IDTechEx conferences and reports on printed electronics have a great deal on smart substrates because they hugely leverage printed technology, making awesome new products possible. These are substrates that change shape under electrical bias, that emit ultrasound, sense various things, act as loudspeakers and microphones and so on. There are electrically unlockable epoxies and substrates that change color under electric bias. However, one of the newest areas of attention has been stretchable substrates because there are now many ways of printing stretchable electronics and electrics to go on them and they are needed for everything from skin patches and implants to toys and merchandising features on packaging.
Hot on the back of these advances, a self healing polymer has been announced. Arkema, a French chemical maker, is planning to develop commercial products based on the new supramolecular chemical technology.Researcher demonstrates how the new rubber-like material can be cut, joined together, fixed, and stretched as if the break never happened.