High-Performance Flexible Silicon

The same high-quality form of silicon that is used inside many new computers could soon be rolled up on a sheet of plastic. Researchers from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, have shown that the type of high-speed silicon used for the past few years in Intel’s microprocessors, called “strained” silicon, can be made thin enough to be transferred to a flexible substrate.

The ability to put sheets of strained-silicon transistors on malleable materials could lead to high-quality flexible displays and solar cells — or eventually even to improved prosthetics, or computerized clothes, according to the researchers.
Technology Review