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Engineers Create World's First Transparent Transistor

Posted by timothy on from the next-up-is-the-clear-motherboard dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Engineers at Oregon State University have created the world's first transparent transistor, a see-through electronics component that could open the door to many new products. The discovery "is a significant development in the context of transparent electronics," the scientists said in their publication, but pointed out it's too early to tell what applications may evolve. "There's no doubt it will open the door to some interesting new products and businesses, but we're not sure what all they might be." From Science Blog."

35 comments

  1. At least they're forward thinking... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "There's no doubt it will open the door to some interesting new products and businesses, but we're not sure what all they might be."

    1. Re:At least they're forward thinking... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Cool new case mods!

  2. Second headline by sporty · · Score: 2, Funny
    Headline: Engineers Create World's First Transparent Transistor


    Moments later...

    Transparent Transistor Lost After Droping It On The Ground.

    [/joke]

    --

    -
    ping -f 255.255.255.255 # if only

    1. Re:Second headline by hplasm · · Score: 1
      Headline: Engineers Create World's First Transparent Transistor

      Naw! I just can't see it myself...

      --
      ...and he grinned, like a fox eating shit out of a wire brush.
  3. Aren't LCD transistors transparent?? by jungd · · Score: 1

    Anyone?

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    /..sig file not found - permission denied.
    1. Re:Aren't LCD transistors transparent?? by Smidge204 · · Score: 1

      There are no transistors in an LCD display. Only very small conductive traces. The thin film of liquid quartz crystal polarizes light when you put a voltage across it. By putting a polarized sheet of plastic on top of it, you can effectively block light from passing through the display.

      That's why LCD screens need to be backlit.

      What *I* want to know is, how sensative are these devices to light?
      =Smidge=

    2. Re:Aren't LCD transistors transparent?? by cornjchob · · Score: 1

      I'd imagine that, even though they are transparent, the exploitation of that fact would be a little off. Especially as the devices get really really minute (which they will...what's the use of a computer consisting only of a screen if it cant display graphics?), I'd imagine that photons would be able to muck things up quite readily. Not even just the fact that photons can knock electrons around, but the fact that light could heat these babies up--not a very good thing for small traces. Unpredictable behavior is the last thing a technology that seeks to become ubiquitus needs.

      --
      We now have confirmed reports from an informed Orange County minister that Ethel is still an active communist.
    3. Re:Aren't LCD transistors transparent?? by Hal-9001 · · Score: 1
      I'd imagine that, even though they are transparent, the exploitation of that fact would be a little off. Especially as the devices get really really minute (which they will...what's the use of a computer consisting only of a screen if it cant display graphics?), I'd imagine that photons would be able to muck things up quite readily. Not even just the fact that photons can knock electrons around, but the fact that light could heat these babies up--not a very good thing for small traces. Unpredictable behavior is the last thing a technology that seeks to become ubiquitus needs.
      I don't think these devices would be particularly light-sensitive, at least not to visible light. The fact that the material is transparent suggests that the band gap of ZnO is larger than the energy of a visible photon, so the degree of interaction between visible light with this material should be negligible (i.e. no unexpected switching, and no heating due to light absorption). Contrast this to silicon, which has a band gap of 1.1 eV IIRC, which means that it absorbs (and therefore can be heated by and is opaque to) wavelengths shorter than 1.1 microns (which includes the near-infrared and visible regions of the electromagnetic spectrum).

      As far as applications for this material go, the most obvious one I can think of is to locally integrate electronics at every pixel of a CCD or CMOS array in a digital camera. You could give each pixel a circuit to reduce the dark current, to boost the sensitivity, or to make the response more linear, and you could deposit these circuits on the surface of an existing array.
      --
      "It take 9 months to bear a child, no matter how many women you assign to the job."
    4. Re:Aren't LCD transistors transparent?? by DustMagnet · · Score: 1
      I read here: TFT is also known as active matrix display technology (and contrasts with "passive matrix" which does not have a transistor at each pixel).

      My guess is that the transisters are in the black areas between the lighted parts. But that's just speculation. Before today, I thought they were transparent.

      --
      'SBEMAIL!' is better than a goat!!
  4. No. by hackwrench · · Score: 1

    If they were, LCD's would use less energy though/be brighter.

