Tired of lugging that heavy laptop in your padded backpack? Here’s an idea: When you’re finished using your laptop, just roll it up, fold it, stick it in your back pocket and bolt. That’s the incredible future being created in a UH Cullen College of Engineering laboratory – a flexible, thin-film transistor (TFT) that may one day make your current laptop a dinosaur.

Silicon, despite inefficiencies, has been an effective electrical energy conversion and control material for hybrid-electric vehicles and numerous other power electronics. However, the semiconductor is reaching its physical limits in many important applications, such as next-generation electric vehicles and smart grid systems.