Polytronics - electronics and systems on flexible substrates

Current trends in the development of electronics systems show, that the provision of thin flexible components and semiconductors plays a decisive role in the steadily progressing development of highly integrated systems. A new generation of thin flexible electronic systems arises. At present, this world is very much dominated by inorganic active materials, in particular thin flexible silicon integrated circuits, but new functionality based on conductive and semi-conductive plastic materials is developing fast. Freedom of design, compact portable products, cost-effective production and assembly, environment friendly materials, software based printed ICs, flexible polymer transistors and thin flexible silicon ICs - there are unquestionable advantages of flexible electronics. Microsystems incorporating fluidic, mechanical, optical and electrical components are under research and development at present. A new word, "polytronics" (polymer+electronics) has appeared in electronic vocabulary as a short name of this quickly developed technology. This paper aims to present an overview of these technologies.