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Transparent Transistors Are Coming

Roland Piquepaille writes "Transparent electronics is an emerging technology which aims to produce invisible electronic circuits. Now, researchers from Oregon report they made a major advance in transparent electronics. Their zinc-tin-oxide 'thin-film' materials are amorphous, physically robust, chemically stable and cheap to produce at just above room temperature. These new materials and transistors offer many new possibilities for consumer electronics, transportation, business and the military."

159 comments

  1. Roland Piquepaille by DarkHelmet · · Score: 3, Interesting
    #1: This is a followup on another story.

    #2: This Roland Piquepaille stuff is getting on my nerves. There is obviously some kind of either backdoor deal, or favoritism for this guy getting stories.

    Where is your journalistic integrity?

    Hey Slashdot! I feel like having the option to block this guy out on my Edit Home Page Page. I mean, he has more submissions than "samzenpus," whoever the hell that is.

    Don't force me to write a RSS filter that blocks phrasewords out. I'm feeling too lazy atm.

    --
    /^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
    1. Re:Roland Piquepaille by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe Roland Piquepaille is a well-intended prolific submitter. If you're jealous, you can try to beat him at his game, by submitting more articles of better quality and in greater quantity to Slashdot.

    2. Re:Roland Piquepaille by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And maybe you're not a dickwad. But sadly, you are.

    3. Re:Roland Piquepaille by artifex2004 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      "And are you paying for your access?"

      ...oh, wait, you are! :) Just kidding. If you look closely, you'll see that actually, a LOT of the submissions that make the cut are actually submitted by people who wrote the article or worked on the team, or whatever. Slashdot is acting as a news summary service, they don't go out and do their own reporting. So people who offer a lot of material often find it getting through, especially if the first batch is well received. Or if it's a slow day. Or it hasn't been posted already in the last 4 hours. Or...

      It's still a nice website, especially at my discounted rate.

    4. Re:Roland Piquepaille by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Or it hasn't been posted already in the last 4 hours. Or...
      ... or if they slip the editors a wad (or a length).
    5. Re:Roland Piquepaille by NanoGator · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If the story is interesting, what is the big frickin deal? If it's not interesting, what is the big fricking deal?

      Me personally, I'm sick of lots of stories Slashdot posts about. Do I filter them? Nah. Do I bitch about them? Admittedly I used to. But life's too short. Now I just scroll on.

      Lighten up.

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    6. Re:Roland Piquepaille by DanielJosphXhan · · Score: 1

      Well I for one welcome our transparent electronic overlords...

      --
      [ think ]
    7. Re:Roland Piquepaille by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Roland is stealing the content, thats the point.

      Take any article and phrase search it on google.

    8. Re:Roland Piquepaille by pipingguy · · Score: 1


      If I remember correctly, Piquepaille responded to earlier popular slashdot criticism (correctly, in my view) by placing links to his summaries down low in his submissions.

      I don't bother to visit his site because it doesn't usually have anything unique to offer aside from "this is a cool thing" links.

    9. Re:Roland Piquepaille by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Roland is stealing the content, thats the point.

      No he isn't. He's committing copyright infringement, not theft. It's wrong when the RIAA or MPAA use newspeak to dishonestly influence people, and it's wrong when you use newspeak to dishonestly influence people.

    10. Re:Roland Piquepaille by gl4ss · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      how do you think the editors would ever get a clue that the readers are sick of old roland advertising his blog if we never complained?

      if he wants to advertise let the asshole post the stories with something insightful to say, or else just filter his crap from it.

      hell, here's a novel idea for roland: POST REPLIES TO STORIES THAT GET MODDED UP, and advertise on your fucking sig. or just BUY the adviews from slashdot.

      more than that usually they're just some digged up shit with _nothing new_ on the issue.

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    11. Re:Roland Piquepaille by NanoGator · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      "you're not only a moron, but a moron who seems to be missing the point."

      I'd rather be a moron than a uppity self-righteous git.

      --
      "Derp de derp."
  2. Obligatory comment by October_30th · · Score: 0

    I, for one, welcome our advanced transparent transistor overlords.

    --
    The owls are not what they seem
    1. Re:Obligatory comment by secretsquirel · · Score: 1

      Great, so now the world will be overrun by an invisible self-replicating goo instead of that old grey stuff.

    2. Re:Obligatory comment by BladeMelbourne · · Score: 1

      I too, am concerned about invisible trannies sprogging their goo everywhere.

    3. Re:Obligatory comment by secretsquirel · · Score: 1

      I for one welcome our new invisible transexual goo sproogging concern causing overlords.

    4. Re:Obligatory comment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sure, but which infant lord and saviour? Isis and her child? Mary and her Child? Mithra? Jesus - according to the apochriva there were at least 3 Jesuses? Hari Krishna? One of the several million Hindu infant Gods? Budha? /. spans the world...

  3. Roland Piquepaille and /.: Is there a connection? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Roland Piquepaille and Slashdot: Is there a connection?

    I think most of you are aware of the controversy surrounding regular Slashdot article submitter Roland Piquepaille. For those of you who don't know, please allow me to bring forth all the facts. Roland Piquepaille has an online journal (I refuse to use the word "blog") located at www.primidi.com . It is titled "Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends". It consists almost entirely of content, both text and pictures, taken from reputable news websites and online technical journals. He does give credit to the other websites, but it wasn't always so. Only after many complaints were raised by the Slashdot readership did he start giving credit where credit was due. However, this is not what the controversy is about.

    Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends serves online advertisements through a service called Blogads, located at www.blogads.com. Blogads is not your traditional online advertiser; rather than base payments on click-throughs, Blogads pays a flat fee based on the level of traffic your online journal generates. This way Blogads can guarantee that an advertisement on a particular online journal will reach a particular number of users. So advertisements on high traffic online journals are appropriately more expensive to buy, but the advertisement is guaranteed to be seen by a large amount of people. This, in turn, encourages people like Roland Piquepaille to try their best to increase traffic to their journals in order to increase the going rates for advertisements on their web pages. But advertisers do have some flexibility. Blogads serves two classes of advertisements. The premium ad space that is seen at the top of the web page by all viewers is reserved for "Special Advertisers"; it holds only one advertisement. The secondary ad space is located near the bottom half of the page, so that the user must scroll down the window to see it. This space can contain up to four advertisements and is reserved for regular advertisers, or just "Advertisers". Visit Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends (www.primidi.com) to see it for yourself.

    Before we talk about money, let's talk about the service that Roland Piquepaille provides in his journal. He goes out and looks for interesting articles about new and emerging technologies. He provides a very brief overview of the articles, then copies a few choice paragraphs and the occasional picture from each article and puts them up on his web page. Finally, he adds a minimal amount of original content between the copied-and-pasted text in an effort to make the journal entry coherent and appear to add value to the original articles. Nothing more, nothing less.

    Now let's talk about money.

    Visit http://www.blogads.com/order_html?adstrip_category =tech&politics= to check the following facts for yourself. As of today, December XX 2004, the going rate for the premium advertisement space on Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends is $375 for one month. One of the four standard advertisements costs $150 for one month. So, the maximum advertising space brings in $375 x 1 + $150 x 4 = $975 for one month. Obviously not all $975 will go directly to Roland Piquepaille, as Blogads gets a portion of that as a service fee, but he will receive the majority of it. According to the FAQ, Blogads takes 20%. So Roland Piquepaille gets 80% of $975, a maximum of $780 each month. www.primidi.com is hosted by clara.net (look it up at http://www.networksolutions.com/en_US/whois/index) . Browsing clara.net's hosting solutions, the most expensive hosting service is their Clarahost Advanced (

  4. FYI by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative
  5. Please by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wearable computers, please.

    1. Re:Please by khrtt · · Score: 1

      Transparent aluminum I understand. But transparent transistors???

  6. A new form of swindling by Faust7 · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Yes sir, I know it doesn't look like there's an Athlon in there, but there is, trust me. It's the new transparent model."

    "Really?"

    "Sure."

    1. Re:A new form of swindling by somethinghollow · · Score: 2, Funny

      An updated version of "The Emperor's New Clothes"...

    2. Re:A new form of swindling by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

      Don't forget to get the transparent monitor and the transparent Windows OS, you don't even realize when it crashes with it's CSOD (clear screen of death).

  7. Sounds like just another ITO by gaber1187 · · Score: 5, Informative
    Sounds alot like the Nature Nov 25th issue which mentions another advance in indium gallium zinc oxide by a japanese group. They did theirs on a plastic substrate with an amorphous oxide.

    Zinc Tin Oxide sounds alot like indium tin oxide (ITO) which is pretty commonly used, but has commonly known downsides. I don't think this is all that impressive.

    1. Re:Sounds like just another ITO by rewt66 · · Score: 1, Flamebait

      Sure. Just because two compounds shares two out of three chemical elements, they must be a lot alike. Hey, they sound alike, and that's all that matters, right?

      Or did you have an actual reason (other than similar names) for stating this opinion? If so, would you let us know what it is?

    2. Re:Sounds like just another ITO by gaber1187 · · Score: 4, Informative
      After looking up the paper in applied physics letters, they mentioned more properties about the material and that it is in the class of amorphous oxide conductors (which is where you dope a heavy metal oxide with something like Tin to make it conductive). In fact, this material could be used quite easily just like ITO, but it actually has a lower conductivity than ITO. What these guys did is use the ITO as a semiconductor channel not just as a conductor. The ON voltage is 5V (due to the large 3.35 eV bandgap), compared to about less than 0.5 volts for most modern VLSI devices.

      The reason I mention the Japanese work is that they use multiple components molecules which apparently helps maintain the amorphous qualities of the film. In other words, I think this work is not as good as the Japanese work.

    3. Re:Sounds like just another ITO by rewt66 · · Score: 1
      I see... you really did have some reasons for saying what you said.

      Apologies for my rather rude reply to your original post.

    4. Re:Sounds like just another ITO by gaber1187 · · Score: 1

      Ah its cool, no problem... you got a flamebait labeling... that was good enough for me. :-)

  8. Does that mean... by NoseBag · · Score: 1

    we'll finally get to see all those electrons and holes?

    --
    Cloned foods give the statement "We had that last week!" a whole new meaning.
    1. Re:Does that mean... by DrLZRDMN · · Score: 1

      no, considering that with todays technology we cant even see an atom.

  9. Perfect by nodehopper · · Score: 2, Funny

    This is just what I need for that transparent Lucite(tm) computer case. A transparent MOBO!!!

    --
    "We will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. " Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
  10. thin-film is the key point? by helioquake · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So being "transparent" really doesn't mean much for sales point? It sounds like the key points are (1) the element can be made small (thin) and (2) cheap. I could be way off the mark, as I just skimmed the article out of curiousity on application.

    Perfect for a throw-away phone and such?

    1. Re:thin-film is the key point? by Omniscientist · · Score: 1
      Something being cheap is a very important factor in the sales side of things. If I can produce something that works as well as something else for much cheaper, then I can sell that product for a price that would cause people to buy my product over the competitor.

