World's First Completely Transparent IC 225
An anonymous reader writes "DeviceForge is reporting that researchers at Oregon State University claim to have created the worlds first 'completely transparent' ICs (integrated circuit) from inorganic compounds. From the article: 'The technology can enable extremely inexpensive electronics for use in "throw away" devices, and is expected to be used in automobile windshields, cell phones, TVs, games, and toys, among other applications, OSU said. OSU also believes that the technology might result in more efficient solar cells or improvements and LCD displays (liquid crystal displays), it said.'"
Whoa (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Whoa (Score:2, Informative)
Cool (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Cool (Score:2, Funny)
Obligatory slashdot meme post (Score:5, Funny)
They are not Integrated Circuits (Score:2)
More bad jokes. (Score:2)
Re:IC or !IC (Score:2)
Eye IC (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Eye IC (Score:2)
Re:Eye IC (Score:2)
Re:Eye IC -- hrmmm (Score:3, Funny)
Utility? (Score:3, Funny)
ARG!! (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:ARG!! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:ARG!! (Score:5, Funny)
From the department of redundancy department (Score:2)
Mod parent redundant (Score:2, Funny)
Re:ARG!! (Score:2)
Re:ARG!! (Score:2)
Re:ARG!! (Score:3, Insightful)
PIN is the word for the number, no need to remind people that it's a number. there's no such thing as a PIN hieroglyph, PIN doodle, or PIN secret handshake
ATM is the word for the machine, no need to remind people it's a machine. there's no such thing as a ATM dog, ATM grocer, or ATM baseball bat
NIC is a type
Re:ARG!! (Score:2)
Actually, you do see something like that in porn sometimes...
Re:ARG!! (Score:3, Insightful)
LED = Light Emitting Diode.
LCD = Liquid Crystal Display.
Finally! References! (Score:2)
Good job li'l anonymous guy. Good job!
wahey! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:wahey! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:wahey! (Score:4, Informative)
We should be so lucky. A company that produces TVs that last that long isn't maximizing its profits. My Sharp TV was bought the day of the Challenger explosion, and is on its last legs. I would have been happy if it had lasted 10 years, and would have bought another Sharp, most likely. Anecdotal, sure -- but Sharp lost a sale by making a good TV.
Consumer electronics are engineered to last only a couple/few years past the warranty period -- keep the customer just satisfied enough, while ensuring they are still buying those TVs.
Re: whether people consider them disposable -- well, lots of people are happy to pay $30 a month for their TV. After they've paid it off, they're quite happy to upgrade to a bigger, newer TV for $30 a month. And chances are, they'll need to within a year or two.
Re:wahey! (Score:2)
The lady who used to live nextdoor to me died about ten years ago, she gave me her TV in her will. It lasted me untill last year and I'll be damned if it wasn't 20 years old by then.
So not all TV's die fast.. We just forgot about quality when we mass produced crap and charged 4 times more.
Re:wahey! (Score:2)
You insensitive clod! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:wahey! did they lose a Sale? (Score:2)
you say you would buy from them again
you probably bought other sharp equipment due to a good prior experience. you also might already have recommended sharp as a good brand to buy.
People reading your comment may buy a Sharp Tv, knowing you have had a good experience with Sharp products.
Incidentally I don't tend to look at brand names but I have a sharp vcr. I bought this new so long ago I don't remember maybe mid 90's its never had a problem in all that time it just works.
Sharp m
Re:wahey! (Score:2)
I bought a second-hand Sony telly for fifty quid back in 1994; it was made the year before. It still works as well as the day it was made.
I'd never buy another
Re:wahey! (Score:5, Informative)
You've never worked in a repair/servicing industry, have you?
Mobile phones and TV's are extremely throw-away nowadays. Have you ever tried to have one repaired? Particularly with "name brand" TV's like Somy (typo intended) the cost of spare parts is so high (read: whole boards/modules, not single components) that it is generally cheaper to throw the product away and replace it with a cheaper up-to-date version. Common thought seems to be that spare parts prices are artificially inflated to improve new sales turnover.
