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Did anyone hear about this new technology?

jmcoreymv

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
4,264
0
0
I heard some Chemistry Professor at UCSB invented a way to give plastic metallic properties. Which means they could invent like computer monitors that you could roll up into somehting like a newspaper, or other stuff. Does anyone have a link?
 

NikPreviousAcct

No Lifer
Aug 15, 2000
52,763
1
0
<just so this isn't a complete crap on the thread>
no, I've not heard about that until now. Cool!












Russ, where you been? Taking some time off? Anyway, good to see you back (--if you indeed did leave or something).
 

jmcoreymv

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
4,264
0
0
I found it!!!



<<
(Oct. 10, 2000 - Santa Barbara, Calif.) Two of the Nobel Prize winners announced today are members of the faculty at the University of California, Santa Barbara, an institution that is internationally known for research that transcends traditional boundaries between academic departments and for highly creative collaboration among scholars.

Herbert Kroemer, professor of electrical and computer engineering, shares the Nobel Prize in physics &quot;for developing semiconductor heterostructures used in high-speed and opto-electronics,&quot; according to the Swedish Academy. Alan J. Heeger, professor of physics and materials, shares the Nobel Prize in chemistry &quot;for the discovery and development of conductive polymers.&quot;

The university's chancellor, Henry T. Yang, remarking about the two Nobel Prizes at today's news conference, said the awards are &quot;a testament to the interdisciplinary nature of so much of the research on this campus. Pioneering research that cuts across the disciplines has become the hallmark of research at UCSB.&quot;

Alan Heeger echoed that thought, saying that reaching out among disciplines will be the key to future progress. He also attributed his successful research to a strong work ethic at the university. He said that even though he received the prize in chemistry, he still thinks like a physicist.

Biographical information on the two researchers follows:

Herbert Kroemer received a Ph.D. in theoretical physics in 1952 from the University of G&ouml;ttingen, Germany, with a dissertation on hot-electron effects in the then-new transistor, setting the stage for a career in research on the physics of semiconductors and semiconductor devices.

He worked in a number of research laboratories in Germany and the USA, and taught electrical engineering at the University of Colorado from 1968 to 1976. In 1976 he joined the faculty of the University of California, Santa Barbara. Kroemer persuaded the Department of Electrical Engineering at UCSB in 1976 to put all resources it had available for expanding their small semiconductor research program, not into mainstream silicon technology, but into the emerging compound semiconductor technology. In this field, Kroemer saw an opportunity for UCSB to become one of the leading institutions. He became the first member of the group, thus founding what has grown into a large group that is second to none in the physics and technology of compound semiconductors and devices based on them.

Kroemer has always preferred to work on problems that are one or two generations ahead of established mainstream technology. In the mid 1950s, he was the first to point out that great performance advantages could be gained in various semiconductor devices (initially bipolar transistors) by incorporating what is now called heterojunctions into the devices. Most notably, in 1963 he proposed the concept of the double-heterostructure laser, the central concept in the field of semiconductor lasers, without which that field would simply not exist. These ideas were far ahead of their time, and required the development of modern epitaxial growth technology before they could become mainstream technologies, in turn providing a great stimulus towards the development of these technologies. But by 1980 the technology had progressed to the point that the 80's became what he calls a decade of &quot;Heterostructures for Everything&quot;? a topic that continues to dominate compound semiconductors, and is invading mainstream silicon technology. After coming to UCSB, Kroemer turned to experimental work and became one of the early pioneers in molecular beam epitaxy, concentrating from the outset on applying the technology to untried new materials where he sees great opportunities for future devices. All his current research involves this materials combination, in a number of projects that involve high-performance devices, materials research, and new areas of solid-state physics.

Kroemer's research has been widely recognized by the semiconductor community, and he has been honored with numerous awards, including several national and international ones: J.J. Ebers Award of the Electron Devices Group of the IEEE (1973); Heinrich Welker Medal of the International Symposium on GaAs and Related compounds (1982); National Lecturer, IEEE Electron Devices Society (1983); UCSB Faculty Research Lecturer (1985); Honorary Doctorate in Engineering, Technical University of Aachen, Germany (1985); Jack Morton Award of IEEE (1986) Donald W. Whittier Chair in Electrical Engineering (1986); Alexander von Humboldt Research Award (1994); National Academy of Engineering (1997).