      So, it being transparent causes it to look "cool" and also be "cheap". win win situation my friend....

    2. Re:thin-film is the key point? by alvieboy · · Score: 1

      Also beying transparent means it does not absorb visible radiation (or absorbs less). I'm not sure if this has an impact on general purpose electronics though. Has it ?

  11. IT Computer Repairman of the Future: by RileyLewis · · Score: 0

    "We can't seem to find the motherboard. Hmm. Bob, reconfigure the main sensor array to compensate for the interferometric particles being emitted from the cooling fan. Yeah...yeah, that should do it. Alright, now let's re-polarize the tachyon emitter to locate trace particles from the cloaked mobo..."

  12. I wonder if it contains... by Brad1138 · · Score: 4, Interesting
    --
    If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people
  13. What the by aztektum · · Score: 0, Troll

    Who the F is Roland Piquepaille and why is his blog news that matters?

    --
    :: aztek ::
    No sig for you!!
    1. Re:What the by krray · · Score: 1

      And why, if he is listed as an foe do I even SEE his posts?
      Easy enough to blacklist 212.43.241.105 at the router for now I guess.

    2. Re:What the by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He's basically a pal of michael sims, aka the corrupt, petulant asshole who killed censorware

    3. Re:What the by rickle · · Score: 0

      Isn't he the guy that sells that food dehydrator of his on TV? I hate that guy!!! :o)

      My other sig is a PERL script. I have only been able to achieve domination of camels with it so far(don't ask, I'm lonely)... Once I achieve world domination, you'll know about it... Oh, yeah!!

    4. Re:What the by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How the HELL is this Troll? He asked a question. I'm going to guess that this indeed proves a lot of the conspiracies running around (note that I purposely lacked placing theory as it's probable and no longer theory).

    5. Re:What the by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Some guy who sucks Michael Sims dick AFAIK.

    6. Re:What the by The_Wilschon · · Score: 1

      nonono, its News for Nerds. Stuff that matters.

      --
      SIGSEGV caught, terminating

      wait... not that kind of sig.
  14. Well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It is quite 'clear' from the article that the research team have not fully thought out the true implications involved in creating this transparent material.

    One possibility is with gas sensor systems. These sensors are used extensively in automotive and other mechanical applications, and the new zinc-tin oxide transistors might allow the creation of a new type of gas sensor whose sensitivity is electronically controlled over a wide dynamic range.

    "One other thing that comes to mind is games and toys," Wager said. "It's not unusual for the creators of innovative game products to be the first people to implement a new technology. Some of the first illustrations we've seen of the things you could do with transparent electronics have been in science fiction movies that show futuristic types of computer equipment.


    Not once do they mention the porn industry, because, as everybody should know, that is where the first true acceptance of new technology occurs.

    Indeed, I can think of one obvious use for a sheath of transparent transistors, that I would rather not mention here for fear of breaking my now applied for patent.

  15. OT: Re:Roland Piquepaille and /. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Slashdot does essentially the same thing. He provides a service by picking out the pieces that might be relevant to slashdoters.

    1. Re:OT: Re:Roland Piquepaille and /. by edittard · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Can I quote that (verbatim, of course, and without acknowledgement) as a defence if I ever get accused of plagiarism?

      --
      At the bottom of the /. main page it says 'Yesterday's News'. Well they got that right.
    2. Re:OT: Re:Roland Piquepaille and /. by fizban · · Score: 1

      Except that Slashdot doesn't go around to other sites talking about the stories it has and linking back to itself, as Roland does.

      You are an AC supporting RP, so you perhaps you are he?

      --

      +1 Insightful, -1 Troll. What can I say, I'm an Insightful Troll.

  16. Only 56 transistors per square inch... by complete+loony · · Score: 2, Funny

    I hope the tech gets better than this. Still I'm Impressed.
    I don't think we'll see much of this implemented.

    --
    09F91102 no, 455FE104 nope, F190A1E8 uh-uh, 7A5F8A09 that's not it, C87294CE no. Ah! 452F6E403CDF10714E41DFAA257D313F.
    1. Re:Only 56 transistors per square inch... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      I don't think we'll see much of this implemented.
      Isn't that the point?
    2. Re:Only 56 transistors per square inch... by complete+loony · · Score: 1

      My attempt humour was probably a little too opaque.

      --
      09F91102 no, 455FE104 nope, F190A1E8 uh-uh, 7A5F8A09 that's not it, C87294CE no. Ah! 452F6E403CDF10714E41DFAA257D313F.
    3. Re:Only 56 transistors per square inch... by hermank · · Score: 1

      hmm.... I wounder if, combined with transparent alumina, we can build a large piece of glass full of transitors. And imagine what will happen if we use the glasses as the external walls of a commercial building and turn it to, let say, a 386 or 8086.....

      what about connecting buildings together and form a huge cluster that run linux?

    4. Re:Only 56 transistors per square inch... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Drop a few lights in there and this guy, and you will be all set.

    5. Re:Only 56 transistors per square inch... by complete+loony · · Score: 1
      Great, a beowolf cluster of crystal clear glass brick houses running linux, who didn't see that one coming?
      Clearly, I can't see any visible problems with their implementation...

      Gee the few visible jokes in this thread are a little plain and obvious.

