Blog Review: Aug. 27


In the spirit of making a positive social contribution, and to recognize employees for their contributions to the local community, Applied Materials’ chairman Mike Splinter accepted the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Nice job, Mike! With development work underway on the 10nm process node, and questions about getting there with conventional lithography, Cadence’s Richard Goering invites us to ... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Aug. 26


Making light work of snaps 'Superradiance', a phenomenon where a group of atoms charged up with energy act collectively to release a far more intense pulse of light than they would individually, is well-known to physicists. In theory the effect can be reversed to create a device that draws in light ultra-efficiently. This could be revolutionary for devices ranging from digital cameras to solar... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Aug. 26


Smokestack metrology The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has nearly completed the construction of one of the world's more unusual measurement systems. The organization is devising a 50-meter horizontal smokestack at its campus in Gaithersburg, Md. The new facility will accurately determine the amount of gases discharged from smokestacks at coal-fired power plants and o... » read more

System Bits: Aug. 26


Heart-on-a-chip Megan McCain, a USC Viterbi assistant professor in biomedical engineering is a self proclaimed cardiac tissue engineer. She is working to re-create the human heart on a chip. Not the kind of chip that leads to arterial plaque, of course, but the kind that perfectly re-creates the cardiac cells and mechanical forces of the human heart. A slice of glass, the size of a quarter, ti... » read more

The Week In Review: Design


Earnings Mentor Graphics reported revenues of $260.2 million, non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.23, and GAAP earnings per share of $0.13 for the company’s fiscal second quarter ended July 31. “System design strength, particularly with automotive customers, drove the second quarter with earnings solidly beating guidance,” said Walden C. Rhines, chairman and CEO of the company, in a stat... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Gartner has released a chart, which tracks the “Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies in 2014.” According to the chart, here’s some of the technologies that are still a number of years away from reaching the marketplace: virtual personal assistants; human augmentation; brain-computer interface; quantum computing; smart robots; biochips; smart advisors; autonomous vehicles; and natural-lang... » read more

Blog Review: Aug. 20


Ansys’ Bill Vandermark highlights the top five engineering articles of the week. Check out the “Sprouting Baby Monitor.” This may be a sign of what the IoT is really good for. You can also use your cat (or dog or even your kids) to hack your neighbor’s Wi-Fi. Cadence’s Richard Goering says gaps may be narrowing between available tools and what’s needed for 3D-IC design. Now all w... » read more

System Bits: Aug. 19


Revealing the purity of graphene Graphene may be tough, but those who handle it had better be tender, according to researchers from Rice University and Osaka University who have come up with a simple way to spot contaminants given that the environment surrounding the atom-thick carbon material can influence its electronic performance. It is so easy to accidentally introduce impurities into ... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Aug. 19


28nm brain chips DARPA-funded researchers have developed a 28nm chip that mimics the brain. The low-power chip is inspired by the neuronal structure of the brain. Designed by researchers at IBM under DARPA’s Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics (SyNAPSE) program, the chip consists of 5.4 billion transistors. Built on Samsung’s 28nm foundry process, the chip has ... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Aug. 19


Spray-on power In a discovery that could help cut the cost of solar electricity, a team of scientists at the University of Sheffield has fabricated perovskite solar cells using a spray-painting process. The researchers had used the spray-painting method previously to produce solar cells using organic semiconductors - but using perovskite is a major step forward, they asserted. Efficient ... » read more

← Older posts Newer posts →