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Silicon Circuits That Bend and Stretch
Matty the Monkey brings us a story from the BBC about silicon chips which can bend, flex, and even stretch. Researchers have developed a method to create circuits just 1.5 microns thick, which can then be bonded to a type of rubber to allow a great degree of flexibility. Scientists and companies see uses for these circuits in products ranging from "electronic paper" to form-fitting sensor devices to advanced brain implants. From BBC News:
"To create the foldable chips, these circuit layers are deposited on a polymer substrate which is bonded in turn to a temporary silicon base. Following the deposition of the circuits, the silicon base is discarded to reveal delicate slivers of circuitry held in plastic. These are then bonded to a piece of pre-strained rubber. When the strain is removed, the rubber snaps back into shape, causing the circuits on the surface to wrinkle accordingly."
This coupled with a flexible LCD screen, and I'll finally be able to have the line of t-shirts with animated graphics and slideshows I've been wanting.
I, for one, welcome back our (5.25") floppy overlords!
Yeah, when that rubber dry-rots, then what are you going to do?
How does it do under varying thermal conditions? chemicals? prolonged use? is it stretchable? how do the interconnects do being bent back on forth hundreds or even thousands of times?
Sigs are too short to say anything truly profound so read the above post instead.
The chips are already waterproof, as are the PCBs. The problem is the connections from chip to PCB, and to things off the PCB -- power connectors, memory sockets, etc. Keyboards and such are also a problem, not to mention CD drives or anything else with exposed moving parts.
A waterproof laptop would be very nice, but this isn't all that relevant. Besides, I doubt we're talking about high-performance chips here anyway.
Imagine a world where every flat surface (that's not a window) is a electronic display. Probably not in homes right away; amusement parks / Las Vegas would be the first to implement it, followed by malls and other areas where large numbers of people visit.
Over time, the displays would spread to cover almost every surface. It's tempting to imagine being able to change the wallpaper in your living room as easily as you can change the wallpaper on your computer desktop.
But what it'll more likely be is advertising everywhere you look. Like Minority Report, but much more so. With low power displays and cheaply printed electronics - it'll be a quite different world.
The very first applications will be ones where small display size and high cost are justified. Like the labels on packages facing retail consumers. Minority Report got this one wrong; the package would put on it's "song and dance" for potential customers. Once it was purchased and taken home it'd probably quiet down via programming (or dead batteries).
Think about a classroom where the "blackboard" is an electronic display; not just the instructor's scribblings but video, too. How about a large screen TV you unroll and stick to your living room wall?
The future will be made of inventions like this one. How that future evolves will be determined by who wants to spend the money to develop / implement it. I can hardly wait until I can chuck Nerf balls at the guys running around on my walls...
...because you can stretch your rubber wafer out, put a 45nm circuit on it, let go and there you have a 20nm one at no extra cost!
*checks for patents*
I understand that many of the enhancements made by using new processes are actually mute until they get stupid thin since they are actually making flexible chips using merely normal proceses with the back etched as well and getting very good results with it. Maybe a whole new section of flexible MEMS like sensors will be released based on convention etching as well ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gpZLOCNfrI
Does it mean that Uri Geller found a new job ?
I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous.
Slashdot is lost. First it was the militant rednecks, and now the high school jocks from MySpace have joined the fray. They finally found a way to get revenge on us after having to haul our goods and pump our gas all these years. By trolling Slashdot. What do we do now? What?
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Do you really want your condom to tell you you're not good at it too? I mean, being chastised by your partner is one thing, but the condom too? You must be a glutton for punishment.
"Growing old is inevitable; growing up is optional."
Does that mean I'll be able to buy a new PCI-E video card and just squish it into my PCMCIA slot? Will there be drivers for that?
I don't believe you, I'm here for a seat on the secret spaceship.