In a study published in the Dec. 14 issue of the journal Nature, researchers at Stanford and UCLA describe mass manufacturing flexible electronics made with organic, or carbon-based, transistors that could enable technologies such as low-cost sensors on product packaging and "electronic paper" displays as thin and floppy as a placemat. In the experiments reported in the paper, the researchers were able to make simple grid patterns with crystals in areas as small as 8 hundred-millionths of a square inch (49 square microns). Although not nearly as packed as modern silicon processors or memory chips, with up to 13 million crystals per square inch, the research team believes that the patterns could still yield functioning circuits and displays. The researchers also showed that the transistor arrays printed on plastic continue to work well even after significant bending, a key finding for anything that will be used in flexible electronics.