"We know there is interest in flexible electronics among Asian technology companies and believe this is a field that holds great promise in the competitive economic environment," said ASU President Michael M. Crow.
ASU is already a leader in developing flexible electronics through its Flexible Display Center, created in 2004 through a cooperative agreement with the United States Army Research Laboratory. The FDC seeks to accelerate the commercialization of flexible, lightweight, low-power and rugged display and electronics technologies.
Such devices could provide a wide variety of applications. For example, soldiers in the field could receive real-time maps, mission briefs, and other information on screens sewn into their uniform sleeves. In the commercial realm, flexible displays offer possibilities for improving technologies from e-readers to conferencing systems.
Through this co-operation, ASU is able to provide expertise and unique pilot line manufacturing capability in flexible microelectronics, based on state-of-the-art amorphous silicon thin film transistor (TFT) technology, and emerging metal oxide TFT technology.
City University of Hong Kong offers expertise in flexible nanowires, a potential high-performance TFT technology. If nanowire TFTs can be implemented on a manufacturing scale, they could open the door to powerful new applications for flexible electronics.
ASU has already worked with City University of Hong Kong on a pending proposal for an NSF Engineering Research Center on Large Area Sensing Arrays. These arrays would use bendable transistors in a plastic sheet and could detect phenomena such as radiation or biomarkers for applications ranging from security to infrastructure health monitoring to assistive technology for the sight-impaired. The proposal is led by the University of Texas at Dallas and also includes Princeton, North Carolina A&T State University and Seoul National University.
Image: Representatives from ASU and City University of Hong Kong. From left to right: David Allee, Gregory Raupp, Sethuraman "Panch" Panchanathan, and Johnny Ho.
Source: ASU
For more attend: Printed Electronics USA 2011.
Learn more at the next leading event on the topic: Printed Electronics Europe 2020 
on 13 - 14 May 2020 at Estrel Convention Center, Berlin, Germany hosted by IDTechEx.
on 13 - 14 May 2020 at Estrel Convention Center, Berlin, Germany hosted by IDTechEx.