Researchers at University of Surrey have teamed up with Philips to develop the ‘source-gated transistor’ (SGT), a simple circuit suitable for flexible large-area electronic (LAE).
A recent study, published by the Nature’s Scientific Reports, identifies Source-gated transistors (SGT), as a new technology that brings about “order-of-magnitude performance improvements in thin-film digital circuits.”
New lightweight and flexible digital circuits could actually mean much more than a unique technology as future laptops and tablets with roll-up digital screens could be a real thing in near future.
Previous studies revealed that the SGT technology could be implemented with different electronic designs of analogue nature. But the most recent study claims that the SGTs decrease the odds of circuit malfunction and improve energy efficiency making them ideal for next-generation digital circuits.
This enables digital technologies to be implemented in ultra-lightweight and flexible gadgets built using flexible plastics that can be rolled up to save space when not in use.
“These technologies involve thin plastic sheets of electronic circuits, similar to sheets of paper, but embedded with smart technologies. Until now, such technologies could only be produced reliably in small quantities, and that confined them to the research lab,” said lead researcher Dr. Radu Sporea, Advanced Technology Institute (ATI), University of Surrey.
“However, with SGTs we have shown we can achieve characteristics needed to make these technologies viable, without increasing the complexity or cost of the design.”
Dr. Sporea concluded: “By making these incredible devices less complex and implicitly very affordable, we could see the next generation of gadgets become mainstream much quicker than we thought.”
