Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Markets Worldwide semiconductor industry revenue is expected to grow 17.3% in 2021, compared with 10.8% in 2020, according to a new IDC report. Segment breakdown is as follows: [table id=5 /] “Semiconductor wafer prices increased in 1H21 and IDC expects increases to continue for the rest of 2021 due to material costs and opportunity cost in mature process technologies. Overall, IDC pre... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Sept. 21


Catching switches in action Researchers from SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Stanford University, Hewlett Packard Labs, Penn State University, and Purdue University observed atoms moving inside an electronic switch as it turns on and off, revealing a state they suspect could lead to faster, more energy-efficient devices. "This research is a breakthrough in ultrafast technology and sci... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Sept. 14


Probabilistic computers Sandia National Laboratories and others are developing what researchers call a probabilistic computer. Instead of traditional computing, Sandia is developing a system with built-in randomness that computes information differently every time. As part the research program, the Department of Energy awarded the project $6 million over the next three years to develop t... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Aug. 17


Digital fiber Researchers at MIT, Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, and Rhode Island School of Design developed a digital fiber that can sense, store, analyze, and infer activity after being sewn into a shirt. "This work presents the first realization of a fabric with the ability to store and process data digitally, adding a new information content dimension to textiles and a... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: May 18


Mystery of MXenes Aalto University has studied the surface composition and provided some new insights into MXenes, a promising set of materials used for energy storage and related applications. A class of two-dimensional inorganic compounds, MXenes consist of thin atomic layers. The materials are based on transition metal carbides, nitrides or carbonitrides. These materials have extraord... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: March 23


Metasurface for optical media Researchers at Purdue University proposed a new way to store information in optical media, such as CDs and DVDs, that could improve both storage capacity and read times. The development focuses on encoding information in the angular position of tiny antennas, allowing them to store more data per unit area. "The storage capacity greatly increases because it is o... » read more

FeFETs Bring Promise And Challenges


Ferroelectric FETs (FeFETs) and memory (FeRAM) are generating high levels of interest in the research community. Based on a physical mechanism that hasn’t yet been commercially exploited, they join the other interesting new physics ideas that are in various stages of commercialization. “FeRAM is very promising, but it's like all promising memory technologies — it takes a while to get b... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Sept. 29


Implantable transmitter Researchers from Purdue University developed a fully implantable, wirelessly powered 2.4GHz radio-frequency transmitter chip for wireless sensor nodes and biomedical devices. The team says the transmitter chip consumes the lowest amount of energy per digital bit published to date, consuming an active-mode power of 70 μW at 10 Mbps while radiating -33 dBm of power, r... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Sept. 15


Higher-res lidar Researchers from Purdue University and École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) devised a way to improve lidar and provide higher-resolution detection of nearby fast-moving objects through mechanical control and modulation of light on a silicon chip. "Frequency modulated continuous wave" (FMCW) lidar detects objects by scanning laser light from the top of a vehicl... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: July 21


AI hardware Researchers at Purdue University, University of California San Diego, Argonne National Laboratory, University of Louisville, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and University of Iowa developed hardware that can learn skills, offloading some of the energy needed by AI software. "Software is taking on most of the challenges in AI. If you could incorporate intelligence into the circui... » read more

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