14 DAY TRIAL // Smart clothing needs the right choice of transistors, reason for that being the fact that they need to be embedded in clothes, be flexible and comfortable on touch.
To reach that level of flexibility, comfort and resistance to physical wear, designers at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) in Japan built a new rubber-based transistor model.
The new AIST transistor is said to have a very high strength under physical tension, being highly resistant to bending, stretching and breaking.
One of the most amusing tests the AIST researchers put it through was to have it stepped on by high heels to see if it resists the tension without breaking or tearing. To further test its resilience, the transistor has been washed and then flexed and stretched again.
To understand why such tests are after all impressive, we must add that the silicon rubber transistor measures under 1mm in thickness. It uses source electrodes, gate electrodes, gate dielectric film and drain electrodes. Rubber and single-walled carbon nanotubes are being used to enhance each electrode's electrical conductivity.
The guys at Nikkei Technology say that its fantastic flexibility comes from a gel-like material made from an ionic fluid impregnated into a polymer material. The transistors are so flexible that their length can be stretched by 40-50% no less than 1,000 times and they would still function properly.