10 Jun 2010

Harvesting by a thread
Researchers at Cetemmsa, outside Barcelona, are taking materials science to the textile sector. They've developed conducting threads that heat up or become illuminated in response to a charge; these might be used in sports applications.
29 Apr 2010

Early printed electronics revisited
There was an element of back to the future at the hugely successful recent Printed Electronics Europe event in Dresden. Although a high proportion of printed electronics has progressed from screen printing to other printing technologies, notably inkjet, for better control, less waste of these expensive inks and other benefits, at least one company has reverted to advanced rotary screen printing to gain throughput. Indeed, Professor Edgar Dörsam reported that his team has achieved feature size of better than one micron with its advanced screen printing methods. Daetwyler even announced a capability of gravure printing below five microns in feature size with its machines.
7 Dec 2009

Energy harvesting fabrics
Scientists are researching the development of energy-scavenging fabrics, with in-built nanotechnology which uses the kinetic energy from the wearer's movements and converts it into electricity for powering electronics.