Rapid Prototyping of Paper Electronics Using a Metal Leaf and Laser Printer

Abstract

We introduce a novel prototyping method using a metal leaf and laser printer. Proposed metal leaf circuit is capable of producing circuits on normal paper that can be printed by a laser printer. The metal leaf is adhered to paper using a toner used in a laser printer. When the metal leaf is placed on the printed circuit pattern and pressed with an iron, the metal leaf adheres to the circuit pattern. Removal of the excess metal leaf completes the metal leaf circuit diagram on the paper. In addition, by using the change of temperature of toner, we can easily cut and repair the circuit. We made a metal leaf circuit on the cloth with the masu sake cup, and evaluated it.