150MM Alive and Kicking


Did you think chip making on 150mm wafers was a thing of the past? Think again. Many of the megatrends shaping our collective futures—mobility, autonomous driving and electric vehicles, 5G wireless communications, augmented- and virtual reality (AR/VR), and healthcare—depend on innovations created on the 150mm wafer size. While attention is often riveted on the race to the leading-edge n... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Chipmakers and OEMs Diamond semiconductor IP vendor AKHAN Semiconductor is cooperating with a U.S. federal investigation into alleged theft of its intellectual property by China’s Huawei. When AKHAN agreed to send its proprietary technology to Huawei pursuant to an agreement, AKHAN “believes that Huawei destroyed our product, shipped it to China without authorization, subjected it to tests... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: April 10


Higher power GaN Imec and Qromis have announced the development of a new gallium nitride (GaN) substrate technology that enables power devices at 650 volts and above. GaN is an emerging technology for power semiconductor applications. Based on a GaN-on-silicon technology, GaN-based power semis operate at 650 volts and above. In simple terms, the buffer layers between the GaN device and the ... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Feb. 6


GaN trusted foundry HRL Laboratories--an R&D venture between Boeing and General Motors--has launched a new foundry service for use in advanced millimeter-wave (mmWave) gallium-nitride (GaN) technology applications. HRL’s process, called T3-GaN, is a high-electron-mobility transistor technology. It will enable the fabrication of GaN-based monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Feb. 14


Electronics for Venus A team of scientists at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland demonstrated the first prolonged operation of electronics in the harsh conditions found on Venus. Current Venus landers can only operate on the planet's surface for a few hours due to the extreme atmospheric conditions. The surface temperature on Venus is nearly 860 degrees Fahrenheit, and the planet h... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Dec. 13


Phonon lasers A European consortium recently kicked off a new project that will develop a practical phonon laser. The European consortium, called PHENOMEN, will be coordinated by the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2). Most chips perform functions using an electrical charge (electrons) or by light (photons). In comparison, a phonon “is a quantum of energy or a q... » read more

Will III-V Power Devices Happen?


In a previous blog post, I provided a review of the overall power device market and trends driving changes in device evolution that entail materials innovation. For the industry to make such a shift, the advantages over mature, low-cost silicon technologies must be compelling and something the industry absolutely has to implement. Now I’d like to focus on new materials offering competitive be... » read more

RF GaN Gains Steam


The RF [getkc id="217" kc_name="gallium nitride"] (GaN) device market is heating up amid the need for more performance with better power densities in a range of systems, such as infrastructure equipment, missile defense and radar. On one front, for example, RF GaN is beginning to displace a silicon-based technology for the power amplifier sockets in today’s wireless base stations. GaN is m... » read more

5 Technologies To Watch


The industry is developing a dizzying array of new technologies. In fact, there are more new and innovative technologies than ever before. And the list is countless. At least from my vantage point, I have come up with my own list of the top five technologies to watch in 2015 and beyond. They are listed in alphabetical order. (See below). Obviously, there are more than just five technologi... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: July 14


Exploring the proton It took 23 years to conduct the experiments, but physicists have finally provided detailed results about the proton. The Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) organization conducted the experiments within its particle accelerator from 1992 to 2007. The experiments took place in DESY’s Hadron Electron Ring Accelerator (HERA), an electron-proton collider. Then, ove... » read more

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