Flexible electronics can make bendable, shapeable, energy-efficient computer circuits a reality that can be easily worn on or implanted in an individual’s body to perform numerous health-related tasks. Furthermore, the advancement of IoT (Internet of Things) has led to all devices being integrated and connected with flexible electronics resulting in more benefits for Flextronics. Although researchers have been trying to build ultrathin, flexible computer circuits for a very long time, several technical hurdles have prevented their intentions from bearing fruit.
Recently, a research time might have made a big breakthrough in this regard. They have stated to have invented a manufacturing process that will be able to produce flexible, atomically thin transistors which are less than 100 nanometers in length. The transistors made through the new manufacturing process are several times smaller than what was possible previously. Thus, the invention can be considered as a huge advancement for the Flexible Electronics Market as through this approach, researchers have successfully brought “Flextronics” a big step towards being a reality.
The team stated that amongst all the suitable materials for flexible electronics, 2D (two-dimensional) semiconductors had the most potential due to their excellent mechanical and electrical properties. Even if the materials were considered at the nanoscale, they came out on top, which makes them a more popular candidate than silicon or other organic materials. The biggest engineering challenge till now had been to make the thin devices which require a process that is extremely heat-intensive for the flexible plastics substrates. The primary problem was that the flexible materials would melt and decompose in between the production process. The novel idea with which the researchers were equipped in this research was to do the production process in steps where they started with a base substrate that was not flexible at all.
The team has built a prototype and have completed their patent application. They revealed that their next goal would be to refine their devices. Researchers have built similar transistors using two atomically thin semiconductors, namely, WSe2and MoSe2to demonstrate the wide applicability of the technique.
The integrated radio circuitry with the devices would facilitate future variations to communicate wirelessly with the whole world. This can be taken to another leap towards the importance of Flextronics, especially those implanted in the human body or merged with other devices connected to the IoT. The production technique is more than promising as it can achieve density, high performance as well as flexibility, and low power all at the same time. The research team is optimistic that through this work, they will be able to move flexible electronics technology forward to several levels.