October 9, 2004
The future is plastic
For decades, silicon has been high-tech's hottest commodity. But there was a time when plastic was king.
It could be again, says Thomas Aisenbrey, chief technology officer at Integral TechnologiesIntegral Technologies, interviewed in The Chicago Tribune.
"Aisenbrey, who was in Chicago recently for a plastics trade show, is promoting a form of plastic that conducts electricity. It will, he says, find a role in nearly every aspect of the electronics industry, cutting costs and boosting performance.
One application for conductive plastic would be as the cover for a cell phone that could double as the phone's antenna. With so much surface serving to receive a radio signal, customers should enjoy more robust calls with less fading and interference.
"We're involved with all the big cell phone handset-makers," Aisenbrey said. "We're at the prototype stage, and there may be products ready for the market by next spring."
Cell phones are only the beginning of where conductive plastic may find useful work, he said. Aisenbrey also has prototypes and mock-ups of products such as plastic seat-warmers embedded in automobiles, plastic pads for cardiac defibrillators, plastic circuit boards and plastic heat sinks that would double as antennas for chipsets equipped with miniature radios."
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