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Dan Zhao and Simone Fabiano at the Laboratory of Organic Electronics, Linköping University, have created a thermoelectric organic transistor. A temperature rise of a single degree is sufficient to cause a detectable current modulation in the transistor. The results have now been published in Nature Communications.
"We are the first in the world to present a logic circuit, in this case a transistor, that is controlled by a heat signal instead of an electrical signal," states Professor Xavier Crispin of the Laboratory of Organic Electronics, Linköping University.
The heat-driven transistor opens the possibility of many new applications such as detecting small temperature differences, and using functional medical dressings in which the healing process can be monitored.
It is also possible to produce circuits controlled by the heat present in infrared light for use in heat cameras and other applications. The high sensitivity to heat, 100 times greater than traditional thermoelectric materials, means that a single connector from the heat-sensitive electrolyte, which acts as sensor, to the transistor circuit is sufficient. One sensor can be combined with one transistor to create a "smart pixel."
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday February 01 2017, @04:07PM
Yeah that's too slow. The Buzzard already commented on CPU apps but the first thing that came to mind for me was on the die of a RF power transistor you could put something like this in series with one of the leads and when it starts VHF oscillations or goes into thermal runaway usually in about a second the transistor blows. I've seen packages actually fracture although its usually not that exciting. Anyway 20 to 200 seconds is at least one or two orders of magnitude too slow for transistor thermal protection circuitry but Maybe with continued development etc etc.
In the past I looked into patenting the idea of a shitty grade microcontroller speaking I2C on the same die as say a MMIC or RF power amp transistor and it could talk to the microcontroller of the radio or whatever and even with crappy technology the transistor could talk to the main controller to tell it to cut it out if it was overheating. Also it was not rocket surgery (although it added capacitance) to monitor the leads of DC switchers and the "smart transistor" could tell the controller if it was burned out or testing normally. The problem ended up being that there's nothing on the marketplace but there is prior art and prior patents. Maybe when the patents expire we'll see "smart transistors" flood the marketplace, it seems like a pretty obvious win. Why shouldn't my high power MMICs have a I2C interface and an onboard monitoring system? (Obviously low power receive path this doesn't work for digital noise reasons)
Anyway the second paragraph is strangely on topic because it means in a couple years the application of the first path would be obsolete. So they best license their "thermal transistor" and ship it fast or it'll get runover by newer more advanced on board monitoring.
You know when I was a kid playing with retro at that time vacuum tubes and retro tube testers I never thought the day would come when I'd connect something like a contemporary "bus pirate" (a cool product BTW) to a transistor to monitor and test it, very star trek world.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Wednesday February 01 2017, @05:23PM
And that is how patents stifle innovation.