Any small bright dots that may appear on your display are an intrinsic characteristic of the thin film transistors manufacturing technology.

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Hence the widespread interest in developing organic thin-film transistors.

ECONOMIST: SEMICONDUCTORS: Move over, silicon | The

To start with, it is developing a roll-to-roll process to make amorphous-silicon transistors on plastic film.

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After that, says James Sheats, a researcher at Hewlett-Packard who is also Rolltronics' chief technical adviser, the next step will be to apply Dr Carey's work and make smaller, faster transistors on plastic film.

ECONOMIST: Just press print

In LCDs silane gas breaks down into a film of silicon that forms the transistors that stimulate the pixels in the screen. (Flat-panel screens are essentially large semiconductor devices that sit on pieces of glass rather than on silicon wafers.) Another gas, nitrogen trifluoride, cleans the chambers in which both chips and LCDs are made.

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