午夜福利1000集合

AIRLINES will one day have a much tougher time losing your luggage, thanks to
the development of virtually indestructible plastic microchips. When built into
an intelligent ID tag, they will be able to store information about the owner of
the luggage鈥攎aking it harder to lose. Being flexible, the circuitry should
stand up to careless baggage-handling and the rough and tumble of an aircraft
hold.

The microchips, which are based on plastic transistors, can now be made to
contain enough plastic transistors for use in some simple applications,
according to a letter in this week鈥檚 Nature. Bell Labs in New Jersey
says it can now build switching and logic circuits that include up to 864
plastic transistors. Conventional ID systems contain about 1000 transistors.

The lab made the plastic circuits by depositing the conductors that connect
the circuit elements on a substrate, and finished by depositing the
semiconductor itself. Silicon chips normally start with the semiconductor layer
and build on top of it. Bell wanted to see how the large circuits worked with
plastic transistors. 鈥淭o our pleasant surprise, we found that they work very
well,鈥� says physicist Ananth Dodabalapur. Signals switched cleanly at kilohertz
rates, a snail-like speed by silicon standards but still a record for plastic
circuits, he says.

ID systems are just a start. In the long term the plastic chips could be used
in roll-up electronic displays.