If We Make Them, Will They Be Used

A joint effort by researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Penn State and the University of Kentucky may generate a way to produce organic semiconductors in volume and cheaply. Unlike conventional counterparts, organic semiconductors can be manufactured at room temperature. They could be built on flexible polymers instead of rigid silicon wafers. Magazine-size displays that could be rolled up or folded to pocket size and plastic sheets that incorporate large arrays of detectors for medical monitoring or diagnostics in the field are among the possibilities. What other uses would you anticipate?

Applications for organic semiconductors include flexible displays, intelligent paper, and flexible sheets of biosensor arrays for field diagnostics. What other uses would you anticipate?