researchers in Canada claim they have stabilized polythiophene, a normally unstable, yet highly flexible, semiconducting polymer that can be etched with electronic circuits in place of rigid silicon chips Posted on 12/10/2002, 8:55:04 AM by Ernest_at_the_Beach
By Mike Martin
NewsFactor Network
December 9, 2002
In science fiction, from Star Trek to The X-Files, silicon-based life forms have proven deadly to carbon-based humans. In the real world, however, carbon-based transistors may prove fatal to the future prospects of silicon wafers.
Xerox (NYSE: XRX) researchers in Canada claim they have stabilized polythiophene, a normally unstable, yet highly flexible, semiconducting polymer that can be etched with electronic circuits in place of rigid silicon chips
, promising newspaper-thin computer monitors and televisions you can pin to your wall.
Carbon-based "printable organic electronic" devices have eluded manufacturers because the polythiophene compounds synthesized previously degraded quickly in the presence of oxygen.
The new compound, synthesized by Xerox research fellow Beng Ong and his coworkers, "augurs an inexpensive, easy-to-manufacture alternative to silicon-based electronics, which are difficult to fabricate and can cost up to ten thousand dollars per square meter," Xerox spokesperson Sandra Mauceli told NewsFactor. "Projected applications range from identification tags on merchandise to electric paper displays."
'Ultra-Clean' Means Ultra-Costs
"Silicon transistors require ultra-clean room environments, high-temperature vacuum systems and complex, photo-lithographic processes," Ong told NewsFactor. "The main advantage of our materials is their ability to be printed by low-cost printing processes, such as screen, stamp and jet printing," in a normal environment where precautions against moisture and oxygen are not necessary.
A site to fabricate silicon chips would "cost approximately three billion dollars versus an organic fabrication site cost of approximately thirty million dollars," Motorola (NYSE: MOT) organic electronics department manager Dan Gamota told NewsFactor.
"The additional cost associated with attaching the silicon chip to the printed wiring board is removed when building organic-based electronic products," Gamota said, "because fabrication and attachment are combined into a single process." This results in substantial savings, he pointed out.
Polythiophenes are "much like many of the plastic materials we come into contact with daily: styrofoam, polyethylene, polypropylene and the rubbery base material for chewing gums," Ong said. His team's compound is a so-called "smectic liquid crystal" made of polythiophene.
"Smectic liquid crystals have molecules that can align and order themselves under certain conditions," Ong explained, resulting in the semiconductor properties that such companies as Lucent, DuPont, Dow, IBM, Philips and Siemens have sought to perfect -- and stabilize -- for several years.
"No other companies have so far been able to make organic polymer thin-film transistors and obtain the levels of electrical properties that we have obtained with our materials," Ong claimed.
Furthermore, "the material developed by Xerox maintains these electrical properties when subjected to ambient environmental conditions -- oxygen and humidity," Gamota said. "Previously discovered systems required barrier and packaging materials for prolonged longevity."
In science fiction, from Star Trek to The X-Files, silicon-based life forms have proven deadly to carbon-based humans. In the real world, however, carbon-based transistors may prove fatal to the future prospects of silicon wafers.
"Beng Ong's work has the potential to enable the creation of a new business market based on organic-based transistor products," Gamota said. "These products have the potential to revolutionize many aspects of everyday life, such as truly interactive furniture, walls, ceilings, floors -- all communicating amongst themselves and with their occupants." 
I have the uncomfortable feeling this was listed as an ingredient on a bottle of "vitamins" I was looking at today.
This material could replace some of the inks used in printing things like the button switches on microwaves and dishwashers, etc. but the chip thing is BS. The only quoted extoller of this is Gamota, who has a vested interest in getting more R&D funds for his own department working in the area.
From my experience in the industry, I would say that it is definately possible. Molecular circuits make the argument a moot issue. It's coming. This is why I also say cloning is a dead end. Why clone when you can actually build DNA? The devices are getting so small I can hardly see them with a SEM (scanning electron microscope).
And man will never fly....man will never split the atom...man will never break the sound barrier...man will never land on the moon...the Dow will never hit 10,000.
These are all things that happened within a generation. I would suggest that you never say never, especially regarding things technological.
http://www.ipc.uni-linz.ac.at/publ/2000/2000-25.pdf
no, that's not the title of a new paul simon song (see: "a simple desultory phillipic"), BUT, as a non-chemist, i had a feeling that bucky's genius would play some part in superconductivity....just an observation....and the electro/photoluminescence of lanthanides is certainly (using spock's voice here) "fascinating"....
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