Gizmodo: bendable

Self-Assembling Chips First Step Towards Extra-Bendy Evil Robots

Wilson Rothman — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 17:30:00 EDT

It may look all innocent, but this little logic circuit is made from organic molecules that lined themselves up to form 300 transistors, without the need for machine production. This kind of chip-in-a-test-tube approach to creating semiconductors, demonstrated as effective for the first time by Philips Research, could cause a big leap towards cheaper, more flexible electronics—in a word, to quote The Graduate, "plastics."

We may think of "plastic electronics" as any Chinese-made product that needs to be plugged into the wall, but in this definition, it means the circuitry itself that's plastic rather than silicon, and can be used to create things that require flexibility. Today, as we've seen firsthand with OLED production, plastic circuitry can be made using inkjet printing. Another technique is lithographic etching.

Self-assembly is more practical, but Philips' breakthrough needs to be worked on before it can be put to use in a factory. One researcher, Edsger Smits, told Technology Review that the goal "is to be able to throw molecules in a beaker and let them organize into desired structures." Yeah, great, but desired by whom, Edsger? [Technology Review]

Tributaries Flexible Power Strip Bends 90 Degrees

Jason Chen — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 14:14:31 EDT

We've seen our share of interesting power strips, but Tributaries' PWRS-T10 has five standard outlets and five twistable outlets that give you a good way to plug in multiple large AC adapters at once. Because each one of the five slots can be twisted at up to 90 degrees, you can position them at say, 0, 45, 90, 45, and 0 degrees so your plugs don't fight. In addition, there's also coax, RJ-11 (phone) and RJ-45 (Ethernet) cables to surge protect as well. No pricing on this yet, but we're guessing it's much more expensive than the $5 power strips you can pick up at Fry's. [Tributaries]

Bendy Microprocessor on Plastic

tgrumet — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 10:19:19 EST

Not much other then a report right now, but it looks like TDK has teamed up with Japanese Semiconductor Energy Laboratory to make a bendable microprocessor. The transistors will be made on glass first, then transferred to plastic. The processor will also have wireless capabilities and built-in signal encryption.

Firm makes bent CPU [The Inquirer]