Boffins at Oregon State create transparent circuits?
By Ryan Block 
posted Apr 3rd 2006 9:34AM
posted Apr 3rd 2006 9:34AM
Dude, screw the transparent OLEDs, it's all about transparent circuits, which some Oregon State University scientists seem to have created. The significance, of course, is clear (ahem): you save a lot of space in devices -- especially portables -- when your circuit board is your screen, not mounted on a wafter in a package on a board behind it. Apparently the scientists even expect clear, glass-mounted indium gallium oxide circuitry to ultimately be cheaper to produce than silicon. The military's in on the gig too, the Army Research Office is a project sponsor (as is HP and the National Science Foundation), probably for the project's obvious heads-up display uses. Will we, um, not see this gear any time in the near future? Hard to say, they're only up to 26 transistors in a single array as of yet (compared to the hundreds of millions in chips nowadays), but we'll be waiting.[Thanks, James F]
....boffins....
Just when you thought the "faux witty" posts couldn't get ANY worse.
Yeah... Those wafter mounted circuit boards can be real, um, stinkers...
/
Please don't hate me ;|
Just wanted to say - I hate the word "Boffin".
Go OSU, from one of your worst ever Computer Engineering students.
Actually they did create a circuit, a simple ring oscillator :
http://oregonstate.edu/dept/ncs/newsarch/2006/Mar06/circuit.htm
Nice. So how's the progress on making "transparent aluminum"?
The one application that will benefit greatly would be LCDs!
Current LCD technologies have what is known as aperture size. It is basically the measurement of opening of the LCD that is not blocked by the circuit / transistor that is driving each sub-pixel.
With transparent circuitry, each sub-pixel can transmit all the light with virtually no losses at all.
Bottom-line: Brighter LCDs, better contrast. Or lower power consumption to achieve similar brightness. That means longer battery life! :D
correct me if i'm wrong here, but doesn't universal display already have this?
We’re dancing around the obvious here. Layer these babies into a sphere and - bam - 3D digital sno-globe, 3D pocket pr0n-globe, the possibilities are endless.