New Twist on LCD Displays
Robert L. Mitchell, Computerworld, September 19, 2006
Over the next 10 years, thin-film polymers and other flexible substrates could change how people think about and use displays.
Researchers at Palo Alto Research Center are also working with a stainless-steel foil substrate that can withstand high temperatures.
Printing on thin polymer sheets allows for a more efficient, automated process than the discrete manufacturing techniques used to produce individual silicon chips on a production line. Electronics can be printed on continuous polymer sheets, a process called roll-to-roll printing. "These are primarily issues of cost," says Bob Street, senior research fellow at Palo Alto Research Center. "The idea is one can use printing presses rather than silicon fabs to make these devices."
Xerox Corp. is working on processes for both polymers and stainless-steel foil substrates.
Bob Street, a senior research fellow at Palo Alto Research Center says the issue isn't whether it can be done, but whether such a device can be created cost- effectively. He notes that attempts to print the antennas and transistors for RFID tags on a single sheet have so far been more expensive than using silicon and bonding the antenna to the chip. A flexible PC would be much more complex to engineer. "I'm sure you can do it," Street says. "The question is whether it is cost-effective versus doing it with crystalline silicon."
|
