Comment on MIT Demonstrates Fully 3D Printed, Active Electronic Components
HewlettHackard@lemmy.ca 1 week agoCouldn’t you build an amplifier by using a thin wire that heats up a larger wire? If you size the large wire to minimize self heating, then a small current would cause the thin wire to act as a heater, switching the large current.
JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl 1 week ago
Well yeah, you could do that with any PTC + resistor. That is then a circuit, not an active component.
For example, if you had a photoresistor and used an LED to turn its resistance from high to low, that doesn’t make the photoresistor an active component.
Plus in the paper, the small wire + geometry is a prerequisite to do the resistance switch without melting everything.