Liquidmetal balls image courtesy of Liquidmetal Technologies
A license that grants Apple exclusive worldwide rights to incorporate patented Liquidmetal alloys -also known as metallic glass – in consumer electronic products is well documented and widely known. As we await until Apple transitions its unibody manufacturing process to the new sci-fi alloy instead of aluminum, if ever, a story at Slashdot popped up highlighting a new electronic circuit board said to be capable of healing itself when its metal wires are broken.
Developed by a team of engineers at the University of Illinois, this self-healing system functions by restoring conductivity within microseconds – thanks to the use of Liquidmetal. The idea is "delightfully simple," the article explains:
The engineers place a bunch of 10-micron (0.01mm) microcapsules along the length of a circuit. The microcapsules are full of liquid metal, a gallium-indium alloy, and if the circuit underneath cracks, so do the microcapsules (90% of the time, anyway — the tech isn't perfect yet!). The liquid metal oozes into the circuit board, restoring up to 99% conductivity, and everything continues as normal. This even works with multi-layer printed circuit boards (PCBs), such the motherboard in your computer, too.
While mass produced self-healing printed circuit boards will not be on the horizon any time soon, the story is interesting considering Apple's license to use Liquidmetal in consumer electronics. Moreover, the report noted that one immediate use-case involves batteries that cannot be taken apart to fix. The notion jives with a January 2011 report pointing to an Apple patent that describes "amorphous alloy" collector plates for fuel cells, indicating that the company may be interested in using Liquidmetal alloys in batteries.
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