Novel application of 3D printing could enable the
development of miniaturized medical implants, compact electronics, tiny robots,
and more.
3D printing can now be used to print lithium-ion microbatteries
the size of a grain of sand. The printed microbatteries could supply
electricity to tiny devices in fields from medicine to communications,
including many that have lingered on lab benches for lack of a battery small
enough to fit the device, yet provide enough stored energy to power them.
To make the microbatteries, a team based at Harvard
University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign printed precisely
interlaced stacks of tiny battery electrodes, each less than the width of a human
hair.