4Jul/13Off
A Battery and a “Bionic” Ear: a Hint of 3-D Printing’s Promise
Lewis’s group has developed the materials and custom printer technology—including a nozzle that can print features as small as one micrometer—needed to print several different kinds of functional components besides batteries, including electrodes and antennas made from inks containing metallic nanoparticles, and optical structures made of photocurable resins. Now that she and her colleagues have built a palette of functional inks (her group holds eight patents) for digitally printing both 2-D and 3-D components, the next step is to try to make “integrated electronics,” says Lewis.