      --
      09F91102 no, 455FE104 nope, F190A1E8 uh-uh, 7A5F8A09 that's not it, C87294CE no. Ah! 452F6E403CDF10714E41DFAA257D313F.
    6. Re:Only 56 transistors per square inch... by bar-agent · · Score: 1

      Is 56 trans. per sq. inch a big deal? You can double the density by slapping another layer on. They are transparent, after all.

      --
      i'd hit it so hard, if you pulled me out you'd be the king of britain [bash.org]
  17. Re:China: Transparent Electronics & Spying by BladeMelbourne · · Score: 3, Funny
    The military implications of this technology are clear.

    I could imagine that all other implications of this technology are clear too, transparent in fact.

  18. This is definitely not a troll... come on mods.. by zoloto · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Just because he's ranting about the truth means you can mod him into oblivion. Most are scared to voice out, or not observant enough to notice certian submitters are "frequently" getting headlines.

    It's irritating when that happens especially when you want to submit a story you KNOW hasn't been on slashdot before, but get rejected only to have one of these "frequent" headliners post "dupes" or an ask slashdot that could have easily been looked up on google.

    Man, this guy has my sympathies and support. Don't mod because the tone of his post is harsh. LISTEN and act instead of reacting.

    "Do you hear me now?" -verizon

    "Didn't think so." -me

  19. Well written... by zoloto · · Score: 1

    ... I haven't checked to see if the parent post is plagerized or anything but it's a valid point. Kudos.

    My post above states similar facts, though more ambiguous than hard data.

    Good work, son.

  20. Re:Roland Piquepaille and /.: Is there a connectio by heptapod · · Score: 3, Funny

    It appears that every single article submitted to Slashdot by Roland Piquepaille is accepted, and he submits multiple articles each month. As of today, it is clear that ten articles were accepted in October, six in November, and four in December (so far). See http://slashdot.org/~rpiquepa for yourself. Some generate lots of discussion; others very little. What is clear is that, on a whole, this generates a lot of traffic for Roland Piquepaille.

    You must be new here. Since when do Slashdotters read the articles???

  21. I for one welcome our blue led modding overlords by adler187 · · Score: 1

    Transparent transistor + Blue LED = Rice-pc modder wet dream.

    Just imagine:

    Modder - "Pffft. Activity lights on the case are so lame, when my computer is thinking my whole processor lights up!"

  22. Re:Roland Piquepaille and /.: Is there a connectio by NanoGator · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    "s this "service" worth up to $647 a month? Or, does each "article" represent up to $80 of work?"

    Said the guy posting in an offensive story, thus providing more eyeballs to the related ads.

    --
    "Derp de derp."
  23. Wait a second.. you mean... by Epistax · · Score: 1

    ... no one will be able to see I'm a nerd?

    1. Re:Wait a second.. you mean... by kurzweilfreak · · Score: 0

      No, but they'll still be able to smell it...

      --

      kurzweil_freak

      5th Kyu Genbukan Ninpo/KJJR student

      Be the darkness that allows the light to shine.

  24. Reduced "screen door" effect by K8Fan · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Currently, the quality and definition of LCD screens and LCD chips used in projectors is due to the fact that the driver circuitry for each cell is in the area around the cell. And the yeild for both is limited by not having redundant driver circuitry for each cell. If these transistors truely are transparent, does this mean that the driver circuitry could be in the middle of each cell, and the area between each cell could be reduced to a bare minimum? And does this mean that they could have additional circuirty so the cells could be self-healing and could eliminate both "burned on" and "burned off" pixels?

    --
    "How perfectly Goddamn delightful it all is, to be sure" Charles Crumb
  25. omg... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oregon has researchers?!

    1. Re:omg... by anvilmark · · Score: 1

      They have freeways too!

  26. Invisible? by Dausha · · Score: 1

    Just in time for the latest Wonder Woman movie. With Star Trek's transparent aluminum and these new-fangled transparent circuits, she can finally go solid state.

    --
    What those who want activist courts fear is rule by the people.
    1. Re:Invisible? by cosinezero · · Score: 1

      Now if someone could only get her a thong instead of those granny-panties...

  27. Re:Roland Piquepaille and /.: Is there a connectio by WasterDave · · Score: 1, Informative

    It appears that every single article submitted to Slashdot by Roland Piquepaille is accepte

    It does, doesn't it. Yet for the sums in question I don't really think that Slashdot media inc. (OSDN or whatever they're called this week) would be taking a backhander from him in order to get them published. Or, if they are, can they please open the channel up? I know a whole shitload of people that'd pay $100 a pop to put stories on Slashdot. Oh yes.

    Dave

    --
    I write a blog now, you should be afraid.
  28. I thought this was OLD story. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Correct me if I'm wrong but there are already transparent transistors in the most of your LCD displays. They are the ones that control the each sub-pixels on your screen.
    If this is new then I discovered that bananas were shaped like California... ;)

  29. Re:Roland Piquepaille and /.: Is there a connectio by secretsquirel · · Score: 1

    I wish that I thought of that. As long as he doesn't submit BS it's fine with me. News goes through plenty enough rehashings before before it ever gets printed anyway.