  5. I Want My LCD Contact Lenses! by GuyWithLag · · Score: 1

    For those of you that haven't read (yet) Vernor Vinge's "Fast Times at Fairmont High", imagine a pair of contact lenses that is actually a pair of LCD screens with relatively high resolution. Who need projectors any more? Only problem is the power supply..

    Imagine now if they could sense the direction of your eyes... voila! VR made easy :-)

    1. Re:I Want My LCD Contact Lenses! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I just want cheap LCD shutters in my contacts, so I can have build in 3D glasses and I can find them easy when I drop them (blink-blink-blink).

  6. physical spyware applications by Tired_Blood · · Score: 1

    Imagine the vast possibilities wrt espionage.

    Coat the surface of furniture/walls/floor with a computer!

    Or better yet: Build an entire window that doubles as a data-recorder. Then you could arrange to retreive the info from the outdoors - eliminating the need to recover from within the building, or snaking a wire through the structure.

    According to the article, it blocks UV just like glass - eliminating that method of detection. Given the proposed applications (within windsheilds) it seems that it'll work in direct sunlight, so a window pane isn't far-fetched.

    Of course, there's very little info on the properties of the material (hardness, ESD sensitive, etc), which would help narrow the range of applications. Well, you can either be in awe or very afraid. Since this in the Science section, I'll be in awe. Once the topic gets into YRO, then be afraid.

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    This is not my sig.
  7. transparent what? by eamonman · · Score: 1
    So this was ALMOST a trekkies' dream ;)

    Some of the true potential of transparent transistors, Wager said, has already been visualized by Hollywood in futuristic, science fiction movies that show people working with elaborate, invisible electronic systems that so far only exist in on-screen special effects and the mind of a movie director.

    On second thought, I guess we'll be able to build HAL now.

    --
    0- Eamonman Proud member of DNRC
    1. Re:transparent what? by Randolpho · · Score: 1

      Captain! There be whales here!

      --
      "Times have not become more violent. They have just become more televised."
      -Marilyn Manson
  8. Pretty small niche by JUSTONEMORELATTE · · Score: 1

    "a significant development in the context of transparent electronics"
    And in other news, the empty bowl on my desk is a significant development in the context of people eating my lunch today.

  9. So you're saying... by bunseki+suru · · Score: 3, Funny

    that I shouldn't be surprised at the lack of pictures on the site?

    --
    Integrated application integration with synergistic synergized synergy
  10. Vacuum Tubes by 4of12 · · Score: 1

    There are many potential applications of using ZnO transistors that are transparent in the visible spectrum, especially if they can be combined with optoelectronic components that permit emitted or captured light to pass through the electronics.

    But from what I recall, Si is also transparent, albeit in the IR band, so the only benefit of going to ZnO is that humans can see through them. Maybe there are other processing advantages to ZnO that permit it to work better with III-V systems?

    Not to pick nits, but old style vacuum tubes were largely transparent. So, maybe adding the qualifier of "first solid-state transparent transistor" might be more strictly correct, if it matters to anyone.

    At one point I thought there was an idea around to revive vacuum tubes on a micron scale for some applications (displays?).

    --
    "Provided by the management for your protection."
    1. Re:Vacuum Tubes by Hal-9001 · · Score: 1
      Not to pick nits, but old style vacuum tubes were largely transparent.
      But if we were going to nitpick, I would use the phrase "sparsely opaque". Yes, the glass housings of vacuum tubes are transparent, but the metal cathodes and anodes inside the vacuum tubes are quite opaque to visible light.
      But from what I recall, Si is also transparent, albeit in the IR band, so the only benefit of going to ZnO is that humans can see through them. Maybe there are other processing advantages to ZnO that permit it to work better with III-V systems?
      Outside of scientific research, most people are primarily interested in visible light as opposed to the infrared or ultraviolet light (the Sony Night Shot camcorder notwithstanding). Transparent electronics could be used to make smart pixel arrays for digital cameras with local processing electronics for every CCD or CMOS pixel, for example. If I thought about it for a while, I could probably come up with more uses for integrated optoelectronics in the visible spectrum, but I'm lazy. :-p
      --
      "It take 9 months to bear a child, no matter how many women you assign to the job."
    2. Re:Vacuum Tubes by bryanthompson · · Score: 1
      At one point I thought there was an idea around to revive vacuum tubes on a micron scale for some applications
      I saw on techTV not too long ago a motherboard that had little vacuum tubes on it. It was for a computer for high-end audio producing. It didn't interest me too much at the time, so I don't really know the details, other than that's another application of them.
  11. My cool application by moc.tfosorcimgllib · · Score: 1

    Paint the car with this stuff.

