Researchers have developed a microprocessor built on high-performance plastic, rather than...
Intagliata: John Biggs is a distinguished engineer at the semiconductor company Arm.
He and a team of researchers have now developed a proof-of-concept flexible chip that could be used for applications like outfitting a milk jug with computer smarts and they say the chip is 12 times more complex than previous attempts.
They claim the microprocessor is cheap to build-and it consists of thin-film transistors on a substrate of flexible, high-performance plastic, rather than rigid silicon.
She laid out the vision for how flexible chips like this might be used.
Biggs: "Yeah, extending the 'internet of things' to the 'internet of everything.'".
For one, although the microprocessor is built on a substrate of flexible plastic, it was tested on a flat-not bendy-surface.
Manos Tentzeris is a professor in flexible electronics at Georgia Tech who was not involved in the work.
Manos Tentzeris: "So whenever you refer to some flexible processor, or some flexible device or flexible module, one of the first results you must show is that bending this does not affect significantly the performance."
John Biggs, from the semiconductor company? He's in it for the long game.
Biggs: "What I see is flexible electronics is sort of trailing silicon by about three to four decades. So if we see anything like the rapid growth we've seen in silicon over the last three to four decades there could be some quite exciting developments in the area of flexible electronics over the next decade or two."