Whenever we watch a futuristic movie, it seems like their electronic devices are mind-bogglingly awesome. Holographic mobile devices? Compactable pocket-sized grocery carts? Robotic dog walkers?! These devices seem so neat, even if they are far from our grasp. Still, devices like this are closer than we know! A research team composed of scientists, engineers, and medical professionals from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, CA and Northwestern University in Chicago, IL devised a stretchable electronic sensor which does not lose its potentiality after stretching, and returns to its original state.
Sounds like a dream come true, doesn’t it? Everyone can remember seeing an electronic device break at least once in their lives. Imagine if that TV remote that got stepped on could bend, and then return to normal, instead of breaking? While standard electronics feature an epoxy-resin foundation with electronic components and copper solder, this team has a flexible printed board with cold-welded parts. The board, which is composed primarily of gallium, is dipped into a gallium-based colloidal metal compound and treated with electrostatic charges. To test this research, the team created a balloon catheter which tracked heart rhythms in the subject similar to, and with accuracy resembling, an ECG.