Researchers develop new method to attach nanowire electronics on any material

The nanowire electronic circuitry can now be attached to the surface of any object, irrespective of their shape, size or the kind of material they are made from. Developed by a team of researchers at the Stanford University, this technology uses a new method of fabrication and could be used for creating wearable electronics, medical devices for measuring electric impulses of heart or brain, or even, in high efficiency solar cells.

Nanowire electronics

These days most of the digital electronic devices use nanowire electronic circuitry fabricated on a silicon chip. During fabrication, this circuitry is firmly attached to the silicon chip and cannot be detached from it easily because of the brittle nature of silicon chips; it can break if one tries to do so. However, this limits the possible use of nanowire circuitry that is very flexible.

Stanford researchers now have devised a way for separating the nanowire electronics from silicon chips. For this, they applied a thin layer of nickel on the silicon chip before fabricating the circuitry. An ultrathin layer of a polymer was also applied over nickel for acting as an insulator and for providing mechanical support to the nanowire electronics. After that, the circuitry was exposed to water, which penetrated between the layers of silicon and nickel because of the hydrophilic nature of both the elements. The penetrated water, thus, separated the layer of nickel and nanowire electronic circuitry from the silicon chip.

According to researchers, it would not require any special arrangement for carrying out the entire process. It can be done at the room temperature and completes in a span of few seconds. The silicon chips obtained after the detachment could be used for other purposes after removing the nanowire circuitry from their surface.

The smaller size of nanowire allows the devices to bend without any effect on their performance. Since, the ultrathin polymer with nanowire devices on top can be wrapped over all type of objects, the researchers believe that the new method could be widely used in multiple areas. It could be used by scientists for carrying out medical research through nanowire electronics based devices that can be attached to human heart or brain tissues for measuring electronic signals emanating from them. It could find an application in the emerging field of robotics that requires complex electronic circuits for operation and for developing more efficient and flexible solar cells.

Via: StanfordNews