One of my biggest fears is dropping my cell phone on the pavement. Once that happens no cell phone or iPod can function.
The reason for this is that chips inside these devices contain microscopic pathways that send the signals to the device. After a pavement bounce these pathways are disturbed making the device unusable.
Plastic can absorb such shocks but they are not good conductors of electricity.
Paulette Prins of the Delft University of Technology has discovered that in plastics, the movement of charge is hindered by the structure of the material.
Prins has extended the research and has rebuilt the chain in plastics to form a ladder-like structure. This new plastic can conduct electricity in a much better way which makes these chips an alternative of silicon chips.
Once the research is complete, these chips will be used in portable devices which can easily survive drops.
Via: textually