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Technology Stocks : Lucent Technologies (LU) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mihaela who wrote (14188)	3/29/2000 2:15:00 PM
From: Mihaela	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 21876

Novel Material From Lucent's Bell Labs May Lead to Low-Cost, High-performance Plastic Circuits BUSINESS WIRE - March 29, 2000 14:09 MURRAY HILL, N.J., Mar 29, 2000 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- A novel material developed at Lucent Technologies' (NYSE: LU) Bell Labs may prove to be the key ingredient for economically making plastic-transistor circuits. Such circuits could be used in flexible displays, more durable smart cards and other low-cost electronics applications. The manufacturing process would be similar to ink-on-paper printing, which is much less costly than silicon-chip fabrication. "Within the last year, there have been major advances in plastic electronics, and these research results may allow us to make sophisticated plastic circuits with printing techniques," said Bell Labs' Howard Katz, who reports the research results in the March 30 issue of the British journal Nature. Like today's high-performance silicon chips, the plastic circuits would contain two types of transistors -- n-type and p-type. While researchers have previously made materials for p-type plastic transistors that were stable and soluble at room temperature -- two key features for low-cost print manufacturing -- suitable materials for making n-type plastic transistors have been elusive until now. "Developing an n-type plastic transistor that's easy to manufacture was considered a Holy Grail," Katz said. "It's difficult enough to get electrons to move through organic materials, but it's even rarer for n-type organic semiconductors to be functional under everyday conditions." The Bell Labs material, known as F15, is both stable and soluble at room temperature, which means that - like ink - it can be dissolved in a solvent and then used to print electronic features on a plastic sheet. After the solvent evaporates, the F15 remains and is extremely stable. "The whole process is very similar to printing a newspaper," Katz said. Because previous materials for n-type plastic transistors were insoluble and unstable, the process for making those transistors required a high-temperature vacuum environment with multiple steps, which is costly and time intensive. The Bell Labs research involved creating an organic semiconductor with fluorinated regions that give it Teflon-like properties. "Just as non-stick frying pans don't rust because water and air can't penetrate the Teflon surface, the fluorinated parts of F15 perform a similar function, which leads to stability," Katz said. The same Telfon-like part of the semiconductor material also allows it to dissolve easily. "Because the fluorinated segments commingle with the solvent, F15 is soluble," Katz said. Then, after the solvent evaporates, the fluorinated segments return to their role as a protective barrier. Plastic circuits that have both n-type and p-type transistors would be useful in certain high-volume applications. Besides roll-up display screens and smart cards, other potential uses include luggage tags that help airport personnel locate lost suitcases, or tags on groceries that verify whether they were transported under the right conditions to the supermarket. Other Bell Labs researchers involved in the project were Andrew Lovinger, Christian Kloc, Ananth Dodabalapur, Jerainne Johnson, Theo Siegrist, Wenjie Li, and Yen-Yi Lin. Lucent Technologies, headquartered in Murray Hill, N.J., USA, designs and delivers the systems, software, silicon and services for next-generation communications networks for service providers and enterprises. Backed by the research and development of Bell Labs, Lucent focuses on high-growth areas such as optical and wireless networks; Internet infrastructure; communications software; communications semiconductors and optoelectronics; Web-based enterprise solutions that link private and public networks; and professional network design and consulting services. For more information on Lucent Technologies, visit its Web site at lucent.com. Distributed via COMTEX. Copyright (C) 2000 Business Wire. All rights reserved. -0- CONTACT: Steve Eisenberg 908/582-7474 (office) seisenberg@lucent.com or Michael Jacobs 908-582-5330 (office) mejacobs@lucent.com KEYWORD: NEW JERSEY INDUSTRY KEYWORD: HARDWARE NETWORKING SOFTWARE TELECOMMUNICATIONS PRODUCT Today's News On The Net - Business Wire's full file on the Internet with Hyperlinks to your home page. URL: businesswire.com