Week In Review: Design, Low Power


The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) outlined its plan for a National Semiconductor Technology Center (NSTC) to be created using a share of the $11 billion in funds from the CHIPS Act marked for research and development. While a large portion of the CHIPS Act investment is set to boost U.S. fabs and manufacturing capabilities, the NSTC aims to also support the design side, ... » read more

Interfacial ferroelectricity in marginally twisted 2D semiconductors


Abstract "Twisted heterostructures of two-dimensional crystals offer almost unlimited scope for the design of new metamaterials. Here we demonstrate a room temperature ferroelectric semiconductor that is assembled using mono- or few-layer MoS2. These van der Waals heterostructures feature broken inversion symmetry, which, together with the asymmetry of atomic arrangement at the interface of tw... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


U.S. government officials met with semiconductor industry companies and automakers to request supply chain information it hopes could address the current semiconductor shortage, Reuters reports. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo hopes the information will enable them and industry to "get more granular into the bottlenecks and then ultimately predict challenges before they happen," but also wa... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: March 28


Dental implants Borrowing some of the same processes used in the semiconductor industry, the Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry and the University of Plymouth have developed new nanocoating materials for dental implants. Some three million Americans have dental implants, according to the American Academy of Implant Dentistry (AAID). This number is rising by 500,000 a year, accordin... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Nov. 25


Asteroid mining and metrology The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a new space bill. The bill, entitled H.R. 2262— U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness, includes a provision that discusses the rights for companies that mine any materials on asteroids. In simple terms, the bill recognizes the right of U.S. companies to own asteroid resources that they mine in space, accordin... » read more