Printed and Thin Film Transistors and Memory

Similarities with old types of transistor
There are similarities with the old silicon chip and the amorphous silicon transistor array on the back of an LCD display today. The new transistors are Field Effect Transistors (FETs). Most use the forty year old geometry where the controlled current passes horizontally but some (e.g. ORFID Inc in the USA) use vertical geometry to reduce feature size, increase frequency and current carrying capacity and/or reduce cost. Almost all potential markets for these new transistors are for arrays of large numbers of transistors, not individual transistors. Putting p type and n type back to back in a Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) configuration is favoured with the new as with the old technology, for example, to save power. Although very high power versions for electrical use are also in prospect, they are not the largest potential market. Some of these circuits of hundreds to millions of transistors will involve other devices such as sensors, diodes and fuses deposited at the same time. All this is very similar to the old technologies. But there the similarities stop.