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Surprising Science —

For Your Consideration: A USB Drive Made Of Paper

intelliPaper is seeking $300,000 in crowdfunding to help bring its device, which consists of a memory chip embedded in a sheet of paper, to market.

What’s the Latest Development?

Spokane-based intelliPaper has created a USB drive that consists of a memory chip embedded in a sheet of paper with a thickness approximating that of card stock. Folding the paper provides enough thickness to insert the drive into a port just like any other, firmer USB drive. Because it’s made of paper and a small silicon chip, it can even be recycled. Already one organization is using the drives in wide distribution: Walla Walla University has embedded drives full of information about the school in postcards sent to prospective students.

What’s the Big Idea?

Staff at TechNewsDaily tested the sample drives sent to them and found that they held up well for the most part, although they didn’t perform when wet (but worked again when they were dried out). Their samples held about 66 Mb of data and were read-only; the company sells a separate device that can write data onto the drives. A spokesman claims that the drives are “the next post-it note…and the cost will fall to that of a rewriteable CD, or less than a dollar each.” Currently intelliPaper is attempting to raise $300,000 on Indiegogo to help bring its product to market.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com

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