Printed circuit boards and mushrooms make an uncommon pair.
Now, an international research team led from Glasgow has likewise taken nature as its inspiration, developing a semiconductor component for use in machine vision systems.
The team’s prototype field-effect transistor recognises colours. Built on a glass substrate, it combines gold electrodes and light-sensitive hydrocarbon molecules with a layer of honey acting as an electrolyte.
Incident light causes the system to generate electricity. Wavelength and intensity, in turn, define the strength of the current.
This information is stored directly in the transistor, making the device more performance- and energy-efficient than traditional processing systems.
Honey has already been used for high-performance computer chips while avian eyes have provided inspiration for an ingenious camera.Â
