Self-Healing Circuits Extend Gadget Life

Engineers have developed "self-healing circuits" for electronics and batteries, an invention that could lead to longer gadget life and enhanced durability.

Today's mobile gadgets are tiny and loaded with features, making their circuitry delicate and complex. The failure of a single component often leads to trashing the whole device, since the multilayered, integrated circuits and batteries required to power complex devices are nearly impossible to access and repair.

Engineers at the University of Illinois came up with a solution: microcapsules filled with liquid metal and dispersed along the length of a circuit. When the circuit cracks, disrupting the electrical connection, the capsules break. The liquid metal inside them covers the crack and hardens, repairing the circuit and restoring the flow of electricity. The entire process takes just a few seconds.

In tests, 90 percent of samples "healed" to 99 percent of their original conductivity. The process also requires no human intervention, and only the microcapsules near the crack open, so the others remain intact to perform future repair jobs.

The engineers envision the technology working in aviation and space exploration, but say it also has potential to create more sustainable mobile devices, for example, if mobile phone buttons stopped working after repeated use cracked the circuitry under the keypad or touchscreen.

Mobile technology is advancing at a rapid pace, putting smaller, thinner and even bendable devices on the near horizon. Self-healing circuits may help device makers achieve these more innovative forms and shapes.

Durability would also become less of a concern. Self-repairing mobile devices would be particularly suited to rugged and rough use, making them especially suited for the military, families with young children, people who travel or those who use their device heavily.

A self-healing smartphone wouldn't need to be specially designed for durability or enclosed in a special protective case. It also could, in theory, last forever, reducing e-waste and making electronics recycling a thing of the past.

However, self-healing circuits aren't likely to make electronics manufacturers too happy, as they also would reduce users' need to buy a new device every time the old one breaks.

Self-Healing Circuits Extend Gadget Life originally appeared at Mobiledia on Thu Dec 22, 2011 2:57 pm.

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