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Heat-Triggered, Self-Destructing Electronic Devices

University of Illinois researchers have developed self-destructing electronic devices, a step toward advanced biomedical implants as well as reduced electronic waste and boosted sustainability in device manufacturing. The heat-triggered devices use magnesium circuits printed on very thin, flexible materials. The researchers trap microscopic droplets of a weak acid in wax, and coat the devices with the wax. When the devices are heated, the wax melts, releasing the acid. The acid dissolves the device quickly and completely. To remotely trigger the reaction, researchers embedded a radio-frequency receiver and an inductive heating coil in the device. The user can send a signal to cause the coil to heat up, which melts the wax and dissolves the device.

Topics:
Electronic Components Electronics & Computers Implants & Prosthetics Manufacturing & Prototyping Materials Medical RF & Microwave Electronics Semiconductors & ICs

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    Transcript

    00:00:11 So the problem that we're interested in is making materials that are more functional, and more sustainable. Our entire career has been built on making devices that last longer so that you don't have to keep making them, over and over again. So why would you want to make them degrade? Well, one natural reason is just to reduce the amount of waste that we produce. And you also can ultimately recycle them completely, and make a new device out of them. So that was our original motivation in pursuing this work. The devices that we make are temperature-sensative, so at some magic temperature, something happens to them that allows them to completely disintegrate, and that's the work we've been working on

    00:01:00 this past year and just recently published. So specifically, for this project, what we did is we created electronic devices, and we coated them with a wax coating - a wax very similar to what you'd find in your candles at home. And inside this wax, there are microscopic droplets of acid. Now upon melting, upon reaching the melting temperature of the acid, we release these acid droplets, destroying the electronics. What this allows is for you to destroy your device whenever you are done with it. Whenever your iPhone is done, after 2 years, you want to be able to get rid of it, and not dispose of it in a landfill, but be able to recycle that material.

    00:01:31 So I think this is one small step forward, to reach that ultimate goal. So, what we've done in this paper is one way of triggering destruction, and that way is temperature change, right? But you can imagine a whole plethora of different types of stimuli that would lead to the destruction of these kinds of devices, including electromagnetic waves, or mechanical vibrations, and so forth. So our future is to look at a whole different spectrum of stimuli that will lead to a device destruction of that material.