Wearable Connectivity, AI Enable New Use Cases


The sensing and processing technology used in smart phones, watches, and rings is starting to be being deployed in a wide variety of wearable devices, ranging from those that fill the gap between sports and med tech, to haptic devices to assist the visually impaired and AR/VR glasses. Emerging applications include payment, building, and factory wearables. Most of these devices process signal... » read more

Transforming Industrial IoT With Edge AI And AR


The Internet of Things (IoT) has evolved significantly from its early days of centralized cloud processing. Initially, IoT applications relied heavily on cloud-based data processing, where data from various devices was collected, processed, and analyzed in the cloud before insights were sent back to the devices. While effective, this approach has limitations, particularly in environments requir... » read more

Med Tech Morphs Into Consumer Wearables


Doctors have been using advanced technology for years, but the growing trend is for consumers to use devices at home and have direct access to their data. Watches and rings that were once primarily used for counting steps or registering sleep patterns can now read blood pressure, heart rate, blood oxygen, body temperature, and other early signs of illness. Meanwhile, various patches are under d... » read more

Reduce Augmented Reality Device Time-to-Market by Bringing Manufacturing Impact to Optical Simulation


Disruptive AR systems will push the limits of optics: limits in design, limits in manufacturing, and limits in overall system integration. The trend of optical components being integrated into more complex miniaturized systems is impacting optical software. Optical design software has been around for decades to design, simulate, and analyze any optical component from lenses and mirrors to light... » read more

Broad Impact From Accelerating Tech Cycles


Experts at the Table: Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss the impact of leading edge technologies such as generative AI in data centers, AR/VR, and security architectures for connected devices, with Michael Kurniawan, business strategy manager at Accenture; Kaushal Vora, senior director and head of business acceleration and ecosystem at Renesas Electronics; Paul Karazuba, vice preside... » read more

Will 2024 Be The Year Of Layered Realities?


January is always the month of predictions. Our team has already contributed to Semiconductor Engineering's 2023 Look Back and 2024 Outlook. My personal tradition has become to combine the outlook with a look back at what industry experts thought of a decade ago. While this involved a trip to my garage to pick up the respective January IEEE Spectrum issue a decade ago, the new reality is that a... » read more

Industry 4.0 Paradigms For Chip Workforce Development And Domestic Production: Using Automation And AR/VR


A technical paper titled “From Talent Shortage to Workforce Excellence in the CHIPS Act Era: Harnessing Industry 4.0 Paradigms for a Sustainable Future in Domestic Chip Production” was published by researchers at University of Florida Gainesville, ZEISS Microscopy, and US Partnership for Assured Electronics (USPAE). Abstract: "The CHIPS Act is driving the U.S. towards a self-sustainable f... » read more

Red MicroLEDs Three Orders of Magnitude Smaller in Surface Area


A technical paper titled "N-polar InGaN/GaN nanowires: overcoming the efficiency cliff of red-emitting micro-LEDs" was published by researchers at University of Michigan. The researchers created "red-microLEDs that are nearly three orders of magnitude smaller in surface area than previously reported devices while exhibiting external quantum efficiency of ~1.2%," according to the University o... » read more

Chip Challenges In The Metaverse


The metaverse is pushing the limits of chip design, despite uncertainty about how much raw horsepower these devices ultimately will require to deliver an immersive blend of augmented, virtual, and mixed reality. The big challenge in developing these systems is the ability to process mixed data types in real time while the data moves uninterrupted at lightning speed. That requires the integra... » read more

Design And Security Challenges for VR


Virtual reality is no longer just for gamers, and as this technology is deployed in everything from health care to industrial training, the requirements for processing more data faster over a high-speed connection are growing. Designing these devices continues to be a study in contradictions. They must be extremely low power, with a small enough batteries to make them comfortable to wear. Bu... » read more

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