The electronic skin will really not become practical if it is thin enough to be virtually negligible and that scientists could have just delivered this advance. Stanford researchers have developed a new technique producing “atomically thin transistors” of less than 100 nanometers long. It is “several times” shorter than the best precedent, according to the university.
The team has accomplished the feat by overcoming a long-standing obstacle in flexible technology. While the 2D ‘semiconductors are ideal, they need so much heat so that it can melt the flexible plastic. The new approach covers the silicon covered with glass with an ultra-thin semiconductor film (molybdenum disulfide) superimposed with nan-leg gold electrodes. This produces a film to only three thick atoms with a temperature near 1,500 ° -The classic plastic substrate would have distorted around 680f.
Once the components have cooled, the team can apply the film to the substrate and take some “additional manufacturing steps” to create an entire structure of about five microns thick or a tenth of the thickness of human hair. It is even ideal for low-use use because it can handle high low voltage currents.
There is more work to do. Researchers both want to refine flexible technology and include wireless technology for networking without large hardware. It also ignores the usual challenges with Tech like this – the inventors should find a way to produce mass transistors at reasonable prices. In case of success, this could lead to very efficient electronic skins, implants and other flexible devices almost imperceptible.