For a long time designers has been looking to develop a favorite tool of movie spies everywhere: electronics that self-destruct on command. The ruling fact is obvious to reduce the chaos of disposing or recycling used electronics. The expected electronics will be comparable performance-wise to anything off the shelf, but that can turn to dust on command.
As we put more electronics into everyday devices such as furniture and toothbrushes throwing them away becomes a problem as the electronic components should be recycled instead. Including this type of technology that can break the electronics down using a specific environmental trigger, would allow the metals and other non biodegradable elements to dissolve down to their molecular elements for recycling. Sophisticated electronics can be made at low cost and increasing popularity among a large fraction of consumers. A lot of gadgets & devices are widely proliferated and used for general life-run applications. But what happen when you got bored of these cores of devices and they needs to be properly disposed to avoid EOD hazards to environment & human. However, it is nearly impossible to track and recover every device resulting in unintended accumulation in the environment and potential unauthorized use and compromise of intellectual property and technological advantage. As more and more pieces of equipment become smart or otherwise electronic, having the ability to destroy that gear remotely is an obvious advantage.
Self Destructing Electronics are Coming & Then Melting Away
Researchers at the University of Illinois have created electronics that will self destruct on command. The technology uses a radio frequency, acid and a layer of wax on the circuit to let the devices melt with an application of heat or based on a signal from a remote signal. The researchers have dissolved electronics in water, which could be used for biomedical implants, but in this experiment, they used heat as the trigger. They embedded a weak acid in a bit of wax on the circuit. When the wax is heated the acid is released and dissolves the components. To remotely trigger the reaction, researchers install a heating coil that the radio signal turns on. That in turn, melts the wax. The security aspects of the technology are easy to see. It’s possible to use this to disable elements of a device should it fall into the wrong hands, or after a certain amount of time, making the idea of limited time electronic access devices really limited.
The researchers can control how fast the device degrades by tuning the thickness of the wax, the concentration of the acid, and the temperature. They can design a device to self-destruct within 20 seconds to a couple of minutes after heat is applied. The devices also can degrade in steps by encasing different parts in waxes with different melting temperatures. This gives more precise control over which parts of a device are operative; creating possibilities for sophisticated devices that can sense something in the environment and respond to it.
Researchers hope the “vanishing” tech will reduce the amount of toxic, electronic waste in landfills – MIT University
Anyone who has a collection of old cell phones sitting around in a drawer somewhere can appreciate the promise of new technology that could make electronics self-destruct once they become obsolete. To help turn that idea into a reality, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are designing chips printed on silk that can dissolve in water. If incorporated into actual consumer products one day, the technology could help reduce the amount of toxic electronic waste in landfills. The ultimate goal is to create transient devices that physically disappear over time in a controlled process. While the effort is laudable, some say that concerns about electronic waste are Rogers’ team has yet to develop a prototype, but it has created a chip atop a thin film of silk that disappears when splashed with water. Watch the video above to see how it works and learn more about the research project.
This device will self-destruct when heated
The self-destructing devices came from a broad multi-disciplinary collaboration uniting researchers from across the Illinois campus. Pictured, from left: Postdoctoral researcher Seung-Kyun Kang, graduate student Hector Lopez Hernandez, postdoctoral researcher Olivia Lee, professor John Rogers, professor Scott White, professor Nancy Sottos.
In what could help reduce electronic waste and boost sustainable manufacturing, US researchers have developed electronic devices that can self-destruct when heated. Currently, most used devices end up in landfills and contribute to environmental pollution. The researchers have demonstrated electronics that are there when you need them and gone when you do not need them anymore, said lead researcher Scott White, aerospace engineering professor at the University of Illinois in the US. This is a way of creating sustainability in the materials that are used in modern-day electronics. This was our first attempt to use an environmental stimulus to trigger destruction. The heat-triggered devices use magnesium circuits printed on very thin, flexible materials. The researchers trap microscopic droplets of a weak acid in wax, and coat the devices with the wax. When the devices are heated, the wax melts, releasing the acid. The acid dissolves the device quickly and completely. To remotely trigger the reaction, researchers embedded a radio-frequency receiver and an inductive heating coil in the device. The user can send a signal to cause the coil to heat up, which melts the wax and dissolves the device. The researchers said they can control how fast the device degrades by tuning the thickness of the wax, the concentration of the acid, and the temperature. They can design a device to self-destruct within 20 seconds to a couple of minutes after heat is applied.
DARPA begins work on self-destructing electronics
DARPA, the United States’ military research agency, has announced its intention to fund and develop technology that self-destructs. For example, DARPA would like a high-resolution camera sensor self-destructs when it receives a certain radio signal from military command, preventing it from being used by the enemy. Other methods of self destruction are also being investigated, though, such as technology that degrades quickly under certain conditions — water, heat, stomach acid, and so on. The governing idea behind the program, called Vanishing Programmable Resources (VAPR), is that there’s no point in the US maintaining a technological advantage over the enemy if that technology then falls into their hands. If Iran shoots a drone out of the sky, there could be all sorts of sensitive data and bleeding-edge technology that could then be collected, analyzed, and reverse-engineered. In many cases, it would then be trivial to develop countermeasures that completely nullify the US military’s advantage. The US military reportedly has similar schemes in place for rapidly disposing of documents and hard drives (thermite in an armored box), but this program seems to be more interested in protecting individual components and computers on a smaller scale. DARPA would rather its enemies didn’t get its hands on ultra-advanced tech, like its 1.8-gigapixel ARGUS surveillance system. Moving forward, DARPA is seeking proposals from the industry of materials, manufacturing processes, and design methodology that “will enable a revolutionary shift in transient electronics capabilities.” The target of the program — to build a transient biomedical sensor that’s able to communicate with a remote user — is fairly basic to begin with, but the underlying tech can then be used to build self-destructing computer chips, memory chips, sensors, and so on.
Conclusion
Self-destruction electronics, that can put it-self to an end on a command, is something can solve many disposal issue of electronic waste that is hazardous for human and environment plus, miss-use of thrown off goods. Many companies are working on the technology and soon we may deal with electronics that have “Self – Destruction” button on operation panel.
