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This is not completely science fiction, but part of a research being undertaken at the Monash University in Australia, which shows that a new technology being investigated could mean that mobile phones become so small, efficient, and flexible that they could be printed on clothing.
“Spaser” technology, as it is called, is part of the nano-technology which is gaining steam in recent years, specially the supermaterial Graphene which is supposedly 300 times stronger than steel while being extremely thin and light. Spaser (Surface Plasmon Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) is completely made of carbon, and is built using a Graphene resonator and carbon nanotubes which give it superior heat and electricity conduction capabilities.
Spaser-based gadgets would be a replacement for existing transistor-based device components – including microprocessors, memory, and displays – that would address current miniaturizing and bandwidth restrictions. Chanaka Rupasinghe, the lead researcher at Monash university says
“Graphene and carbon nanotubes can be used in applications where you need strong, lightweight, conducting, and thermally stable materials due to their outstanding mechanical, electrical and optical properties
Simply put, this is still in very early stages, where researchers are contemplating the possibility of using Spaser for developing computer chips as the optical interactions are really fast and energy-efficient. In theory, this can replace the current transistor-based devices such as microprocessors, memory, and displays to overcome current miniaturizing and bandwidth limitations.
In reality we are still several years away to even see a proof of concept. But the possibilities are exciting nevertheless.
