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A natively flexible 32-bit Arm microprocessor
www.nature.com, Jul. 21, 2021 –
Unlike conventional semiconductor devices, flexible electronic devices are built on substrates such as paper, plastic or metal foil, and use active thin-film semiconductor materials such as organics or metal oxides or amorphous silicon. They offer a number of advantages over crystalline silicon, including thinness, conformability and low manufacturing costs. Thin-film transistors (TFTs) can be fabricated on flexible substrates at a much lower processing cost than metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) fabricated on crystalline silicon wafers. The aim of the TFT technology is not to replace silicon. As both technologies continue to evolve, it is likely that silicon will maintain advantages in terms of performance, density and power efficiency. However, TFTs enable electronic products with novel form factors and at cost points unachievable with silicon, thereby vastly expanding the range of potential applications.
Microprocessors are at the heart of every electronic device, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, routers, servers, cars and, more recently, smart objects that make up the Internet of Things. Although conventional silicon technology has embedded at least one microprocessor into every 'smart' device on Earth, it faces key challenges to make everyday objects smarter, such as bottles (milk, juice, alcohol or perfume), food packages, garments, wearable patches, bandages, and so on. Cost is the most important factor preventing conventional silicon technology from being viable in these everyday objects. Although economies of scale in silicon fabrication have helped to reduce unit costs dramatically, the unit cost of a microprocessor is still prohibitively high. In addition, silicon chips are not naturally thin, flexible and conformable, all of which are highly desirable characteristics for embedded electronics in these everyday objects.
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