Computers, sensors and robots as small as a grain of salt are being developed that can move around, detect light, sound, pressure, chemicals and magnetic fields. Less than a millimetre across and a few hundred micrometres thick, they process information and communicate wirelessly. They have a range of uses from medical diagnostics, surgery and brain monitoring to tracking butterflies and the conditions of crops.
But how to power them? The smallest battery is around 2 square millimetres in area or several times larger than a smart dust chip. And it’s not powerful enough to continuously drive the complex functions of a device.
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