A team of engineers at the University of South Florida has invented new technology that could forever change the manufacturing of wearable, electronic sensors. They’ve figured out a way to speed up production without having to use polymer binders – the industry standard in printing flexible sensors, which are often used to monitor vital signs in health care settings.
Their technology, featured on the cover of the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, prints electronic skin, or “e-skin,” by using corona discharge to create a strong electric field between binder-free functional powders, such as graphene, and flexible, non-conductive surfaces, such as medical tape.