200mm Fab Crunch


Growing demand for analog, MEMS and RF chips continues to cause acute shortages for both 200mm fab capacity and equipment, and it shows no sign of letting up. Today, 200mm fab capacity is tight with a similar situation projected for the second half of 2018 and perhaps well into 2019. In fact, 2018 will likely represent the third consecutive year that 200mm fab capacity will be tight. The sam... » read more

System Bits: May 8


Unlocking the brain Stanford University researchers recently reminded that for years, the people developing artificial intelligence drew inspiration from what was known about the human brain, and now AI is starting to return the favor: while not explicitly designed to do so, certain AI systems seem to mimic our brains’ inner workings more closely than previously thought. [caption id="attach... » read more

Software-Defined Test And Measurement


Software-defined radios, instrumentation and test are ramping up alongside a flood of new technologies related to assisted and autonomous vehicles, 5G, and military/aerospace electronics, breathing new life and significant change into the test and measurement market. Software-defined test adds flexibility in markets where the products and protocols are evolving or still being defined, and wh... » read more

Do Superconducting Processors Really Need Cryogenic Memories?


Cryogenic, superconducting digital processors offer the promise of greatly reduced operating power for server-class computing systems. This is due to the exceptionally low energy per operation of Single Flux Quantum circuits built from Josephson junction devices operating at the temperature of 4 Kelvin. Unfortunately, no suitable same-temperature memory technology yet exists to complement these... » read more

System Bits: April 3


Investigating the human brain for quantum computation potential While much has been made of quantum computing processes using ultracold atoms and ions, superconducting junctions and defects in diamonds, researchers are questioning if this could be performed in human brains. In fact, UC Santa Barbara theoretical physicist Matthew Fisher has been asking this question for years. And now as scient... » read more

System Bits: March 13


Wiring quantum computers According to MIT researchers, when we talk about “information technology,” we generally mean the technology part, like computers, networks, and software. But they reminded that the information itself, and its behavior in quantum systems, is a central focus for MIT’s interdisciplinary Quantum Engineering Group (QEG) as it seeks to develop quantum computing and oth... » read more

System Bits: March 6


Printed graphene biosensors According to researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering IBMT in St. Ingbert (in Germany’s Saarland region), cell-based biosensors can simulate the effect of various substances, such as drugs, on the human body in the laboratory but depending on the measuring principle, producing them can be expensive. As such, they aren’t used very often.... » read more

Who’s Responsible For Security?


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss security issues and how to fix them with Mark Schaeffer, senior product marketing manager for secure solutions at Renesas Electronics; Haydn Povey, CTO of Secure Thingz; Marc Canel, vice president of security systems and technologies at [getentity id="22186" comment="Arm"]; Richard Hayton, CTO of Trustonic; Anders Holmberg, director of corporate dev... » read more

Who Will Regulate Technology?


Outside regulation and technological innovation don't mix well, particularly when it comes to modern electronics, but the potential for that kind of oversight is rising. In the past, most of the problems involving regulation stemmed from a lack of understanding about technology and science. This is hardly a new phenomenon. It literally dates back centuries. Galileo was forced to recant helio... » read more

System Bits: Feb. 20


An evolution in electronics Restoring some semblance to those who have lost the sensation of touch has been a driving force behind Stanford University chemical engineer Zhenan Bao’s decades-long quest to create stretchable, electronically-sensitive synthetic materials. [caption id="attachment_24131783" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Zhenan Bao, the K.K. Lee professor of chemical engineer... » read more

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