Both President Biden and former President Trump have had issues with having classified government documents in their possession that they were not supposed to have. But there may soon be a relatively simple way to prevent situations like this, according to Paul Berger, professor of electrical and computer engineering at The Ohio State University.
Flexible electronics enables the production of thin, flexible stickers, like the radio frequency identification tags one finds on some items in stores to prevent shoplifting. But unlike those “passive” tags, flexible electronics can also be “active” tags that allow whatever they are put on to be actively tracked. These flexible electronics are thinner cheaper, and more environmentally friendly than tracking devices like Apple AirTags. One day stickers with these flexible electronics could be printed and put on documents, allowing them to be tracked.
Berger is available to discuss the future of flexible electronics and how he and his collaborators are working to increase the performance of these flexible electronics devices and build systems that will allow them to “scavenge” energy from light and Wi-Fi.