In a slightly scruffy office-cum-laboratory in Cambridge, England, engineers are hunched over high-technology machines. They are working on a series of esoteric chemical processing steps that could lead to a huge technological advance for the global electronics industry.

Under study are ideas to create integrated circuits using plastic as a base, rather than the conventional silicon. This effort could lead in a few years’ time to a new industry centred on a much cheaper form of microchip than today’s silicon-based devices.