The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Cleanliness is a good thing. In the fab, it's also a very profitable thing. According to a report from Research and Markets, the wafer cleaning systems market will grow more than 6%. The research house notes, however, that the rate of growth is slowing. GlobalFoundries began volume production of its 180nm ultra-high-voltage process for industrial and power applications. The base platform sta... » read more

What’s Next In Scaling, Stacking


An Steegen, executive vice president of semiconductor technology and systems at [getentity id="22217" e_name="Imec"], sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to discuss IC scaling, chip stacking, packaging and other topics. Imec is an R&D organization in Belgium. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. SE: Chipmakers are shipping 16nm/14nm processes with 10nm and 7nm technologies... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: March 28


Storing solar energy as carbon monoxide A team at Indiana University engineered a molecule that collects and stores solar energy without solar panels. The molecule uses light or electricity to convert the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide more efficiently than any other method of carbon reduction. Burning fuel such as carbon monoxide produces carbon dioxide and releases e... » read more

Using Chip Technology To Detect And Prevent Diseases


The overlap between semiconductor technology and medicine is growing, creating the same kinds of economies of scale that have fueled the semiconductor industry for the past five decades. While technology has long held a place in the medical world, the idea that chips can save lives and improve health is a relatively new concept. That effort is gaining steam, too, as more capabilities are add... » read more

System Bits: March 1


Current generation silicon wafer While the single-crystal silicon wafer changed the nature of communication 60 years ago, a group of Cornell researchers is now hoping its work with quantum dot solids can usher in a new era in electronics. In what could be the first step toward discovering and developing artificial materials with controllable electronic structure, the team has fashioned 2D s... » read more

DNA Sequencing Device Market Heats Up


Slightly more than a decade ago an international consortium reached a major milestone by sequencing the human genome. Using laboratory systems called DNA sequencers, the Human Genome Project (HGP) determined the order of nearly 3 billion base pairs that make up the human genome. This, in turn, was supposed to pave the way to prevent, treat and cure diseases. Then, in early 2014, Illumina hit... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Oct. 15


Better Beer Rice University has devised a polymer material that could boost the properties of natural gas, beer and soda. By adding modified, single-atom-thick graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) to thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), Rice’s polymer material could make it more practical for vehicles to run on compressed natural gas. The material is far more impermeable to pressurized gas and lighte... » read more

How To Make A Brain-On-A-Chip


By Mark LaPedus In October, Draper Laboratory and the University of South Florida (USF) disclosed an ambitious plan to develop a brain-on-a-chip. The idea is to devise a “micro-environment’’ that mimics the human brain. Researchers hope to study neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, strokes and concussions. The eventual goal is to study the effects of drugs and v... » read more

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