Future microprocessors, memory could be plastic

A NUMBER OF PRESENTERS at the iSuppli Flat Displays Forum held earlier this month discussed the role of plastic in future electronics technology.

One of the more interesting presentations came from Plastic Logic - a spin off of Cambridge University's Cavendish Lab and with $17 million of venture capital.

At the end of November, it received a £2.45 million second funding which included Bank of America Capital Partners, Yasuda Enterprise Development, and money from VC Steve Kahng.

Plastic Logic is exploring printing electronic circuits from soluble plastics and has already got agreements with Epson, Dow Chemical and CDT, with 35 employees based in the Cambridge Science Park.

Its goal is to combine electronics and the pervasiveness of printing "to put electronics where you want and when you want".

The advances of plastic compared to silicon is it needs low capital investment, is cheap to build, is environmentally friendly, is extremely thin, it's robust and light and has flexible substrates, according to Stuart Evans, CEO of Plastic Logic.

The technology uses solution processed semiconducting polymers, inkjet printable conductors, and solution processed dielectrics.

In the not so distant future, we'll see inkjet printed transistors with .25 micron channel lengths, Plastic Logic suggests.

Here's a diagram which shows how an LCD can be made using via-hole interconnects.

The firm said it's already possible to produce active matrix backplanes and simple logif/RFID devices, but it's pushing to make printing resolutions higher, understanding the physics of the interface within devices, and combining printing and other patterning techniques.

In fact, it's certainly a fair way off, but this diagram shows Plastic Logic believes we might see memory and even processors using the plastic technology.

iSuppli web site
Plastic Logic web site