Discovery

As a step toward realizing applications such as e-paper, flexible color monitors and “heads-up” displays in car windshields, engineers have created the first “active matrix” display using a new class of transparent transistors and circuits.

It was mentioned in ScienceDaily that, the transistors are made of “nanowires,” a tiny cylindrical structures as small as 20 nanometers, in order to create light emitting diodes or OLEDS, that rival the brightness of conventional pixels in flat-panel television sets, computer monitors and displays in consumer electronics.

Silicon carbide nanowires are stronger than multiple-wall carbon nanotubes and may be the strongest materials known. A possible use is as improved reinforcing materials for ceramic composite materials.

Carbon nanotubes, researchers recently found, can serve as templates for making semiconductor gallium nitride nanorods, which could be used to produce blue-light-emitting diodes. Carbon nanotubes could also be employed as templates for making ceramic oxide nanotubes for ‘nanoscale’ electrochemical devices. They were used to create a proof-of-concept active-matrix display similar to those in television sets and computer monitors. An active-matrix display is able to precisely direct the flow of electricity to produce video because each picture element, or pixel, possesses its own control circuitry.

Adapted from materials provided by Purdue University, enriched by ScienceDaily