While it may look like researchers from Tsinghua University in Beijing are sketching out an idea for a circuit on a piece of paper, they're actually using a special pen that draws real circuits using carbon-nanotube-based ink.
This technique, called "fiber drawing," has previously been used to construct patterns, but the fiber length is usually very short at just a few millimeters, and the drawing speed is typically very slow. These drawbacks limit its use in circuit fabrication.
In the new study, the researchers demonstrated that their new pen can draw carbon nanotube fibers that are more than a half of a meter long with fast drawing speeds of up to 10 cm/second. Their work is published in a recent issue of Nano Letters.
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