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Self-healing electronic circuits require no human intervention

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have created a new type of self-healing polymer using autonomous healing techniques. Applying this self-healing technique to things like electronics will allow devices to ‘self-heal’ when a break occurs within the device with no human intervention at all.

It works by integrating microcapsules that sit ten microns above the circuit. When a break occurs, the capsules rupture to release a liquid metal to repair the break. Between the break and the self-healing, it happens so fast that it cannot be seen with the human eye and humans wouldn’t even know the break happened unless it was proactively sought out.

The self-healing polymers can also be applied to other instances besides electronics, such as paint or building material. In the video below, it’s demonstrated the many different applications this could come in to use for, and using these new polymers could save money on replacing new material and labor for fixing breaks in material.

I think what is fascinating is applying this to electronics which will end up extending the life of them, and who knows with human-robotic technology and applying bionic contact lenses to our eyes to stream data, the possibility of a Terminator-Skynet take over is becoming less and less fiction and a real possibility!