Wishesh Magazine February 2020 Wishesh Magazine February 2020 | Page 98

TECHNOLOGY
The touch- responsive technology is said to be
around 100 times thinner when compared to
the touch screen materials that are currently
existing. The touch- responsive technology is
said to be having the flexible feature and it can
be rolled up like a tube.
This ultra- thin and ultra- flexible electronic
material have been created by the researchers
from RMIT University, UNSW Monash University
and ARC Center of Excellence in Future Low-
Energy Electronics Technologies (FLEET).
A thin film that is commonly found in the touch
screens of the smart phones has been used
by the team of researchers from the RMIT
University, UNSW Monash University and the
ARC Center of Excellence in Future Low- Energy
Electronics Technology in order to create the
ultra- thin and ultra- flexible electronic material.
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The material from the smart phone touch
screens had been shrunk to 2D from 3D with the
usage of liquid metal chemistry and the sheets
are said to be compatible with the technologies
that are existing.
It has been said that the material can be
manufactured using the roll to roll (R2R)
processing as the material is flexible enough to
be rolled up like a tube and therefore the material
can be considered to be like a newspaper.
The touch screens of most of the smart phones
is said to be made up of indium- tin- oxide (ITO)
which is a transparent material. The transparent
material is brittle but is very conductive and
based on it, a new kind of automatically thin
indium- tin- oxide (ITO) has been created by the
team which can bend and can be twisted without
breaking.
The material that has been produced by the
team is said to be cheaper and easier to be
produced that the touch screens that are
currently available.
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The team has made use of a liquid metal
printing approach in order to create the
material where in the alloy turns into liquid
when the the indium-tin alloy is heated to 200
degrees Celsius.The liquid alloy material is
then rolled over a surface which prints off the
nano- thin sheets of the indium- tin- oxide.
The three dimensional nano sheets that are
currently available in the touch screens of
the smart phones is said to have the same
chemical makeup as the standard indium-
tin- oxide but the crystal structure is said to
be differing from the material that has been
created by the team.
The manufacturing of the touchscreens that
are currently available are said to be slow,
energy- intensive and also expensive. The
availability of a vacuum chamber is also
required for the current manufacturing of
touchscreens.
The new method is said to be cheaper with
no need of any specialized equipment. The