Foldable nanopaper antennas for origami electronics
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Electronic devices are normally thought to be fairly inflexible. However, researchers in Japan have recently re-invented paper to create origami style LED lights.
Although paper with antenna components (which are needed for the transmission and reception of information signals) have been reported previously, none of these have been foldable. Now Masaya Nogi and coworkers at Osaka University, Japan have used a combination of nanopaper and silver nanowires as these can be easily folded thanks to their network structure.
A previous barrier to the fabrication of foldable paper antennas was the coarse surface of the paper, as this caused deterioration of the electrical properties. By using paper made from cellulose nanofibers, which are mechanically nanofibrillated from wood, the nanopaper has a smooth surface and maintains a high foldability.