Bendable Electronics: A Major Technological Breakthrough

Jaeah Lee has a great write-up on mc10′s remarkable new technology:

After more than a decade of research and testing, electronics that can bend and stretch over virtually any surface are finally making their way to the marketplace.

One company in the space is mc10, a start-up in Cambridge Massachusetts. mc10 bases its products on research by co-founder and University of Illinois materials scientist John Rogers, and it’s developing a new class of semiconductor applications that broadly range from from catheters to clothes…

Rogers’ research has already made a splash in hospitals. His work has led to electronic sensors than can wrap around a balloon catheter to monitor vital stats during an angioplasty operation and a strip sensor that sticks to the heart’s outer tissue layer in order to monitor arrythmias…

Rogers’ laboratory is also working to apply the technology to batteries, solar cells, and wireless equipment.

As MSNBC reports, his lab is working toward producing a new photovoltaic module binding together miniature solar cells (each the size of a grain of sand) and tiny glass lenses. The Tucson Electric Power Company is currently piloting the module.