Flexible Silicon, Bangladesh’s Big Ambition
Today, Apple has entered the foldable-phone era with its first foldable iPhone, the iPhone Duo. Apple, of course, is not the first. Years ago, Samsung and several other companies entered the foldable-phone market. Long before that, researchers such as John Rogers had already pioneered remarkable work in flexible and stretchable electronics.
But 13 years ago, another team was asking a somewhat different question.
Not a new exotic material. Not plastic electronics.
Could high-performance electronics be built on industry-standard bulk monocrystalline silicon wafers using conventional CMOS-compatible processes—and could that very silicon later be made flexible? Could we do this while retaining the core advantages of performance, scalability and semiconductor manufacturing?
John Rogers and other researchers had already explored approaches involving silicon-on-insulator (SOI), silicon (111) and other forms of silicon for flexible electronics. Those approaches, however, came with limitations involving substrate cost, defect density or performance. Our question was more direct: could the bulk silicon (100) wafers used by the mainstream semiconductor industry themselves become the foundation for flexible electronics?
On September 10, 2013, our research paper, “Can We Build a Truly High Performance Computer Which is Flexible and Transparent?”, was published in Scientific Reports. The work demonstrated that high-performance silicon electronics could be converted into flexible and semi-transparent electronics using bulk silicon (100) wafers and conventional microfabrication techniques compatible with CMOS processing.
The resulting silicon fabric was roughly 15–17.5 micrometers thick and could be bent to a radius of about 5 millimeters. The devices incorporated high-k/metal-gate p-type MOSFETs. Importantly, the study also showed that the remaining bulk silicon substrate could be reused through chemical-mechanical planarization.
At the time, Nanowerk described the work under the headline, “On route to building flexible high-performance computers.” The discussion of future applications included foldable, paper-thin tablet computers and smartphones.
Now comes the surprising part. ????
The work was not done at MIT, Stanford or in Silicon Valley. It was carried out in the desert of Saudi Arabia, at the Integrated Nanotechnology Lab of the then-newly established King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST).
The paper was authored by Jhonathan P. Rojas, Galo A. Torres Sevilla and me, Muhammad M. Hussain. Our affiliation was the Integrated Nanotechnology Lab at KAUST.
Alhamdulillah, that team was ours.
We are not claiming that we built the foldable phones that Apple or Samsung sells today. Nor did we invent flexible electronics. Our question was different: could high-performance silicon electronics be made flexible without abandoning the existing semiconductor ecosystem?
Alhamdulillah, we showed that it could.
KAUST was new at the time. Few people viewed Saudi Arabia as a technology frontier. Perhaps that is why the work did not receive all the limelight it deserved.
But science has no passport.
And innovation has no postcode.
That is precisely where this story connects with the audacious vision of Silicon River Bangladesh.
Today, someone may ask: Why should Bangladesh think about advanced memory, agentic AI, AIoT, digital twins, specialized testing, automated assembly, packaging, strategic fabrication, intellectual property or product development?
Where is the capability?
My answer is simple.
Capability does not always exist before you begin. Capability is built by doing the work.
If a new university in the desert could ask a question about the future of flexible high-performance computing in 2013, why should Bangladesh not ask fundamental questions about the future of semiconductors and deep tech in 2026?
Entering the market as a low-cost service provider after someone else’s technology has already succeeded is easy.
Our ambition is to sit at the table where knowledge, intellectual property, products and companies are created—before that future becomes obvious.
Because by the time the future becomes obvious, the most valuable chairs have usually already been taken.
Silicon River wants to put Bangladesh’s name on one of those chairs.
Insha’Allah. Bangladesh.
References:
Jhonathan P. Rojas, Galo A. Torres Sevilla & Muhammad M. Hussain, “Can We Build a Truly High Performance Computer Which is Flexible and Transparent?”, Scientific Reports, September 10, 2013.
Nanowerk, “On route to building flexible high-performance computers,” September 2013.
Author || Chief Architect, Silicon River; Professor, Purdue University, Indiana, USA
Editorial Note || The views expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Digital Bangla Media. To uphold diversity of opinion, Tech-Thought is published without editorial censorship.