Funny as it seems, the cheaper TV's coming from Chinese manufacturers are much more repairable because (a) schematic diagrams are more available *and* cheaper, and (b) they use less proprietary components which are easier to obtain.
hourly fee is enough to drive most away (Score:2)
Let's say somebody brings in a TV which doesn't work anymore, or just flips out after being on for a while. What's the likely cause? Bad solder joint - typically around one of the FETs or around the HV transformer. Easy enough to fix - open up the casing, unplug the wires, slide the board out, re-solder all joints (when one fails, more fail, and you don't want
Re:hourly fee is enough to drive most away (Score:2)
Re:aaargh (Score:2)
Roughly right - related anyway.
The cause is in the Sync Pulse. When a TV receives that pulse, it can sync the beam up with the actual frames being broadcast. The Sync Pulse itself has to be within a particular region of levels below the 'black' level for the TV circuitry to identify it as such.
Now here's the kicker... many TV stations record the sync pulse with any footage, store it away, and re-use it. However, when they do so, a very slight difference in the Sync Pulse level ca
Re:aaargh (Score:2)
Re:wahey! (Score:4, Insightful)
What worries me much more is the obvious environmental impact. Society has made some progress over the last decade to be more "environmentally friendly" yet new directions like this one just push us ever further towards a fully "disposable society."
Re:wahey! (Score:2)
Re:wahey! (Score:2)
on a random side thought.. dynamic stained glass windows.. cool
The Japanese Govt., that's who (Score:2)
"2nd hand electronics sales will soon be illegal in Japan"
http://www.akihabaranews.com/news-11230-X.html [akihabaranews.com]
See through .. (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:See through .. (Score:2)
Re:See through .. (Score:2)
Re:See through .. (Score:2)
That along with... (Score:2)
Weeeee!
Transparent? (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm also curious as to
I'm curious as to how much heat these suckers will generate -- the obvious 'transparent' uses would, I imagine, need them to be encased in glass or protective transparent cases. The windshield mentioned, for example -- how quickly would heat build to the point of damaging the IC?
My second question is why these ICs would be any better than opaque ICs for throwaway use? Are they cheaper to manufacture, even scaled to billions of chips? Aren't normal ICs pretty maskable with film coverings?
Don't get me wrong, I'm sure there are applications where this could be very useful, but I'm not sure that even if development is completed, there would ever be enough demand to make these useful for anything other than niche applications.
Then again, 512k should be enough memory for anyone, and there will never be a market for more than five computers in the US.
Re:Transparent? (Score:3, Insightful)
If they're using it in windshields, the chip's heat output is the last thing they have to worry about.
The very first thing that they're going to have to engineer around is the chip's ability to withstand a constant barrage of UV rad
Re:Transparent? (Score:2)
How about freezing in the winter? How will the chips deal with expansion and contraction, will they do so at the same rate as the glass, or are you asking for seasonal degradation of the chips?
Re:Transparent? (Score:2)
Re:Transparent? (Score:2)
Re:Transparent? (Score:2)
What's with this obsession about mispredictions of the past? 500 gig hard-drives go for $450 and my family owns at least 5 personal computers (Wintel, Lintel, and Mac).
Don't underestimate the future. If you do, hindsight will catch up to you. It's your job then to keep it. Last time I checked IBM and Microsoft are doing quite well.
Re:Transparent? (Score:2)
Re:Transparent? (Score:2)
Re:Transparent? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Transparent? (Score:2)
Re:Transparent? (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.deviceforge.com/files/misc/osu-transpa
Neato pic (Score:2)
Re:Neato pic (Score:2)
Re:Transparent? (Score:2)
I wasn't speeding officer. I was "air cooling" my windshield IC.
Of course the far more l33t Brits and folks from the state of Washington would all have watercooled versions but we can't all be that l33t.
Re:Transparent? (Score:2)
Well... it depends what you want to do with it. If you wanted to try and make a high speed general processor then it could kick out some heat, but that's probably not it's intended purpose (at least at this point in time). Most IC's don't need to worry about heat... digital watches don't have heatsinks.
Re:Transparent? (Score:2)
Digital watches' ICs also aren't sandwiched between two panes of low-heat-conductive material that sit in the hot sun, either. I dunno if the small amount of additional heat would cross some threshold, though -- but the article did point out that these ICs run much hotter than normal ICs (with the current tech, anyway).
Re:Transparent? (Score:2)
It does? Is there another page that I can't see? Or is it cryptic?
Re:Transparent? (Score:2)
I thought 512k wasn't necessarily enough memory.... Some people might want to use 640k.
