Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1108006
APRIL 2019 I FLEX007 MAGAZINE 9 in their Ohio facility. We interviewed Andy Kannurpatti, the leader of DuPont's Inter- connect Solutions in the West, to learn more about this and how they work with both OEMs and circuit fabricators. The final three articles bring a broader perspective not only to flex circuits but to the electronics industry as a whole. There is no doubt that most of our industry is aware of the difficulty in finding young talent. In an interview with some key people at NextFlex, we learn about their FlexFactor initiative to help high school and college students see a future in electronics manu - facturing. Next, I-Connect007's Technical Editor Pete Starkey reviews a presentation from the AltiumLive summit in Munich by Sini Rytky and Tuomas Heikkilä of TactoTek in Finland. The subject is injection-molded structural electronics (IMSE), a technique for integrat- ing flexible circuits and components into a three-dimensional molded structure. And lastly, Optomec's Dr. Kurt Christen- son discusses their 3D printing technology with I-Connect007 Publisher Barry Matties. This technology eliminates the need for wire bonding by printing interconnects on 3D surfaces—plus, there is the capability to 3D-print electronic components. That brings us to the end of another Flex007 Magazine—one I hope you will enjoy and that will provide you with some valuable tidbits and insights. Our next issue will publish in July, but in the meantime, you can keep up to date with our sister pub- lications Design007 Magazine, PCB007 Mag- azine, and SMT007 Magazine as well as our daily and weekly newsletters. Register and sign up for any or all of these free publica- tions here to have them delivered right to your inbox. FLEX007 Patricia Goldman is managing editor of Flex007 Magazine. To contact Goldman, click here. 3D Printing Technology Enables Fabrication of Shape-conformable Batteries Flexible, wireless electronic devices are rapidly emerg- ing and have reached the level of commercialization; nev- ertheless, most battery shapes are limited to either spheri- cal or rectangular structures, which results in inefficient use of space. Professor Il-Doo Kim's team from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) has successfully developed a technology to significantly enhance the variability of battery design through collab - orative research with Professor Jennifer A. Lewis and her team from Harvard University. The KAIST-Harvard research collaboration team suc- cessfully manufactured various kinds of battery shapes such as a ring-type and H and U shapes using 3D print- ing technology. Through the research collaboration with Dr. Youngmin Choi at the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT), 3D-printed batteries were applied to small-scale wearable electronic devices. The research group has adopted environmentally friendly aqueous zinc ion batteries to make customized battery packs. This system, which uses Zn2+ instead of Li+ as charge carriers, is much safer compared with the con - ventional lithium rechargeable batteries that use highly flammable organic electrolytes. The aqueous Zn-ion bat- teries are stable upon contact with atmospheric moisture and oxygen, can be fabricated in ambient air, and have advantages in packaging since plastic does not dissolve in water. The cathode, based on conductive polyaniline consist - ing of a 3D structure, exhibits very fast charging speeds (50% of the charge in two minutes) and can be fabricated without the detachment of active cathode materials, so various battery forms with high mechanical stability can be manufactured. (Source: KAIST)