  30. how does this relate to silicon by cats-paw · · Score: 3, Informative

    From the abstract :

    Transparent thin-film transistors (TTFTs) with an amorphous zinc tin oxide channel layer formed via rf magnetron sputter deposition are demonstrated. Field-effect mobilities of 5-15 and 20-50 cm^2 V^-1 s^-1 are obtained for devices post-deposition annealed at 300 and 600 C, respectively. TTFTs processed at 300 and 600 C yield devices with turn-on voltage of 0-15 and -5-5 V, respectively. Under both processing conditions, a drain current on-to-off ratio greater than 10^7 is obtained. Zinc tin oxide is one example of a new class of high performance TTFT channel materials involving amorphous oxides composed of heavy-metal cations with (n-1)^d10 ns^0 (n>=4) electronic configurations. ©2005 American Institute of Physics

    For comparison pusposes positive carrier mobility in silicon is about 500 cm^2 V^-1 s^-1 and for negative charges (aka electrons) it is about 800. This means that this transparent dvice technology is on the order of 10 - 50 times slower than silicon. Not good for new CPU's :-) which is not the purpose of the research anyway.

    What's of much more interest and is not mentioned in the abstract is what the gain of these devices are and what kind of current density they can handle.

    The "drain current on-to-off ratio" is sort of an odd thing to put in the paper. I mean if the off current is 1pA then the on current is 10uA (woo-hoo). If they made an actual transistor they should be able to present very standard benchmark values like gain, cut-off frequency and breakdown voltages.

    So I'm not actually convinced they created a bonafide device, but maybe just characterized the films for use as a potential semiconductor, in which case they have a long way to go. They need to dope the material, attach a gate, etc... all things which could cause all sorts of complications.

    --
    Absolute statements are never true
    1. Re:how does this relate to silicon by karvind · · Score: 0
      You are missing the point that all applications don't require high performance devices. Even in silicon it is hard to achieve mobility above 400 cm^2V^-1s^-1 these days, hole mobility being even worse. The key sellable point for these technologies is that they are cheap and possibly replacable. One of the other criterion of reliability has different meaning in this game. If you can make it cheap, you don't need to require it to work for 10 years. If a LCD screen is $15 only and survives for even 2 years, people will still buy it and replace it.

      And if you read the article, nowhere they claim to compete with mainstream silicon devices. In my opinion 10^7 on/off ratio is a very respectable device. Gain may not have too much meaning for these devices. In TFT applications you can bias it hard and pump the current anyway.

      -a

    2. Re:how does this relate to silicon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your comment was marked "informative" but actually it is misleading.

      First, a mobility of 20-50 cm^2/Vs is actually quite impressive for an amorphous material. Compare, for example, with amorphous silicon or organics which have mobilities less than 1.

      Second, on/off ratios are a very standard way to characterize transistor properties. Of course, inverter gain at various frequencies would be nice to see but that could be in a subsequent paper.

      No one is suggesting that this will replace crystalline silicon semiconductor technology. Rather, it would be used to do things that crystalline silicon cannot do, or is too expensive for.

  31. Contact/Eyeglass Monitor by MacroMegaMan · · Score: 1

    Could this tech beused to make a monitor out of a simple pair of contacts? That's the big tech I'm waiting for.

  32. Uses... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Cutting edge technologies like this have many uses. They could be used in handheld devices, glass touch screen panels and monitors, and a host of other things.
    They could also be used to run a wire from one side of a corridor to another,at neck height, and run 4,000 V through it.
    Now we know where the "and the military" bit came from.

  33. I'll believe it when I see it! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Pictures please...

    1. Re:I'll believe it when I see it! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If I was registered, this would be a 5.

  34. Re:Roland Piquepaille and /.: Is there a connectio by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 1

    Said the guy posting in an offensive story, thus providing more eyeballs to the related ads.

    I don't think that makes sense. Reading and posting to a slashdot article doesn't mean driving traffic to the linked articles. The slashdot articles are the only thing that links to the articles, postings in those threads doesn't necessarily mean more traffic for the linked sites.

  35. Computer in your eyewear ? by kiljoy001 · · Score: 0

    This is one of the first thoughts that come to me, as well as other transparent surfaces... How about computers that the display is the board ? many possiblities I see with this.

  36. HAL9000-- by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Dave,

    My mind is going. I can't see it...

  37. Re:Roland Piquepaille and /.: Is there a connectio by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    AC is a troll, AC is on a crusade against a guy who's not much different than the /. editors.
    AC is copy pasting (and getting modded up to +5) everytime (probably a cron job trolling) for any article submitted by roland.
    you have been baited by the troll... thanks for playing. Have a nice day.

  38. You mean "tranparent circuits" by xtremee · · Score: 1

    Transparent electronics is an emerging technology which aims to produce invisible electronic circuits

    As far as i know, air is invisible, oxigen is invisible, radiation is invisible..Electronic circuits are just tranparent.

  39. Re:Roland Piquepaille and /.: Is there a connectio by NanoGator · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It means more comments in the thread, which means more ad hits for Slashdot, which means more demand for the dude's work. Frankly, I resent my flamebait moderation on my previous post. It's a good point. The best way to keep this guy around is to keep the topic controversial. How do you think Howard Stern or Rush Limbaugh stay on the air?

    You guys want Slashdot to take him down? Don't comment in his threads. The editors will get the point when they can no longer guarantee that certain topics will get x many pages served with client y's ads..

    --
    "Derp de derp."
  40. Re:This is definitely not a troll... come on mods. by kesuki · · Score: 1

    It's irritating when that happens especially when you want to submit a story you KNOW hasn't been on slashdot before, but get rejected only to have one of these "frequent" headliners post "dupes" or an ask slashdot that could have easily been looked up on google.
    you must be new here... Articles are accepted, rejected and posted as fully autonomously as humanly possible... remember Taco get's paid to play video games all day long, not to actually accept or reject pending articles...
    when they find someone who's submitting a lot of good articles he get's flagged and sorted to the top, so editors can say 'hrm 2 stories to que for submission acception allright reject the rest..'
    Once they find the x# of submissions to accept they can just bulk reject submisions. The way /. editors do buisness on the main page is what lead to the popularity of 'journals.' afterall your journal can contain every single rejected article, if you think you've got a good one you can reference it with urls, etc etal. Frankly if /. didn't have journals I wouldn't be using /. anymore... few articles on the main page are worth more than reading the headline*. but with the 'my/amigos' page you can custom build a 'main' page with content from everyone you think has good je's.