Re:Transparent? (Score:2)
"The technology can enable extremely inexpensive electronics for use in "throw away" devices"
so yes that shows that they will be cheaper to manufacture, and yes as you scale up, things always get cheaper (per final product) as it's cheaper to keep producing the same thing, than to re-tool to produce a different item.
Re:Transparent? (Score:2)
Second, until it's scaled up, the price will be more expensive than traditional ICs. As you say, "it's cheaper to keep producing the same thing, than to re-tool to produce a different item."
So why retool to use these chips when standard chips will work fine for most applications?
Re:Transparent? (Score:2)
3-D ICs? (Score:2)
Espionage Applications (Score:3, Interesting)
Does everything! (Score:2, Funny)
Give me my HUD (Score:3, Interesting)
Pictures Attached (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Pictures Attached (Score:2)
This isnt the first by a long shot. (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.z80.info/sharp/z80_glas.htm [z80.info]
Re:This isnt the first by a long shot. (Score:3, Informative)
Terminology (Score:2)
Anyway, the base of the circuitry (what it's printed on), is simply glass. No big deal there (they've been doing that for a while). The circuitry itself isn't tranparent anyway.
Re:Terminology (Score:5, Informative)
These circuits are indeed made from transparent (over a wide range of the visible spectrum) semiconductors, and they are indeed printed on glass. I am not involved with the research, but I know Dr. Wager, whose team developed the circuits, and I know a few of the physicists who developed the actual materials used. Very neat stuff.
RAS Syndrome (Score:2)
Please, ScuttleMonkey, just say no to RAS Syndrome [wikipedia.org]!
"LCD displays" (Score:2, Funny)
Summary (Score:3, Funny)
Skeptical (Score:4, Insightful)
Throwaway use (Score:2)
Great for throwaway devices? So, naturally, they've put plenty of work into minimizing the environmental effects of this? ...right?
Reality check. (Score:2)
A: No, they, they haven't because not many people really give a shit.
Note: I the preceding does not imply a position on whether or not they should [give a shit].
I made some of these a long time ago... (Score:2)
so... (Score:2)
yeah, right (Score:4, Funny)
green cheese (Score:2)
It almost never fails when assessing claims for a new technology to look at the list of proposed applications. You get a pretty darn good "humbug" feeling long before you dig into the technical details, which are invariably thin on the ground. The other fabulous telltale is "commercial applications in five years". "Five years" is venture capital speak for "we have no clue". "Ten years" is primary science speak for "I've been cited three times already".
99 inventions out of a hundred that promise the moon
Windshields??? (Score:3, Interesting)
There are lots of places where transparent electronics could really improve a product, but I don't think a car windshield is one of them (unless you are talking HUD, but there are better ways of achieving that anyway so i assume you aren't)
Quantum Leap? (Score:3)
"This is a quantum leap in moving transparent electronics from the laboratory toward working commercial applications"
I hope the journalist just spiced up the quote - because most professors wouldn't be caught dead saying something like that.
not quite completely transparent (Score:2)
Re:not quite completely transparent (Score:2)
I suppose it will also "literally make you explode with excitement when you see it in action."
Ahhh, I remember when words meant things, and you could read some text and know what the text was describing. Now words just fill space, but I guess that's what an advertising-driven news site is about.
The source (Score:2)
Whoa (Score:2)
Obligatory Scotty quote (Score:2)
Re:"Completely transparent"? (Score:2)
No it WOULD be good. (Score:5, Insightful)
That's not the point.
The semiconductor would absorb photons at or above the bandgap (NOT being transparent at that frequency) and pass those at lower frequencies without attenuation. Thus a stack of junctions at progressively lower bandgaps can get better use of the light - since the energy above the bandgap in the layer where the photon is absorbed is lost.
Making a completely transparent (to light below the bandgap) solar cell allows the light propagating to lower layers do do so efficiently. It also allows the CELLS to be stacked, substrate and all, if the materials are incompatable and can't all be layered on one substrate.
So it COULD be a VERY useful improvement in solar cell technology.
(Another thing that would make it useful is if it is CHEAP to manufacture. Solar is getting better but is still not cost-competitive with grid power except in remote locations and small devices such as roadsigns.)
Re:No it WOULD be good. (Score:2)
The world's most subtle fat mama joke (Score:2, Funny)
Mother's day is coming up.
Re:WOW (Score:2)
Re:WOW (Score:2)