#microwaves

"So, 'microwave' is a color."

"What. How does a color make food hot?"

"The water in the food is like a hot T-shirt on a sunny day. It absorbs the heat from the light."

3D-printing electronics with focused microwaves redefines possibilities in materials

In a recently published paper in Science Advances, a team led by Rice University's Yong Lin Kong describes a new 3D-printing process with focused microwaves that overcomes a fundamental constraint of electronics 3D printing that has limited the field's potential for more than a decade: the inability to heat printed ink—a crucial processing step—without damaging the materials underneath. Limits of current electronics manufacturing The ability to integrate functional materials and spatially program their properties governs both device performance and the limits of what can be built. Existing manufacturing approaches are fundamentally limited in both respects. Electronic components, for instance, are fabricated in massive, centralized foundries, often decoupled from the final device. Integrating them requires complex, labor-intensive assembly that constrains both the form and the function of what can ultimately be created.