[{"command":"openDialog","selector":"#drupal-modal","settings":null,"data":"\u003Cdiv id=\u0022republish_modal_form\u0022\u003E\u003Cform class=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form ecl-form\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 action=\u0022\/en\/article\/modal\/5915\u0022 method=\u0022post\u0022 id=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 accept-charset=\u0022UTF-8\u0022\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHorizon articles can be republished for free under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EYou must give appropriate credit. We ask you to do this by:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 1) Using the original journalist\u0027s byline\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 2) Linking back to our original story\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 3) Using the following text in the footer: This article was originally published in \u003Ca href=\u0027#\u0027\u003EHorizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003ESee our full republication guidelines \u003Ca href=\u0027\/horizon-magazine\/republish-our-stories\u0027\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EHTML for this article, including the attribution and page view counter, is below:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022js-form-item form-item js-form-type-textarea form-item-body-content js-form-item-body-content ecl-form-group ecl-form-group--text-area form-no-label ecl-u-mv-m\u0022\u003E\n \n\u003Cdiv\u003E\n \u003Ctextarea data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 aria-describedby=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 id=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 name=\u0022body_content\u0022 rows=\u00225\u0022 cols=\u002260\u0022 class=\u0022form-textarea ecl-text-area\u0022\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EOrganic circuits - lighter, cheaper and bendier\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EElectronic components such as transistors form the backbone of all modern computers, whether they are laptops, tablets, or smartphones. Today they are almost exclusively made from silicon, a widely available semiconductor.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBut silicon has its drawbacks: it is opaque, almost always rigid, and has to be manufactured in individual sheets. If electronics could instead be made from organic materials \u2013 those such as plastic that contain chains of carbon atoms \u2013 it could be transparent, physically flexible, and fabricated continuously on a roll.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOrganic electronics could be used to make \u2018smart skins\u2019 that seamlessly integrate with bendy surfaces, or even be used inside the human body, according to Professor Karlheinz Bock, director of the Fraunhofer Research Institution for Modular Solid State Technologies EMFT in Germany.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018They can be bio-compatible with organic environments, and could therefore be used for medical sensing, wearable electronics, implantable devices and more,\u2019 he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EProf. Bock works on the EU-funded project COSMIC, which explores the potential of organic electronics. The project is developing organic technology to see whether it can be brought into the mainstream electronics industry.\u003Cspan style=\u0022line-height: 1.538em;\u0022\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOne of the other advantages of organic electronics is that they can work at a much lower power supply \u2013 often below 10 volts \u2013 reducing power consumption and meaning they would not disrupt existing electronic devices if they were connected to them.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ELast year, the COSMIC project demonstrated the first fabrication of a complementary organic analogue-to-digital converter \u2013 an electronic component that is used, for instance, in temperature sensors. A silent authentication tag is also being built to show the potential of organic electronics in the security tracking of goods. The project is also working on making flexible batteries for use with bendy devices.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOther EU-funded projects are trying to improve organic fabrication methods \u2013 for instance POLARIC, which is coordinated by the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. POLARIC scientists are hoping to make the fabrication faster, make the components smaller, and make the testing more rigorous \u2013 all to make organic electronics more attractive to the trillion dollar global semiconductor industry.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022img_legend\u0022 style=\u0022float: left;\u0022\u003E\u003Cfigure role=\u0022group\u0022\u003E\n\u003Cimg alt=\u0022Image par microscopie confocale montrant des cellules humaines infect\u00e9es par la grippe. Repr\u00e9sentation tridimensionnelle en isosurface r\u00e9alis\u00e9e au Centre Commun de Quantim\u00e9trie, UCBL1, Lyon. \u00a9 Inserm\/Rosa-Calatrava, Manuel \u0026amp; Ressnikoff, Denis\u0022 height=\u0022300\u0022 src=\u0022\/research-and-innovation\/sites\/default\/files\/hm\/HO-organicelec-211517.jpg\u0022 title=\u0022Image par microscopie confocale montrant des cellules humaines infect\u00e9es par la grippe. Repr\u00e9sentation tridimensionnelle en isosurface r\u00e9alis\u00e9e au Centre Commun de Quantim\u00e9trie, UCBL1, Lyon. \u00a9 Inserm\/Rosa-Calatrava, Manuel \u0026amp; Ressnikoff, Denis\u0022 width=\u0022200\u0022\u003E\n\u003Cfigcaption class=\u0022tw-italic tw-mb-4\u0022\u003EImage par microscopie confocale montrant des cellules humaines infect\u00e9es par la grippe. Repr\u00e9sentation tridimensionnelle en isosurface r\u00e9alis\u00e9e au Centre Commun de Quantim\u00e9trie, UCBL1, Lyon. \u00a9 Inserm\/Rosa-Calatrava, Manuel \u0026amp; Ressnikoff, Denis\u003C\/figcaption\u003E\n\u003C\/figure\u003E\n\u003Cem\u003EThe world\u0027s first functional 8-bit organic microprocessor featuring some 4 000 organic thin-film transistors processed directly (i.e. without transfer) onto flexible plastic foil. \u00a9IMEC\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EFlexible solar chargers\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe HiFlex Project is investigating another highly desirable application of organic materials: flexible solar chargers which can be integrated into small electronic products such as mobile phones.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe HiFlex flexible organic photovoltaic module for chargers has a key advantage over similar modules in that it does not require the use of indium tin oxide (ITO) as a conductive layer. ITO is very expensive, and may be in short supply in the future.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe production process of small-sized modules in the HiFlex project also does away with the use of silver, further reducing costs and making the project more viable in the long-term.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAnother EU-funded project, MOMA, is turning organic electronics into computer memory \u2013 specifically a flexible alternative to flash, a quick form of data storage used in tablets, smartphones, and increasingly laptops. Flash is made from arrays of transistors which can be switched on or off to represent the numerous ones and zeros of binary information.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EToday\u2019s flash memory has a very high capacity \u2013 often hundreds of gigabytes. But according to project coordinator Dr Gerwin Gelinck at the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research, many of the proposed applications of organic electronics \u2013 implantable devices, for instance \u2013 need to store less than a kilobit of data.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAt the end of 2012, MOMA scientists demonstrated the largest flexible alternative to flash to date \u2013 an array of over one thousand organic transistors. They believe that one of the first uses of their technology will be flexible security tags, which could be applied discreetly to expensive fashion garments.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/textarea\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n\n \u003Cdiv id=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 class=\u0022ecl-help-block description\u0022\u003E\n Please copy the above code and embed it onto your website to republish.\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n\u003Cinput autocomplete=\u0022off\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022form-rrmsll9t3sbjix3jygwdq9ua7hi7v4bnangadax7tds\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_build_id\u0022 value=\u0022form-RrMSLL9t3sBJix3jYGwdq9Ua7Hi7V4bNaNGadaX7tds\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003Cinput data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_id\u0022 value=\u0022modal_form_example_modal_form\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003C\/form\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E","dialogOptions":{"width":"800","modal":true,"title":"Republish this content"}}]