Usually, concepts, while looking curious and interesting, rarely make their way from the paper to the real device. Not so long ago, when Nokia Morph pictures hit the net, it was clearly obvious that it is just an original idea, nothing more. How an electronic device would be fully transparent? However, due to recent technological developments, we possibly have a chance to see it implemented in real life, or even buy it!Scientists from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology made a revolutionary discovery that can be used to bring all these concepts of transparent devices to life. It is called TRRAM (Transparent Resistive Random Access Memory), and is almost fully transparent, while operating just like normal non-transparent chips. It is similar to usual CMOS chips in functionality, so it can be easily used in manufacturing various devices, cell phones included.
As stated by Jung Won Seo, one of the Korean researchers: “It is a new milestone of transparent electronic systems. By integrating TRRAM device with other transparent electronic components, we can create a total see-through embedded electronic system.”
This development can truly revolutionize the world of modern devices and gadgets. With transparent chips it will be possible to implement electronic hardware into the windshield of a car; it can be used in sunglasses or highly-fashioned transparent cell phones. It really widens the area in which electronic devices can be implemented, making many concepts look much closer to the real life. Bendable screens, transparent chips - all these improvements are making electronics more flexible and easy to use.
Transparent chips have some disadvantages though: transparent phones would be much easier to hide or lose, and how do you solder a chip if it is fully transparent? Of course, these are not serious, hope that technology doesn't have any major disadvantages that will prevent it from being widely used. First devices on these chips would appear no sooner than after 3 - 4 years, so let's wait until TRRAM will be used in a working prototype.
