Wave Systems Corp. (fka WAVXQ)

[TonyMcFadden]

OT (but interesting and cool)

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/c341b510-9aa4-11db-bbd2-0000779e2340.html

Plastic may spell the end of the silicon microchip
By Peter Marsh

Published: January 2 2007 22:07 | Last updated: January 2 2007 22:07

The list of achievements of Cambridge University’s Cavendish Laboratory – one of the world’s most prestigious centres for physics research – is about to get a little longer.

Responsible over the past 136 years for a stunning series of discoveries, from elemental particles such as the electron to the threads of genetic material known as DNA, the laboratory can count among its more recent breakthroughs a form of circuitry that could change radically the world’s electronics industry.

In 2000 Plastic Logic, a Cambridge-based start-up company, announced it was attempting to commercialise a form of plastic electronics that had developed from research at the laboratory.

By using a cheap and simple set of processing operations to build up layers of circuitry on plastic “substrates” – the material on which circuits are formed – rather than silicon wafers used in conventional microchips, the developments promised to slash the cost of making semiconductors.