Tag: Electronics

Printed circuit boards and mushrooms make an uncommon pair. Now, an international research team led from Glasgow has likewise taken nature as its inspiration, developing a semiconductor component for use in machine vision systems. The team’s prototype field-effect transistor recognises colours. Built on a glass substrate, it combines gold electrodes and light-sensitive hydrocarbon molecules with a layer of honey...

Used, starch-based juice bottles dissolve in water. If only recycling printed circuit boards (PCBs) from plastic and glass fibre were as easy. Enter a US-based research team which has manufactured a PCB prototype using cutting-edge sustainable polymers known as vitrimers. When exposed to mild heat, their molecular compounds loosen so that tears or holes can be repaired. The team...