    *= when you've been here a while you pick up the formula... most articles links read the same.. vanilla press release on new technology X etc etc.. there are occasionally really good RTFA's but usually just the headline is enough.

  41. Re:Roland Piquepaille and /.: Is there a connectio by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    . . . .

    And how many users get to have their nick / handle linking to their homepage istead of their uid history on /. ??? Now I can't even find out what he's been posting recently.

    Forget the money issues, i just love the way how the "story" builds up to "many new possibilities " (bold is the link to Roland's site - is he a real person? so that you are tempted to ignore the origin of the story and link straight to the punchline . . .

    I am sorry, but connexion or no connexion between Rolan and /. editors, this person adds nothing but first grade english comprehension and some googled links, which otherwise could fit on the /. front page, with a credit to him of course. credit where's due, but on balance none is due.

    at time of posting the majority of "discussion" attached to this story is annoyed one way or the other about this roland, pro or con the conspiracies. that gotta be bad . .

  42. Re:Roland Piquepaille and /.: Is there a connectio by lionheart1327 · · Score: 1

    Wow! $647 a month? So that's he can afford his Porsch.

  43. Re:Roland Piquepaille and /.: Is there a connectio by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Slashdot articles have ads.

  44. Re:Spying: China and the USA by ScrewMaster · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Yes, but it doesn't matter. Plenty of theft goes on right here in the States, and nobody seems interested in doing anything about it.

    --
    The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
  45. Re:Roland Piquepaille and /.: Is there a connectio by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I don't want to get involved in this really since most of the stories submitted by this guy aren't of interest to me, but can you refute any of the claims made against him? If the things he says are true, is it a troll?

  46. It was so obvious. All they had to do was manufacture the transistors out of transparent aluminum!

    --
    Tired of FB/Google censorship? Visit UNCENSORED!
  47. I already have a bunch of these by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Would you like me to email you some?

  48. regarding the "sins" of Roland Piquepaille by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Most of the stories summitted by Piquepaille don't interest me, so the fact that he has so many stories accepted doesn't really concern me. I do see some people on here who don't seem to understand why some people do have problems with him though.
    His "sins" or breaches of etiquette are many:
    1. he is profiting off of getting stories posted, or is at least seeming to. I would imagine that the cost of bandwidth might be close to what he is alleged to make in ads.
    2. he is merely reposting stuff from others. Which is what Slashdot does, but the main problem is that slashdot doesn't then go to others sites and post a story linking back to slashdot. which leads to the next "sin"
    3. he is breaking from the accepted norms of what happens when you post a link on slashdot. Most people, myself included, think that when you click on a link on slashdot, it will take you to the original story, not another story about a story.
    4. he is self linking. This is probably the biggest sin. Nearly everyone here has their own website but it is seen as showy or bragging to just go around linking to yourself. If what he has to say is so interesting, then why aren't other people submitting his blog columns?
    5. it isn't obvious that is what he is doing from the text. If you aren't paying attention that the story was submitted by Piquepaille, then you will click the link looking for more information and be disappointed.
    6. he gets a lot of stories accepted. I think I can explain this one, however. I bet the guy simply submits every single time he posts on his blog. If you submit an article every single day, I'm willing to bet you will get accepted a couple times a month.

    Personally? I think he's an attention whore. He acts like a junior high kid "look at me! look at me!" I think it is lame and I wish it would stop, but as I said from the beginning, I hardly ever care about his stories anyway, so it doesn't matter much to me.

  49. Re:Roland Piquepaille and /.: Is there a connectio by pipingguy · · Score: 1


    I say we pillory him just because neither his first nor last name is properly pronounced by Americans.

  50. Silicon? by HermanAB · · Score: 1

    I always thought that silicon transistors are transparent - OK, more translucent than transparent, but make them thin enough and they should be transparent. Silicon trannies have been around for decades, so what is new about this idea?

    --
    Oh well, what the hell...
  51. Re:Roland Piquepaille and /.: Is there a connectio by RileyLewis · · Score: 0

    To whomever posted this, do you have a user name for slashdot? I would like to add it to my friend list if at all possible, as shallow as that sounds.

    While I am new to this situation, I would like to learn more, as I trust slashdot for useful information and do not want to support a situation where a man is earning money by basically stealing information from others and redirecting traffic.

    Of course, I have no way to know if anyone contacts me if they are the poster of this thread. So maybe I'll withdraw that request. Nonetheless, I do sincerely respect you for taking a bit of charge on this issue. Here's to hoping slashdot may eventually put an end to this practice.

  52. Re:Roland Piquepaille and /.: Is there a connectio by geekoid · · Score: 1

    maybe they should call Roland and pay him 100 bucks...

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  53. Re:Roland Piquepaille and /.: Is there a connectio by pha777 · · Score: 2, Interesting


    I think that Roland Piquepaille's biz is entirely legitimate.

    His job is to research the web for people who do not have the time to do it, and he is getting $600 for his job.

    What's wrong with that?
    Ok, he didn't give credits before, but now he do.

    So, don't bother him.

    It's a differente story the issue about slashdot posting.

