Chip Industry Week In Review


By Susan Rambo, Jesse Allen, and Liz Allan The U.S. government will provide about $162 million in federal incentives, under the CHIPS and Science Act, to help Microchip onshore its semiconductor supply chain. The move is aimed at securing a reliable domestic supply of MCUs and mature-node chips. “Today’s announcement will help propel semiconductor manufacturing projects in Colorado and O... » read more

Research Bits: June 13


Converting heat to electricity Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and University of Colorado Boulder fabricated a device to boost the conversion of heat into electricity. The technique involves depositing hundreds of thousands of microscopic columns of gallium nitride atop a silicon wafer. Layers of silicon are then removed from the underside of the waf... » read more

Week In Review: Semiconductor Manufacturing, Test


The European Union’s Chips Act Commission has approved €8.1 billion ($8.73 billion) in funding for an Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI). As part of this IPCEI, 56 companies, including small and medium-sized enterprises (‘SMEs') and start-ups, will undertake 68 projects in research, innovation, and deployment of microelectronics and communication technologies across th... » read more

Where All The Semiconductor Investments Are Going


Companies and countries are funneling huge sums of money into semiconductor manufacturing, materials, and research — at least a half-trillion dollars over the next decade, and maybe much more — to guarantee a steady supply of chips and know-how to support growth across a wide swath of increasingly data-centric industries. The build-out of a duplicate supply chain that can guarantee capac... » read more

Week In Review: Semiconductor Manufacturing, Test


Fallout from the new U.S. export controls continues. Under new regulations, companies looking to supply Chinese chipmakers with advanced manufacturing equipment (<14nm) must first obtain a license from the U.S. Department of Commerce. In addition, U.S. persons (citizens and permanent residents) are barred from supporting China’s advanced chip development or production without a license. ... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Tools and IP Electronic system design revenue hit a record $3.75 billion in the second quarter, according to a report from ESD Alliance, a SEMI Technology Community. That number represents a 17.5% year-over-year increase. Walden C. Rhines, the report’s executive sponsor, said it was the largest such jump in over a decade and that all product categories and geographic regions recorded second ... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Dec. 26


2nm memristors Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Brookhaven National Laboratory built memristor crossbar arrays with a 2nm feature size and a single-layer density up to 4.5 terabits per square inch. The team says the arrays were built with foundry-compatible fabrication technologies. "This work will lead to high-density memristor arrays with low power consumption fo... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: June 26


Organic pigment for optoelectronics Researchers at Oregon State University are investigating xylindein, an organic pigment produced by fungi, to find low-cost, sustainable alternatives to silicon in electronic or optoelectronic applications where the high-performance capabilities of silicon aren't required. Xylindien is secreted by two wood-eating fungi in the Chlorociboria genus. Any wood ... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Oct. 20


Memristors come in threes The race is on to produce a commercial memristor, and a duo from ETH Zurich may be providing a bit more push. "Basically, memristors require less energy since they work at lower voltages," explained Jennifer Rupp, professor in the Department of Materials at ETH Zurich. "They can be made much smaller than today's memory modules, and therefore offer much greater de... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: April 21


Harvesting more electromagnetic energy Researchers from the University of Waterloo in Canada showed for the first time that it's possible to collect essentially all of the electromagnetic energy that falls onto a surface. Their approach involves the use of metamaterials that can be tailored to produce media that neither reflects nor transmits any power, enabling full absorption of incident w... » read more

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