones. Most of the electronic devices we use today are made of rigid metal, plastic and glass. But electronics don’t have to be, says Marina Sala de Medeiros. Consider her team’s new electronic keypad. It has no batteries. The user’s touch gives it all the power it needs to run.
“Any electronics you have — just think if you could make that out of paper,” she says. Paper is cheap and plentiful. It’s also flexible and lightweight.
Sala de Medeiros is an engineer at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. She and her colleagues found a way to turn an ordinary sheet of paper into a simple electronic keypad. Many teams around the world are working on paper-based electronics. But this new device is the first to power itself and also repel water and dust.
The researchers described this new invention in the December 2020 issue…
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