Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33712597›Full record

ArticleNature communications2021

Digital logic gates in soft, conductive mechanical metamaterials.

Charles El Helou, Philip R Buskohl, Christopher E Tabor, Ryan L Harne

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Nature communications, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 46 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
46citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

46 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Review
  5. Rotary Electromechanical System Integrating Non-Reciprocal Memory and Combinational Logic.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026
    Article
  6. Multi-Instably Mechanical Systems for Computing-Storing Functions.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026
    Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. A kinematically Bifurcated Metamaterial for Integrated Logic Operation and Computing.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025
    Article
  10. Article
  11. Cut-Enabled Mechanical Metamaterials for Multimodal and Reprogrammable Static Nonreciprocity.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025
    Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Bistable Soft Shells for Programmable Mechanical Logic.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025
    Article
  18. Bioinspired Microhinged Actuators for Active Mechanism-Based Metamaterials.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025
    Article
  19. Parallel mechanical computing: Metamaterials that can multitask.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024
    Article
  20. Anisotropic nonlinear optical responses of TaNanophotonics (Berlin, Germany) · 2024
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Charles El HelouDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA.
Philip R BuskohlMaterials and Manufacturing Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, OH, USA.
Christopher E TaborMaterials and Manufacturing Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, OH, USA.
Ryan L HarneDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA. ryanharne@psu.edu.ORCID 0000-0003-3124-9258

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Integrated circuits utilize networked logic gates to compute Boolean logic operations that are the foundation of modern computation and electronics. With the emergence of flexible electronic materials and devices, an opportunity exists to formulate digital logic from compliant, conductive materials. Here, we introduce a general method of leveraging cellular, mechanical metamaterials composed of conductive polymers to realize all digital logic gates and gate assemblies. We establish a method for applying conductive polymer networks to metamaterial constituents and correlate mechanical buckling modes with network connectivity. With this foundation, each of the conventional logic gates is realized in an equivalent mechanical metamaterial, leading to soft, conductive matter that thinks about applied mechanical stress. These findings may advance the growing fields of soft robotics and smart mechanical matter, and may be leveraged across length scales and physics.

Identifiers

PMID33712597
PMCPMC7954845

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.