A paper circuit is a circuit made on a sheet of paper rather than using wires and crocodile clips. You can use adhesive copper tape to connect up components and simple coin batteries to provide the power.

UPDATE July 2025: In the UK, because of the risks of coin batteries – this activity can no longer be carried out in schools. See the guidance here. Check with CLEAPSS for more details. Outside of the UK, check with your school’s safety advisor. 

You will need

• Paper or card
• Copper Foil Tape (Like this)
• 5mm LEDs
• Paper Clips
• Coin Cell Batteries

It’s probably best to draw out your circuit with pencil first (but not essential). Mark where the components will go.

Use the adhesive copper foil tape – cut it into strips and stick it down on the paper. Make sure it overlaps on corners. Leave gaps where the components will go.

Make sure you know which side of the battery is the positive and which is the negative. If you put any LED’s in your circuit, they will only work if the positive leg is connected back to the positive side of the battery. Look at the LED – the longer leg is the positive.

You can use aluminium foil or a paperclip to act as a switch. This guide from Instructable has a nice way of connecting up the battery so you can activate the circuit by folding down the corner of the page.

What next?

Investigate properties of materials by using different things to act as a switch. Which materials are conductors and work as a switch, and which are insulators and don’t work?

Well you could make light-up greeting cards, make origami animals come to life, or create 3D paper sculptures that have working lights in them.

If you’re interested, you could also use something like Bare Conductive ink to add additional drawn components to the circuit.

You could also combine paper circuits with a Makey Makey to create cool interactive toys that control programs written in Scratch.

For more ideas check out this tutorial from Sparkfun, or this one from Exploratorium.