Alan J. Heeger, professor of the Institute of Polymers and Organic Solids and Departments of Physics and Materials at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He was born in Sioux City, Iowa and is married with two children.

Heeger taught at the University of Pennsylvania, University of Geneva, and University of Utah, before joining the faculty at UCSB in 1982. That year he also became the director of the Institute for Polymers and Organic Solids at UCSB.

Heeger is one of the pioneers in the field of conducting polymers: a class of materials which promise revolutionary applications for electronic materials at a fraction of the cost of silicon based semiconductors. In 1977 he and his colleagues discovered conducting polymers, a novel class of materials with electrical and optical properties like metals and semiconductors, coupled with the mechanical and processing advantages of polymers.

He has not only been a leading personality in the discovery of conducting polymers, but also a pioneer in exploring the basic science underlying their properties and in establishing the conceptual and theoretical framework of the entire field. In addition, he encouraged the development of these novel polymers into stable materials suitable for broad use by industry in a wide range of applications.

Heeger and associates discovered &quot;counter-ion induced processible polyaniline technology&quot; to the point it can be used in many industrial products. Examples of applications include conducting polymers blends for electromagnetic shielding and for anti-static packaging; conducting polymers for use in electrochemistry (including electrochromic windows and novel polymers batteries) and semiconducting polymers for use in the emerging field of &quot;plastic electronic devices&quot; which already include diodes, photodiodes, light-emitting diodes and transistors. As a result of this process, a new field has developed at the interface of chemistry and physics. A host of new concepts has evolved which are of broad and fundamental scientific importance in fields ranging from quantum chemistry to polymer chemistry; from electrochemistry to condensed matter physics, from semiconductor devices physics to electronic materials engineering. UNIAX Corporation, founded by Heeger and his colleague Paul Smith in 1990 focuses on bringing plastic electronics into commercial products.

Heeger has won numerous awards including the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship; the Balzan Prize, Science of New Materials, from Switzerland; Fellow of the American Physical Society, and the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, among many others.
>>



 

Napalm381

Platinum Member
Oct 10, 1999
2,724
0
0
Electronics Based on Plastic Courtesy of NY Times, free login required.

&quot;This year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry recognized one landmark achievement in the rise of organic electronics. Plastics, in which thousands to millions of identical carbon- based molecules link together into long chains known as polymers, are generally insulators, blocking the passage of electrical currents. The prize was awarded to Dr. Alan G. MacDiarmid of the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Alan J. Heeger of the University of California at Santa Barbara and Dr. Hideki Shirakawa of the University of Tsukuba in Japan for becoming the first to transform a plastic into an electrical conductor.&quot;

Much more information is available at the the Nobel Prize site.

What was that, Specialist?
 

Mday

Lifer
Oct 14, 1999
18,647
1
81
yeah i did.

thermal polymer (plastic heatsinks)

and

conductive polymer (plastic circuitry)
 

Mday

Lifer
Oct 14, 1999
18,647
1
81
phillips came up with plastic LCD.


--

see why i am so confused about my major... I SO ENJOY MATERIALS ENGINEERING... =)

but still, i am listed as a computer engineering major.
 

Czar

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
28,510
0
0
Heard about it 1-2 years ago, so in my future fantasy world I´d have a 55&quot;plasma monitor on the wall at home and then a 20&quot; plastic monitor for lan play
 

Mark R

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
8,513
16
81
The big thing these days those is Light-emitting polymers (LEPs).

These are essentially LEDs, but instead of using difficult to manufacture semi-conductor crystals, you can use these plastic-like polymers. These are exciting because they allow new methods of manufacture - they can even be printed onto a glass or plastic substrate using an ink-jet printer.

You can find these LEPs in Pioneer's new car audio decks - they call them 'organic' displays.
 

Monel Funkawitz

Diamond Member
Oct 12, 1999
5,105
0
0
This is nothing. They have &quot;Lighter than air&quot; plastics. I saw this guy on TV with a piece. He would hold it above the table, and let it go. It would just float there. He could move it around, and when he stopped it, it would stay put. Really cool. It was a project for NASA, and he put rings/glass boxes over top of it, so I doubt it was a hoax.

(BTW, it was thin. It was not like a block 4X4&quot; thick or anything. It looked like Shrink Wrap)