TechBlick has announced the largest online gathering of the printed, hybrid, in mould, 3D, R2R & textile electronics community. There will also be a special free-to-attend session at its tow-day online-only conference and exhibition taking place on 9 March 2022, 16:30 to 19:30 CET (10:30 to 13:30 ES).
This week, at the 2022 International Solid-State Circuits Conference (2022 ISSCC), imec, a world-leading research and innovation hub in nanoelectronics and digital technologies, KU Leuven, and PragmatIC Semiconductor (Cambridge, UK), a world leader in flexible electronics, present the fastest 8-bit microprocessor in 0.8µm metal-oxide flexible technology capable of running real-time complex assembly code. The microprocessor was implemented with a unique digital design flow that allowed the creation of a new standard cell library for metal-oxide thin-film technologies – relevant for designing a broad range of loT applications. The robust thin-film technology offered by imec’s foundry partner PragmatIC Semiconductor was key to integrate the approximately ~16 000 metal-oxide thin-film transistors on a 24.9mm2 flexible chip.
"Fibres with atomic coatings will turn the textile industry upside down," predicts Frank Verhage, CEO of the Dutch technology start-up SALD BV (Eindhoven). The company name stands for "Spatial Atomic Layer Deposition" (SALD) and refers to a process for applying atom-thin layers to fibres, for example. By applying several layers on top of each other made of different substances that enter into controlled chemical reactions, properties can be created that are "completely crazy" (Frank Verhage). The SALD boss speaks of a "textile revolution", comparable to the invention of synthetic fibres or synthetic dyes since the mid-19th century.
