14 DAY TRIAL // Flexible electronics seem to be a US government priority at the moment, while multiple research centers across the globe race to build the most cost-effective flexible material available.
Apparently, MIT, the most prestigious university in Massachusetts that's dedicated to robotics and a wide variety of technology fields, decided to support a federal initiative to boost innovation in building FHEs (Flexible Hybrid Electronics) that show a great amount of potential while being in early development.
According to its press release, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology will work closely with the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and other research institutes in the Northeast to support the newly named Manufacturing Innovation Institute for Flexible Hybrid Electronics or MIIFHE consortium managed by FlexTech Alliance, an R&D group from California.
Other notable members of the new consortium are Boeing and General Motors, real heavyweights that are interested in developing a know-how regarding the possible development of new FHEs in the car industry and, obviously, defense. However, the DoD (Department of Defense) has had a keen interest in such technologies for a long time, even before this consortium was born.
In parallel with the research at MIT, the American Chemical Society is also researching a new material containing copper circuits to resist the kinetic energy of a bomb hitting the ground before detonation.
With DoD, Boeing and General Motors backing, flexible electronics aren't too far away
The new consortium will receive a total of $171 million in funding - $75 million in federal grants and more than $96 million in nonfederal contributions - to support the initiative. Apparently, this new Manufacturing Innovation Institute is also funded by the Department of Defense, being the seventh such institute launched by the Obama administration in the past three years, so it’s obvious that the US government is interested in seeing this technology serve the military, at least at first.
FHEs are seen as the electronics of the future, as they can bend, they can stretch, and in many case, they are even wearable while being able to give vital information about the human body. In other words, this is the best enhancement humans can have without resorting to implants. And the MIT, together with the Department of Defense, are at the forefront of its development, just as it happened with every other cutting edge technology in the last sixty years.