Research Bits: September 11


Combining digital and analog Researchers from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) propose integrating 2D semiconductors with ferroelectric materials for joint digital and analog information processing, which could improve energy efficiency and support new functionality. The device uses a 2D negative-capacitance tungsten diselenide/tin diselenide tunnel FET (TFET), which consu... » read more

Chip Industry’s Technical Paper Roundup: May 2


New technical papers recently added to Semiconductor Engineering’s library: [table id=95 /] If you have research papers you are trying to promote, we will review them to see if they are a good fit for our global audience. At a minimum, papers need to be well researched and documented, relevant to the semiconductor ecosystem, and free of marketing bias. There is no cost involved for us p... » read more

EPFL’s Open Source Single-Core RISC-V Microcontroller for Edge Computing


A new technical paper titled "X-HEEP: An Open-Source, Configurable and Extendible RISC-V Microcontroller" was published by researchers at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). Abstract: "In this work, we present eXtendible Heterogeneous Energy-Efficient Platform (X-HEEP), a configurable and extendible single-core RISC-V-based ultra-low-power microcontroller. X-HEEP can be used ... » read more

Research Bits: April 4


Wet-like plasma etching Researchers from Nagoya University and Hitachi developed a new etch method called wet-like plasma etching that combines the selectivity of wet etching with the controllability of dry etching. The researchers say the technique will make it possible to etch complex structures such as metal carbides consisting of titanium (Ti) and aluminum (Al), such as TiC or TiAlC, wh... » read more

Research Bits: Feb. 14


Defining Kagome superconductors An international team of scientists and researchers from the Brown University lab are now able to describe the structure of the superconductor Kagome metals. The team used nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging and a quantum modeling theory to describe the microscopic structure as the metal changed states into a charge density wave (CDW) state at 103°Kelvin (... » read more

Research Bits: Jan. 17


Ionic circuit for neural nets Researchers at Harvard University and DNA Script developed an ionic circuit comprising hundreds of ionic transistors for neural net computing. While ions in water move slower than electrons in semiconductors, the team noted that the diversity of ionic species with different physical and chemical properties could be harnessed for more diverse information process... » read more

Research Bits: Dec. 20


Patch tracks blood in deep tissue A skin-worn photoacoustic patch developed by a research team at the University of California San Diego is equipped with arrays of laser diodes and piezoelectric transducers to detect biomolecules in deep tissues, which usually would require a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and X-ray-computed tomography. The patch may help doctors tract hemoglobin in real tim... » read more

Hot Trends In Semiconductor Thermal Management


Increasing thermal challenges, as the industry moves into 3D packaging and continues to scale digital logic, are pushing the limits of R&D. The basic physics of having too much heat trapped in too small a space is leading to tangible problems, like consumer products that are too hot to hold. Far worse, however, is the loss of power and reliability, as overheated DRAM has to continually r... » read more

Chip Industry’s Technical Paper Roundup: Oct 18


New technical papers added to Semiconductor Engineering’s library this week. [table id=57 /] » read more

Thermal Scanning Probe Lithography


A new technical paper titled "Edge-Contact MoS2 Transistors Fabricated Using Thermal Scanning Probe Lithography" was published by researchers at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). "Thermal scanning probe lithography (t-SPL) is a gentle alternative to the typically used electron beam lithography to fabricate these devices avoiding the use of electrons, which are well known to... » read more

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