Ultrathin flexible silicon chips as thin as 5-10 micrometers could be used in applications like clothing sensors, smart home devices, and electronic tickets by being integrated directly into fabrics and surfaces. Researchers are working on new additive techniques like CHIPFILM to grow crystalline silicon layers directly on flexible foundations in order to create chips that are thin, flexible, and transparent enough to enable entirely new applications. These ultrathin silicon chips could be stacked in 3D for increased performance and cut into various shapes for uses in displays, sensors, medical devices, and more.

1. ULTRATHIN FLEXIBLE
SILICON CHIPS
Presentation By:
Chahat Gupta

2. JUST IMAGINE
 As you head for the shower, still groggy, a tiny,
flexible sensor chip in yesterday’s clothes reminds
you that they need to be washed.
 As you leave your house, tiny sensors in the carpet
and wallpaper put some appliances into standby
mode.
 At the airport, a flexible electronic ticket guides you
to the right gate.
 a wireless interface between your ticket, your
passport, and a retinal scanner gives you immediate
clearance.

3. Introducing a new technology
 It is always a chicken-and-egg
problem: Which should come first, the
technology or the application?
 To sustain the miniaturization of
microelectronics,upto 5 to 10µm thick
chips to be used as layers in 3-D
stacks by 2020.
 the thinnest chips currently being
made by subtractive techniques and
are 50 µm thick.

4. INTRODUCTION
 This technology is already on a path, a
time when it is seen everywhere.
 Made primarily from nonsilicon organic
and inorganic semiconductors, including
polymers and metal oxide
semiconductors.
 Flexible chips are an exciting alternative
to rigid silicon circuits in simple products
like photovoltaic cells and television
screens.
 But some way or the other todays
flexible chips don’t work as well as the
previously made silicon chips.

5. TECHNOLOGY USED
 Made primarily from nonsilicon organic
and inorganic semiconductors, including
polymers and metal oxide
semiconductors.
 Silicon is an ideal semiconductor for
such chips because its ordered structure
allows for well-behaved switches that are
far faster than organic alternatives.
 By combining today’s cheap, large-scale
flexible electronics with silicon that’s just
as powerful as the best available today—
but thinner.

6. TODAY’S SILICON CHIPS
 Usually built on wafers up to a millimeter
thick.
 Slimmed down to thicknesses of 100 to 300
micrometers, silicon wafers are still stiff, but
they must be handled carefully.
 Below 50 µm, silicon chips hit a sweet spot:
They get more flexible and more stable but at
such thickness these may fracture under
there own weight.
 Below 10 µm, a silicon chip even becomes
optically transparent, which eases the
alignment of chips during assembly

7. Developing Technique
 At the Institut für Mikroelektronik
Stuttgart, in Germany, they are
developing such an additive
technique, under the trade name
CHIPFILM.
 It entails growing crystalline silicon,
layer by layer, on a foundation laced
with sealed cavities.

8. HOW IS IT PRODUCED?

9. HOW IS IT PRODUCED?
 The thinness of the chip enhances
stackability.
 The purpose of stacking is to shorten the
distance between transistors.
 These are then connected vertically using
through-silicon wires, thus speeding
performance.
 To accommodate even more transistors
the chips need to get even more thinner.
 When that happens, they’ll be ready to
support a whole new world of applications.

10. FEATURES
 They’re able to bend, roll and even
twist at a very high rate.
 They’re as strong as stainless steel.
 They are made optically transparent.
 Even a very large circuit can be folded
into a much smaller part without it
being torn or damaged.

12. USES OF FLEXIBLE SILICON
CHIPS
 It could lead to many high-performance flexible
applications, including displays, sensors, wireless
interfaces, energy harvesting, and wearable
biomedical devices.
 They can be used as sensors on windows and
other transparent surfaces.
 Ultrathin silicon chips can be placed on a flexible
substrate (commonly a polymer foil, but also paper
or even cloth) to form a hybrid system-in-foil (SiF)
device.
 Because ultrathin chips can be cut in many
shapes, they could be especially useful for
biomedical applications.

13. Conclusion!!
 At last I would conclude just by
saying that in the near future we
would definitely see a massive use of
such ultra thin silicon chips even in
our daily uses.

14. Queries??
Queries??