Next Chips: Organic Transistors and Memories and the Applications They Will Enable

Organic Electronics and TFTs
Like TFTs, organic electronics is older than it looks; as far as the basic science goes it is a child of the 1960s. It also shares other things in common with TFT technology in that until very recently, its commercialization was confined to the display industry; organic LED (OLED) display sales are trending up to becoming a $1.0 billion market in the next few years. However, just as TFTs are breaking out of the markets to which they have previously been confined, so is organic electronics. OLED displays are no longer just for MP3 players and cell phone sub-displays; they have a future in cell phone main displays as well. More importantly in the context of this report, organic semiconductors now seem as if they are the obvious choice for the TFT products and memories that - as described above - will be required by the next wave of computing.