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Plastic Electronics Driving An LCD Monitor
denisbergeron writes: "Philips Research develops the world's first display using polymeric semiconductors as pixel drivers, you can see the scientific paper here and a large public version here nothing realy new, but two beautifull picture of a 3.5 cm polymer display with a lot of other related pictures. No ready for the prime time, but almost there." "Polymeric" is just a fancy way to say "plastic" -- and the good news is that compared to silicon, "fewer production
stages and less stringent clean room conditions are required," thus making for cheaper display technology. Good news to me, and bad news to anyone who just plunked down $15,000-plus-tax for a big wall-mounted plasma TV.
[Yes this is slightly OT. But it's still science.]
"Polymeric" is just a fancy way to say "plastic"
Actually, polymeric does not mean plastic.
Plastic, strictly, means that you can shape the material by squeezeing it into shape. (As opposed to elastic, like a rubber band, that will go back to it's original shape when you stop squeezing it).
Polymeric means built up from lots of reapeating units. What are commonly called plastics (Polyethylene for example) are polymeric. But so are proteins. And lots of other things, that are't plastics.
To get marginally back on topic, just because this is made using a polymer does _not_ mean that it will be flexable. Perspex (Polymethylmethacrylate), the ploymer used in windows, is not flexable. Given that semiconductors require a crystaline structure, I don't think that these polymers will be plastic.
You can get flexable polymers that can do this sort of thing, but they are not semiconductors, they are called elecroluminescent polymers.
Different thing entierly
How much power does it take? Will it be the next wave of laptop/PDA monitors?
Better yet, will they eventually make a 60" monitor of the stuff to put on the wall? Q3 on a giant screen like that might be nice - assuming they got the resolution to about 2400x1800 or so...
DrQu+xum: Proof that the lameness filter doesn't work.
It is also possible, in principle, to print the switches on a roll of plastic foil in a continuous process.
It sounds so cool.. but it looks like they're trying to hedge their bets and not really give any idea of when this could really work. Sounds like flexible flat-panel type displays are still a long ways off.
*sigh* And I was so looking forward to getting one, too...
Have you read the Moderation Guidelines Addendum?
By definition, most polymers(plastics) are bendable. Sincethere is no rigidity like silicon here, I suppose we could have televisions or computer screens wrapped on Basket balls.
I think its possible.
This also brings cool,cool applications into my mind. If I had a TV - T-shirt, I could have a video cam on my back and show It up front. In effect, I'm Invisible!!! hahahah!
But, definitely, Plastics are the future, and If one projects a little bit further, you'll see we're all heading towards mimicking nature.
"Science fiction is nothing but Reality in Future tense"
(do check out http://iotaspace.net )
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not_cub
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there is one thing to consider when using plastic instead of silicon. A lot of people like to leave their tv's and even their monitors on for an extended period of time. The problem there is that electronic equipment heats up the longer it is left running. Fans or no fans, if some of the internal parts, like transistors, are plastic they will heat up. The downfall to this is, even though they are going to be cheaper, they may have to be replaced more often. Where is the efficiency in that? Yes I know it would be a lot more resonable then getting a plasma screen, because they are way over priced. I would rather pay the extra to have the silicon parts then to have something that may not last very long.