Research Bits: August 26


THz-optical converter Researchers from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and Harvard University designed a chip that can convert between electromagnetic pulses in the terahertz and optical ranges on the same device. Applications include communication, sensing, spectroscopy, and computing. The design embeds micron-sized transmission lines into a lithium niobate photonic chip... » read more

Chip Industry Week in Review


The U.S. government will grant licenses to NVIDIA and AMD to again sell some AI chips — NVIDIA's H20 GPU and AMD's MI308 — to Chinese companies. TrendForce projects that the availability of NVIDIA chips, in particular, will create a surge in demand from Chinese AI firms and cloud service providers, and boost high-bandwidth memory (HBM) consumption. The move could raise China’s share of... » read more

Chip Industry Technical Paper Roundup: June 9


New technical papers recently added to Semiconductor Engineering’s library: [table id=438 /] Find more semiconductor research papers here. » read more

Quantifying The PFAS Impact In ICs Manufacturing (Harvard University)


A new technical paper titled "Modeling PFAS in Semiconductor Manufacturing to Quantify Trade-offs in Energy Efficiency and Environmental Impact of Computing Systems" was published by researchers at Harvard University and Mohamed Bin Zayed University of AI (MBZUAI). "The electronics and semiconductor industry is a prominent consumer of per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also known a... » read more

Research Bits: June 3


Imaging power electronics Researchers from the Institute of Science Tokyo, Harvard University, and Hitachi used diamond quantum sensors to analyze the magnetization response of soft magnetic materials used in power electronics. The method can simultaneously image both the amplitude and phase of AC stray fields over a wide frequency range up to 2.3 MHz. It uses a diamond quantum sensor with ... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


[Podcast version is here.] TSMC said it will produce 30% of its leading-edge chips in Arizona when all six of its fabs are operational, a total investment of $165 billion, Axios reported. In its latest SEC filing, the foundry said it continues to add capacity in Taiwan, Arizona, Japan, and Germany. The Trump administration launched a Section 232 investigation into semiconductors and relat... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


Check out our new Inside Chips podcast. President Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs were announced this week. The executive order stated that semiconductors and copper imports are not directly subject to the reciprocal tariff, although the exemption may be short-lived. Semiconductor equipment and tools were not mentioned, leaving the industry searching for clarification. Regardless, hig... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


McKinsey issued a new report on the state of the chemical supply chain for semiconductors in the U.S., citing potential shortages of high-purity materials such as tungsten, aluminum and copper, lack of access to CMP slurries and photoresists for EUV, and rising competition for high-k precursors that can fetch higher prices outside of the U.S. CSIS weighed in on the U.S. goverment's recent ... » read more

Research Bits: Feb. 25


Recording synaptic connections Researchers from Harvard University built a silicon chip capable of recording synaptic signals from a large number of neurons and used it to catalogue more than 70,000 synaptic connections from about 2,000 rat neurons. They hope the device is a step in creating a detailed synaptic connection map of the brain. The chip contains an array of 4,096 microhole elect... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


The new Trump administration was quick to put a different stamp on the tech world: President Trump rescinded a long list of Biden’s executive orders, including those aimed at AI safety and the mandate for 50% EVs by 2030. Roughly 1.3 million EVs were sold in the U.S. in 2024, up 7.3% from 2023. The new administration announced $500 billion ($100 billion initially) in private sector in... » read more

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