3D Printing Soft Electronics

The University of Houston received NSF funding to hold an REU researching Neurotechnologies to help the body move, heal, and feel again. Of specific importance is developing brain machine interfaces that optimize both safety and functionality. The devices that maximize functionality are devices that are implanted directly on the brain, but this is dangerous, and human tests are still distant in the future. In order to create safe devices that are able to be placed directly on the surface of organs, such as the brain and heart, soft electronics, which have similar mechanical properties as soft organs. The problem lies in mass producing these soft electronics. Our solution to this fabrication issue lies in directly 3D printing these electronics onto flexible substrates.