Rollable displays a step closer to reality?

Working in collaboration with Philips, a team led by Dr Radu Sporea has developed a source-gated transistor (SGT) that can be applied to next generation digital circuits. SGTs work by controlling the electric current as it enters a semiconductor, decreasing the odds of circuit malfunction, improving energy efficiency and lowering fabrication costs. These properties make SGTs ideal for next generation electronic devices, and could enable digital technologies to be incorporated into devices such as ultra lightweight and flexible gadgets that can be rolled up; smart plasters thinner than a human hair that can wirelessly monitor a patient's health; and low cost electronic shopping tags for instant checkout. Dr Sporea noted: "These technologies involve thin plastic sheets of electronic circuits, similar to sheets of paper, but embedded with smart technologies. "Until now, such technologies could only be produced reliably in small quantities, and that confined them to the research lab. However, with SGTs we have shown we can achieve characteristics needed to make these technologies viable, without increasing the complexity or cost of the design." While SGTs can be applied to mainstream materials such as silicon, Sporea believes it is the potential to apply them to new materials such graphene that makes the research so crucial. He concluded: "By making these incredible devices less complex and implicitly very affordable, we could see the next generation of gadgets become mainstream much quicker than we thought."