    --

  54. transparent computing by sl4shd0rk · · Score: 1

    Imagine.. a processor you cannot see, a motherboard you cannot see, inside a transparent case you cannot see. The next step in virtual tecknology.

    --
    Join the Slashcott! Feb 10 thru Feb 17!
    1. Re:transparent computing by niktesla · · Score: 1

      It's the high-tech version of the Emperor's New Clothes! Only the truely 1337 can see it. Can't you see it? :)

      --
      I've discovered a remarkable proof, but this margin is too small to contain it...
  55. Re:Roland Piquepaille and /.: Is there a connectio by toupsie · · Score: 1

    I know the wrath of Sims, he doesn't like my .sig so he put my entire subnet in the "timeout corner". Big man Michael is. Lover of free speech as long as he agrees with it. I am sure I will get placed in the timeout corner again for this post or just have my account deleted. We will soon see...

    --
    Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
  56. Re:Roland Piquepaille and /.: Is there a connectio by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oh, he *used* to be a thief, but he's given that up, so we'll continue to post his crap without acknowledging that. Yeah, great.

  57. Re:You are missing the point completely by NanoGator · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    " Slashdot, either by willing agreement or simple ignorance is supporting this thief by continually linking to his "blog". The level of "interest" is not relavent since what you are reading is being packaged by a liar."

    Complaining about it isn't giving Slashdot any reason to discontinue. If anything, they'll look at the number of comments generated and realize "Hey! We're dishing out more ads because of this guy!"

    --
    "Derp de derp."
  58. Author- please read by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    To whomever wrote the original post:

    Please familiarize yourself with the Anti-slash Injustices at http://anti-slash.org/injustices/.

    As a jihadi, I would love to see you submit this as an injustice. I would copy and paste it and submit it myself, but I'd like to see credit given to the author, rather than crediting an Anonymous Coward.

    So, if you would like to help us in our efforts to maintain documentation of Slashdot editor abuses, please submit your findings there.

    Thanks!

  59. A well written troll... by IHateSlashDot · · Score: 1
    The slashdot moderators are such hypocrites.

    The post in question was somehow rated a 5-informative when all it really says is "Roland Piquepaille is an asshole". There are at least 10 posts further down that say the same thing but get rated as 1-Troll.

    The only difference seems to be that one person took 500 words to say it and the other took 5.

    Pseudointellectualism at its best.

  60. Damn! by Xentropy · · Score: 1

    I invented these years ago, but the patent office didn't see the prototype in the envelope and rejected my claim.

  61. Re:Roland Piquepaille and /.: Is there a connectio by Rolo+Tomasi · · Score: 1
    And how many users get to have their nick / handle linking to their homepage istead of their uid history on /. ??? Now I can't even find out what he's been posting recently.

    That's standard procedure if you submit a story.

    Anyway, this will satisfy your curiosity.

    --
    Did you know you can fertilize your lawn with used motor oil?
  62. Re:Roland Piquepaille and /.: Is there a connectio by WasterDave · · Score: 1

    Shit. Not a bad idea. Nice one.

    Dave

    --
    I write a blog now, you should be afraid.
  63. Ads? What ads? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm using Firefox with the AdBlock extension and I don't see a single ad on this guy's site.

  64. Re:Roland Piquepaille and /.: Is there a connectio by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Roll and picky pal. What's the problem?

  65. Re:Roland Piquepaille and /.: Is there a connectio by Lord_Dweomer · · Score: 1
    Well put. Welcome to my friends list.

    --
    Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
  66. Re:Roland Piquepaille and /.: Is there a connectio by illuvata · · Score: 2, Informative

    You realize this is just a canned response that's in a lot (1 2 3) of his threads, right? If you look at the post, you'll notice that the AC didn't even bother to change As of today, December XX 2004, the going rate to the current date.

  67. Re:China: Transparent Electronics & Spying by Vicsun · · Score: 1

    Sharks with friggin invisible lasers on their heads?

  68. One question: by Tristandh · · Score: 1

    Why? What's the use of this?

  69. Re:This is definitely not a troll... come on mods. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    remember Taco get's paid

    "gets".

  70. Re:Roland Piquepaille and /.: Is there a connectio by forgotten_my_nick · · Score: 1

    A good read and an eye opener. Sadly I would say nothing will come of it and more then likely we will see more people do this.

  71. those who ignore history...... yadda yadda yadda by Ancient_Hacker · · Score: 1

    Tin oxide has been used for over a century to make cheap power resistors and heated windshields. Nothing new to see here.

  72. Re:Roland Piquepaille and /.: Is there a connectio by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Now if only someone would pay you for the crap you write, maybe you wouldnt be so bitter.

  73. Re:Roland Piquepaille and /.: Is there a connectio by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Can you shitbats get back to the topic?

  74. Active TFT LCDs? by nurb432 · · Score: 1

    Are not those already using transparent transistors on the glass? Or did i miss something in that class...

    --
    ---- Booth was a patriot ----
    1. Re:Active TFT LCDs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, you must have skipped that whole year. LCD= Liquid Crystal Display.

  75. reminds me of jon katz by peter303 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    He wrote one interesting book on hacking culture, then had free reign to blather on slashdot for a couple of years. Most of it was not good.

    1. Re:reminds me of jon katz by sosume · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      You forgot to mention why he got sacked. He wrote this monstrous troll about a boy in Afghanistan named Yanis who apparently dug a commodore 64 out of his backyard and used it as an email gateway.

