Manufacturing Bits: April 8

By Mark LaPedus - 08 Apr, 2014 - Comments: 0

Making cheap diamonds Graphite and diamonds are two forms of the same element--carbon. In graphite, carbon atoms are arranged in planar sheets and the material is soft. On the other hand, diamonds consist of carbon atoms that are bonded in all directions, making these structures extremely hard. [caption id="attachment_11311" align="alignleft" width="150"] This illustration shows four layers... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: March 25

By Ann Mutschler - 25 Mar, 2014 - Comments: 0

Making flexible carbon nanotube circuits more reliable and efficient Engineers would love to create flexible electronic devices, such as e-readers that could be folded to fit into a pocket with one such approach involving designing circuits based on electronic fibers known as carbon nanotubes (CNTs) instead of rigid silicon chips -- but reliability is essential. Given that most silicon chip... » read more

Why Would IBM Sell Its Semi Group?

By Ed Sperling - 20 Feb, 2014 - Comments: 1

Rumors are always just rumors until proven otherwise in business, but in the case of IBM’s semiconductor business, hints about the sale of its semiconductor business are particularly noteworthy. Much has changed since the days when IBM—as International Business Machines—went head-to-head with AT&T’s quasi-public Bell Labs and Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). The breakup of... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Feb. 18

By Ann Mutschler - 18 Feb, 2014 - Comments: 1

Outperforming copper Carbon nanotube-based fibers invented at Rice University have greater capacity to carry electrical current than copper cables of the same mass -- on a pound-per-pound basis -- according to new research. While individual nanotubes are capable of transmitting nearly 1,000 times more current than copper, the same tubes coalesced into a fiber using other technologies fail l... » read more

System Bits: Feb. 11

By Ann Mutschler - 11 Feb, 2014 - Comments: 0

Ballistic transport in graphene Using electrons more like photons could provide the foundation for a new type of electronic device that would capitalize on the ability of graphene to carry electrons with almost no resistance even at room temperature in a process known as ballistic transport, according to researchers at Georgia Tech. Ballistic transport is the process by which electrical res... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Jan. 28

By Ann Mutschler - 28 Jan, 2014 - Comments: 0

E-whiskers From the world of nanotechnology, researchers with Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley are on the verge of electronic whiskers -- tactile sensors from composite films of carbon nanotubes and silver nanoparticles similar to the highly sensitive whiskers of cats and rats. These new e-whiskers respond to pressure as slight as a single Pascal, which is about the amount of pressure exerted o... » read more

What’s After CMOS?

By Mark LaPedus - 24 Jan, 2014 - Comments: 3

Chipmakers continue to scale the CMOS transistor to finer geometries, but the question is for how much longer. The current thinking is that the CMOS transistor could scale at least to the 3nm node in the 2021 timeframe. And then, CMOS could run out of gas, prompting the need for a new switch technology. So what’s after the CMOS-based transistor? Carbon nanotubes and graphene get the most a... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Jan. 21

By Mark LaPedus - 21 Jan, 2014 - Comments: 1

Redefining The Kilogram In 2011, the General Conference on Weights and Measures approved a plan to redefine the kilogram and other measurement units. The new definition for the kilogram will be based on the fixed numerical values of Planck’s constant (h), according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), part of the U.S. Department of Commerce. NIST has taken steps t... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Dec. 31

By Mark LaPedus - 31 Dec, 2013 - Comments: 0

Bringing Graphene Down To Earth For years, the semiconductor industry has been looking at graphene as a next-generation technology for a multitude of applications. One potential application, the graphene field-effect transistor (GFET), has been developed by various companies and universities. There are several advantages and disadvantages with GFETs. On one hand, GFETs have a higher mobilit... » read more

System Bits: Dec. 10

By Brian Bailey - 10 Dec, 2013 - Comments: 0

Lasers From Nano Wires A few weeks ago, Semiconductor Engineering published a special report about silicon photonics and concentrated on the integration of the laser onto the silicon surface. Growing III-V materials on silicon is problematic because of the lattice mismatch, but researchers at the Technische Universität München (TUM) may have found a way around that problem. Thread-like semic... » read more

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Knowledge Centers
Entities, people and technologies explored

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Partitioning In The Chiplet Era

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3.5D: The Great Compromise

Pros and cons of a middle-ground chiplet assembly that combines 2.5D and 3D-IC.

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AI’s Role In Chip Design Widens, Drawing In New Startups

Focus is on letting engineers do much more with the same or fewer resources — and less drudgery.

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Key Technologies To Extend EUV To 14 Angstroms

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by Laura Peters

What Comes After HBM For Chiplets

The standard for high-bandwidth memory limits design freedom at many levels, but that is required for interoperability. What freedoms can be taken from other functions to make chiplets possible?

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Memory Fundamentals For Engineers

eBook: Nearly everything you need to know about memory, including detailed explanations of the different types of memory; how and where these are used today; what's changing, which memories are successful and which ones might be in the future; and the limitations of each memory type.

by The SE Staff

Why Small Fab And Assembly Houses Are Thriving

Megafabs churning out the most advanced processors are not the only game in town.

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tag: carbon nanotubes