Electronics on Unconventional Substrates Electrotexiles

For many years, progress in microelectronics has been associated with reducing the minimum feature size of integrated circuits. However, this trend, described by Moore's Law, seems to be ending. The minimum device feature size is now approaching dimensions comparable to molecular and atomic sizes, and the ability to scale down is rapidly reaching the point of diminishing returns. A new frontier of microelectronics may lie in supplementing conventional silicon chips with new materials and approaches that allow for cheap microelectronic and nanoelectronic devices and circuits on unconventional flexible giant substrates. These new electronic circuits will be comparable in size, or even larger, than a human body. Giant electronics on flexible substrates will enable numerous applications from electrotextiles to flexible displays, from thin-film batteries to novel photovoltaic devices, and from "sensitive skin" for robotics and medical applications to antiterrorist systems built into smart, safe andenvironmentally friendly buildings. This volume represents one of the first books to deal with this new and potentially disruptive technology. But while electronics on unconventional substrates in general, and electrotextiles in particular, will find numerous commercial and defense applications, it is also apparent that many challenges remain. Future concerns include the development of reliable low-temperature deposition technology for depositing semiconducting films on a variety of unconventional substrates, including threads and cloth; the development of flexible/stretchable metal and transparent metal films; the demonstration of semiconductor heterostructures on threads and cloth; and thedevelopment of ultra large-area (or length) continuous material deposition and processing.Shur, Michael S. is the author of 'Electronics on Unconventional Substrates Electrotexiles' with ISBN 9781558996731 and ISBN 1558996737.