Seven years ago, a Cambridge, U.K.-based startup known as Plastic Logic announced plans to develop semiconductors based not on silicon wafers but on a plastic substrate called polyethylene terephthalate. As the Financial Times reports, the start-up has now secured funding of no less than $100 million to build a fabrication plant in Dresden, Germany where it can mass-produce plastic semiconductors. The fab will employ 140 people and is scheduled to start operating by the end of next year.
At first, the fab will produce flexible plastic displays. However, Plastic Logic's CEO says his company is also cooking up 60nm plastic circuits that may not be too different from current silicon chips—except for the fact that they'd be a lot cheaper to produce. Interestingly, Plastic Logic's latest press release lists Intel Capital, Intel's venture capital arm, as one of the investors that contributed to the $100 million funding.
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