A flexible transistor is one which, unlike present, rigidly-structured transistors, can be successfully used in packages that can be curled up, wrapped, or bent, a quality that will enable users to - for example - have a display screen that can be rolled up. In October 1999, IBM announced that they had developed a very thin, flexible and inexpensive type of transistor that could actually be sprayed onto plastic. Cherie Kagan, a materials scientist at IBM, led a study that was featured in the journal Science. Kagan wrote that the combination of an inorganic semiconductor that conducts electricity and an organic material that modulates the structure makes the procedure possible at room temperature. Researchers used a compound composed of an organic material, phenethylammonium, and an inorganic material, tin iodide. The two materials were combined in separate layers, to create a coating thinner than a human hair. Current research is exploring other materials that could be used in the same fashion. Currently available transistors are made of materials that must undergo high-temperature processing, and consequently can only be placed on heat-resistant surfaces. The flexible transistor could be used to replace the amorphous silicon used in computer displays. Future applications of the technology could include, among numerous other possibilities, a computer screen that could be rolled up and carried in the user's pocket.