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Thin flexible electronics can be built using UV light
Current semiconductor technology is based on silicon, gallium arsenide (GaAs), and other opaque materials. But a promising alternative, metal oxide semiconductors (consisting of molecules with both metallic and oxygen atoms) are very efficient, and happen to be transparent. However, fabricating them by ordinary means requires extremely high temperatures, high enough to melt the types of polymers that structure the devices.
A new method for making metal oxide devices at much lower temperatures uses ultraviolet (UV) irradiation. Yong-Hoon Kim and colleagues used UV light to chemically activate metal particles in a chemical solution; the new metal oxide molecules condensed out of the solution, forming a thin semiconducting film. The process can be performed at room temperature -- far lower than the 350C temperatures typical of metal oxide fabrication.
Besides the awesomeness factor (itself probably a sufficient reason for most readers), flexible and transparent electronics are potentially useful in medical, transportation, and scientific applications. Conventional semiconductor materials don't work in the thin films required for flexible electronics because they are too brittle. Current organic semiconductors are electronically unstable when stressed and are not efficient at conducting charge, so they are not particularly useful for large-scale implementation.
Metal oxide semiconductors don't suffer from either of these difficulties. They have a high density of electric charge carriers (meaning they are efficient at carrying current) and are amorphous solids rather than rigid crystals. That makes thin metal oxide films very flexible.
Previous experiments have used what is known as a sol-gel technique, where metals (typically indium, gallium, and/or zinc) are dissolved in an organic substance such as 2-methoxyethanol (2-ME). The metal oxide films are formed by annealing: heating the solution (the "sol" part of "sol-gel") to high temperatures, which breaks the molecules of the liquid, allowing its component oxygen atoms to react with the metal atoms. Upon cooling, these metal oxide molecules precipitate out of the solution (the "gel"), forming a thin, transparent film, which can be guided into an etched surface to make circuits.
The high temperatures are the problem. 350C is above the melting point of most flexible, transparent substances (eg plastics), and real electronic devices need a substrate to give them shape. It doesn't matter how thin or transparent metal oxide devices are if they must be deposited on thick, opaque, rigid materials.
The present study bypassed the annealing process by using radiation. UV photons are sufficiently energetic to dissociate some molecules, so the researchers shone intense UV light on the solution (this sort of light-mediated activation is known as photochemistry). The solvent was chosen so this freed oxygen atoms, which combined with metal atoms just as in the annealing process, but the film formed at room temperature.
While the deposition of the film happened at room temperature, the mercury UV lamp (a high-intensity version of "black lights") they used heated the film to approximately 150C, much higher temperatures than expected, which may be a matter of some concern.
The researchers compared the performance of the metal oxides produced by annealing to those made using photochemistry. They found their performance to be comparable, and in some cases the UV-produced semiconductors actually did better in terms of electric charge carrier behavior.
This UV-based photochemistry method of metal oxide semiconductor fabrication is potentially very useful. Even with the unexpected heating, the temperatures were far lower than those required for annealing, which may allow the fabrication of inexpensive, flexible, transparent electronic devices.
Source: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-09/11/thin-flexible-electronics
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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