By Mike Orcutt, Technology Review
Laboratory advances hint at how additive manufacturing technology could change the way some electronic devices are made. 3-D printers can cheaply fabricate custom-designed objects, but until now they have been limited by the types of materials they can use. Today’s 3-D printers can generally only build things out of one type of material—usually a plastic or, in certain expensive industrial versions of the machines, a metal. They can’t build objects with electronic, optical, or any kind of functions that require the integration of multiple materials. But recent advances in the research lab—including a 3-D printed battery and a bionic ear—suggest that this might soon change. Last month, researchers unveiled what they say is the world’s first 3-D printed battery, made from two different electrode “inks.”
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