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[[Patent Pending a video podcast series from GE]]
[I'm a physical chemist here a the R & D Center.]
[I've always loved light and matter, so ]
[I've always like trying to figure out why things light up,]
[why different materials light up, and ]
[everywhere from the first time you see a lightbulb]
[to lasers, which do all kinds of neat things.]
[The basic idea behind this project, or the basic idea]
[behind organic electronics, is sort of ]
[in contrast to silicon electronics, which is what all electronics is today.]
[Silicon electronics is great, but it has a certain]
[It's kind of expensive because]
[you need to use very expensive processes to make]
[these devices, like a Pentium chip, for instance. ]
[And you need big fabrication facilities, etc.]
[Organic electronics has a potential]
[Basically, you can make electronic kind of devices with organic materials.]
[What's interesting is that you can use those materials]
[using printing processes to make the devices. ]
[So, for instance, you can actually use newspaper printing processes]
[to make electronic kind of devices. ]
[That's important because newspapers are extremely]
[low cost and that's because the printing technology is ]
[a very well known technology and a very low-cost technology. ]
[So if you could make electronic]
[devices using newspaper printing kinds of processes,]
[you could really change the game]
[in lots of different industries.]
[Here I'm just taking out a piece of plastic.]
[I'll tell you more about this plastic in a second, but ]
[this is just a small, little roll of plastic,]
[but you can actually make these organic electronic devices]
[on this plastic using printing techniques. ]
[And this plastic doesn't have to be this big. ]
[It can be much, much bigger. ]
[In fact, imagine this is the size of your living room wall. ]
[On this piece of plastic you could have a whole bunch of]
[electronic devices that could allow the same piece of plastic]
[to do many different things. ]
[For instance, you could have--this could actually act as a TV,]
[a big, huge-screen TV, and then you could flick a switch and ]
[it could turn into a light source.]
[It could be the main light source for your room. ]
[And in the daytime, this could actually be a solar panel and]
[provide electricity from sunlight. ]
[So you could do all these things. ]
[It's a very exciting field, and lots of people in the world are working on it. ]
[We're actually just focusing on just one of these devices to start with, ]
[and then we'll get to the rest of the devices. ]
[Basically, it's that same piece of plastic, except on another side]
[is a piece of aluminum foil just basically to give it some structure. ]
[And then what I have here, I've actually connected two wires.]
[One is a positive lead and one is a negative lead. ]
[Then this is just a really simple power supply. ]
[you can see the plastic lights up. ]
[I can just turn the voltage up a little bit and it's brighter. ]
[So what's happening here, this is just a piece of plastic.]
[This is just a thin, little piece of plastic. ]
[Basically, within this plastic are some of these materials, some of these]
[organic materials, and what happens is electrons]
[come from one side and positive charges come from the]
[other side and they meet on these materials and give out light. ]
[So, kind of what's the future of this?]
[It turns out you can even think of all kinds of specialty lighting]
[applications that might want a flexible light source. ]
[To show you right here is just a very simple sign.]
[You can change the color, we can make it flexible, ]
[all kinds of sort of signage applications which we're thinking about. ]
[But that's really not our long-term vision. ]
[That's just maybe a way we can make money along the way.]
[But the big thing we're trying to do is first turn]
[this into a light source, and that requires we have to do a lot more]
[to try to make it more efficient.]
[Then, if we can be successful on that, we're going to try to move]
[to those other devices--try to make a solar conversion]
[device that turns sunlight into electricity. ]
[Then move on to sensors and things like that. ]
[That's kind of the future of this technology.]