  76. Re:Roland Piquepaille and /.: Is there a connectio by shiba_mac · · Score: 1

    There's ads on slashdot? I've been reading this site for a number of years, and I actually had to scroll up to see if there was an ad on the top of the page. And there was. I was genuinly surprised. I swear I don't even notice ads on websites anymore, it's like my brain filters them out without even telling me.

    Now, that's useful ad blocking software.

  77. Translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Slashdot making a backhanded deal to prop up one guy's submissions because it drives traffic to his website in order to generate money for his page hits? Get over it! Never mind that I'd bitch at Microsoft for the same thing."

  78. Re:Roland Piquepaille and /.: Is there a connectio by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It might not all be the same poster. ACs can copy each other pretty easily.

  79. Re:Roland Piquepaille and /.: Is there a connectio by ChaosDiscord · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Nice conspiracy theory. I don't buy it, but it's very cute.

    Some specific problems with your theory:

    First, Slashdot itself runs basically the same type of service Roland does; they link to other articles. Hell, Slashdot doesn't even have to go looking for the articles, they expect readers to submit them. Slashdot is sure as hell making more money each month than Roland. Should we hate Slashdot as well?

    Second, is Roland (and Slashdot) providing a service? Well, you're here, aren't you? Roland serves the same purpose many blogs do, he collects information. Maybe that's not worth anything to you, but it's hardly an evil scheme. Is he pimping his own site via Slashdot? Perhaps. So what? Apparently the Slashdot editors find his submissions to be worthy of posting. On that note...

    Fourth, you're seriously suggesting that Slashdot is involved some sort of evil plan to scam $647 a month? That's chump change t to Slashdot.

    Fifth, and perhaps most importantly, you suggest that the $647 is something that we should give the slightest crap about. If you were paying him that money you might have a right to complain that he wasn't justifying that money, but you're not. You're getting a free service, the only cost to you is potentially being exposed to some ads. If you don't like it, don't take advantage of that free service.

    The worst non-crazy charges you can levy are that Roland pimps himself on Slashdot for hits and that Slashdot editors are lazy and let Roland pimp himself. Wow, life's tough.

  80. well this is a first.. by zoloto · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    telling me i'm new here.

    *laff*

    i get the forumula - but expressing for the first itme my irritation.

  81. Re:Roland Piquepaille and /.: Is there a connectio by RileyLewis · · Score: 0

    Yeah, I thought it might just be a standardized response.

  82. In US of America .. by RedLaggedTeut · · Score: 1

    .. the (transparent) glasses ARE the battlefield computer..

    --
    I'm still trying to figure out what people mean by 'social skills' here.
  83. OK. Then how about a non-Piquepaille /. mirror? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How many will go there instead of here?

    Show of hands!

  84. 3D Transistors Published on WEBSITE 6 YEARS AGO ?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I cant help but believe their is some funny business going on. This company published many ideas including the transparent diode, xfrmr, etc.

    http://www.colossalstorage.net/colossal12.htm#ma rk ets

    Slashdot needs to patrol what it publishes as unique and interesting technology.

  85. Re:Roland Piquepaille and /.: Is there a connectio by Mean+Ass+Troll · · Score: 1

    you got some points to you article, but you leave out a few things. i'm not sticking up for roland, dont know him, or give a shit about him. it may very well be true that he does steal other's work. if so it will catch up with him. im replyin to your post for your benifit... you have some good arguments, and im gonna play a little devil's advocate. if you look at things a in a slightly different light, roland is what one would call a low level research assistant. the fact that you say he makes 600 some odd dollars a month would be a typical stipend for an RA of the post graduate level. While that may seem like a large amount of money, i hope he has a day job (welfare has for a long time been more profitable that being a (Teachers Assisstant --teachin undergrad classes of 500ish, and RA's) why does slashdot post his stuff? well you have the answer in your post. He generates discussion. true only some of his stuff may, but that is worth the post that dont. discussion is one way of looking at a topic's popularity. next is laziness of /. eds. instead of findin out the current stories, they can rely on the rolands of the web to do it for them. when u ask what service roland provides, this would be the most valuable thing he does. the cut an paste, could be done by a well trained chimp. but roland, depending on his research skills and the availability of the data he comes up with, may actually spend a lot of time looking for and sorting out stuff for his posts. the only benefit he can be to web writers is to give them exposure too. for a writer, the only worse thing than being talked about, is not being talked about. in fact, you talking about this raymoond character let me know he exists. dont worry, though, i will soon forget he exists. however, if he steals the work of others, esp for profit, cannot be excused. here is whhere you can make a difference. if you feel strongly enough about him, then you should contact the author of each article he uses. you could say 1 ronald is using your article did you know? did he ask permission (not requierd for academia, but is known as a courtesy in learned circles). 2 we think he is an asshole because he a) steals others work b) derives an income from it. c) we recommend you a) ask not to be associated with him b) demand to see how mcuh he made from your article, and seek renumeration c) file the appropriate copyrigt / dcma &c notices writing such a letter can be easy (you can draft the main body of each and paste it into emails (riddick is not the only one who can cut and paste). more than anything this will help speed up the process of him gettin busted if he is stealing work. you might also want to send a copy of his doings to his revenue provider, blogads, and his advertisers. hope this helps, and good luck on shutting him down, if he is indeed a plagiarist.

  86. Re:Roland Piquepaille and /.: Is there a connectio by Hemos · · Score: 1

    Hah. I love the notion that of X many pages to CLient Y ads. It's too bad that that doesn't exist.

    The reason Roland's stories get posted is that because he writes good submissions. Nothing more, nothing less.

    --
    Yeah, I'm that guy.