Transparent Electronics Cast Wireless Display

Mar 27, 03:50 AM

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Transparent, high-performance transistors that can be assembled on both glass and plastics could lead to some unique applications, according to researchers at Northwestern University. Combining organic and inorganic materials, researchers have developed materials for transistors that are virtually invisible, making them candidates for such unusual applications as a car windshield that displays a map to your destination, military goggles with targets and instruction displays, or a billboard that doubles as a window.

"Our development provides new strategies for creating transparent electronics," said Tobin J. Marks, professor of materials science and engineering, lead researcher, and the Vladimir N. Ipatieff Research Professor in Chemistry at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern. "You can imagine a variety of applications for new electronics that haven't been possible previously-imagine displays of text or images that would seem to be floating in space."

To create their thin-film transistors, researchers combined films of the inorganic semiconductor indium oxide with a multilayer of self-assembling organic molecules that provides superior insulating properties. The indium oxide films can be fabricated at room temperature, allowing the transistors to be produced at a low cost. Marks has formed a startup company, Polyera, to bring this and related technologies to market.

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