    Want a new color car, or to quickly add or remove a racing stripe? Plug in the laptop and redesign the paint scheme.

    1. Re:My cool application by IpalindromeI · · Score: 1

      Unfortunately, Apple has already applied for this patent.

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      --
      Promoting critical thinking since 1994.
  12. Open door by oever · · Score: 1

    This story opens the door to silly posts mentioning the fact that this story uses the silly phrase 'opens the door to' twice, which is a new form of the well praticed arts of duplicate submissions on /.

    And the previous line was way too long for average /. posting. Not transparent at all.

    --
    DNA is the ultimate spaghetti code.
  13. Hello, computer by Iridar · · Score: 1

    From here it's just a short step to transparent aluminum. Star Trek, here we come! ;-)

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    Information doesn't want to be anything

    .
    1. Re:Hello, computer by Bob+Vila's+Hammer · · Score: 1

      Transparent Alumina has already been produced in Germany. It is tested at 3 times stronger than hardened steel of the same thickness. It is not actually called 'transparent', it is referred to as a translucent ceramic.

      --


      --"The perfect example of the man of action is the suicide." - William Carlos Williams
    2. Re:Hello, computer by mmontour · · Score: 1

      "Transparent Alumina" in the form of Optical Sapphire has been widely available for years. See, for example, Edmund Optics. It's also used in high-end wristwatches.

    3. Re:Hello, computer by TheLink · · Score: 1

      But it's not aluminum, not a metal.

      The two are about as related as titanium oxide to titanium.

      --
  14. Crystal Pepsi Sucked by deprecated · · Score: 2, Funny

    It's the same thing, right?

  15. and it is called.... by u19925 · · Score: 1

    triode!

  16. Unfortunately... by psyconaut · · Score: 1

    Shortly after inventing the world's first transparent transistor, scientists mislaid it due to it being hard to see and still cannot find the damn thing ;-)

    -psy

  17. Something doesn't check here by wowbagger · · Score: 1

    The article talks about using ZiO2 to make the transistors, and placing them in window glass in cars and such.

    But Zi02 is NOT transparent to UV - hence why it is used as a sunblock. Now, if you try to make a transistor out of it, it might be transparent to (and therefor uneffected by) normal visible light, but if it is absorbing UV, that is going to play merry hell with the electron/hole pairs. I'd expect it to completely HOSE the biasing of the devices.

    Also, they don't give any of the parametrics of the devices - the maximum switching frequency, the gain, the gain/bandwidth product, the on/off resistances. Are these like some of the plastic transistors that have been created - low frequency, low gain?

    Don't get me wrong - even a low speed low gain device would still be great in an LCD - you could increase the fill factor (the amount of the display that is actually pixels), and make higher contrast and wider viewing angle displays. But some of the stuff in the linked article was a bit silly.

    --
    www.eFax.com are spammers
    1. Re:Something doesn't check here by Sir+Holo · · Score: 1

      The article talks about using ZiO2 to make the transistors

      Not to pick nits, but there is no such thing as ZiO2. Zinc oxide is ZnO2. And as far as any UV merry-hell-playing goes, there are clear substances which absorb UV, commonly referred to as glass, behind which these electronics would undoubtedly lie.

      Also, they don't give any of the parametrics of the devices - the maximum switching frequency,...

      That's because they just invented and have only first made it. They've shown that it is possible, as a materials technology. That is very different than the specifications of specific devices, to which you allude.

  18. Night vision glasses by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    This seems like a less bulky way of doing night vision. Maybe the electronics could now fit on a light pair of glasses? They would only need to be able to detect optical/infrared and then amplify it up to a (tunable) threshold. Maybe a little extra processing for false color or something to turn night into day.

    Is there any reason the transistors would need to run at a faster clock than 80Hz?

  19. Rather opaque html? by Wills · · Score: 1

    I couldn't even see the article without first yanking out all the 116 html errors in Scienceblog's webpage. With html like that, who needs popup ads?

    --
    Scroogle
  20. It's a start by bobwhite4 · · Score: 1

    Well, the transparent transistor is a start on a wearable computer for nudists......

    bw

    --
    A millihelen is the amount of beauty required to launch one ship.