Silk may be the way of the future for e-readers and other devices.

Your next kindle or e-reader could be powered by silk thanks to a discovery made by researchers at Taiwan’s National Tsing Hua University. The researchers there discovered that they could employ liquid silk, a natural protein fiber normally used in textiles, as insulating membranes for flexible TFTs.

According to professor Hwang  Jenn-Chang, the membrane may increase the speed and performance of an e-reader’s transistors. The benefit of using silk as an insulating medium for future TFTs is primarily in cost: the material would only cost US $0.03 per device!

Tsing Hua researchers are currently looking to market their findings to manufacturers and in the near future, we may be able to buy e-readers at a fraction of the cost today.

 

Via Taiwan researchers turn to silk for flexible e-devices – e-readers, consumer electronics, amazon.com, Asustek Computer, Archos, taiwan, National Tsing Hua University – PC World Australia.