Author's Latest Posts


Power/Performance Bits: Dec. 1


Hiding wires from the sun There's a problem with most solar cells: the electricity-carrying metal wire grid on top prevents sunlight from reaching the semiconductor below. A team from Stanford University tackled this problem, discovering a way to hide the reflective upper contact and funnel light directly to the semiconductor below. For the study, the researchers placed a 16-nanometer-thi... » read more

The Week In Review: Design/IoT


NXP received all necessary regulatory approvals for the merger with Freescale, and the sale of its RF Power business to JAC Capital. The company now expects to close the merger on December 7. Synopsys introduced VIP to support the proposed IEEE P802.3bs/D1.0 Ethernet 400G standard. The VIP includes a native SystemVerilog UVM architecture, protocol-aware debug and source code test suites. ... » read more

Blog Review: Nov. 25


If you've been wanting to dig into deep learning, a new video by Cadence's Chris Rowen discusses the basic principles and how its used to build electronic systems capable of analyzing massive amounts of data, recognize patterns, and extract relevant info. Returning from Productronica, Mentor's Michael Ford discusses the show's booming attendance, the seemingly endless hype around Industry 4.... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Nov. 25


Insect robots on the water Taking inspiration from water beetles and other swimming insects, academics at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory have developed the "Row-bot," a robot that thrives in dirty water. The Row-bot mimics the way that one aquatic insect, the water boatman, moves and the way that it feeds on rich organic matter in the dirty water it swims in. The Row-bot project aims to ... » read more

Major Growth For Knowledge Center


First, we would like to thank everyone who has contributed to the success of the Knowledge Center (KC) this year. Its traffic has increased by about 70% over last year and is now giving some of the editorial channels of Semiconductor Engineering a run for their money. The Knowledge Center has two major components. The first are the companies, standards groups and people that drive our indust... » read more

The Week In Review: Design/IoT


Mergers & Acquisitions On Semiconductor signed a definitive agreement to buy Fairchild Semiconductor for $2.4 billion in cash, combining forces in the power semiconductor market. The deal is the latest in a series of acquisitions and combinations as companies position themselves for the IoT/IoE/IIoT, a world of connected devices that spans from industrial to automotive to smartphones. Comp... » read more

Blog Review: Nov. 18


Between anomalies in ancient Egyptian pyramids and algae genetically engineered to attack cancer cells, Ansys' Bill Vandermark covers a wide array of the sciences in his top five picks for the week. Plus, Disney says being a human antenna could have its advantages. Don't write the epitaph for Moore's Law just yet, says Mentor's Michael White. He takes a look at the technical and business cha... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Nov. 17


Speeding up optical networks A tunable filter for high-capacity optical networks that can be integrated onto a photonic chip has been designed by researchers at the Université Laval in Québec, Canada. The device's performance is comparable to the best bench-top systems, according to the reasearchers, but at a fraction of the size and cost. The filter's tuning span, which is a measure of... » read more

The Week In Review: Design/IoT


Predictions Wally Rhines, Mentor Graphics' chairman and CEO, was presented with the Kaufman Award last night for outstanding achievement in electronic design. In his acceptance speech, he plotted the growth of the EDA industry at a consistent 2% of the semiconductor industry for the past couple decades. But he noted that with a shift to system design automation, that number would rise from t... » read more

Blog Review: Nov. 11


In this week's top five picks, Ansys' Justin Nescott explores the importance of energy efficiency in lighting, buildings, and… jellyfish? Plus, getting more sky into apartments, and flying through the sky on a jetpack. Terahertz waves are difficult to create and detect, but it may be easier thanks to a Swiss research team. Rambus' Aharon Etengoff digs into how they used a common megapixel ... » read more

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