Research Bits: April 10


Meminductor identified Researchers at Texas A&M University identified the meminductor circuit unit. Similar to the memristor and the memcapacitor, a meminductor has a memory-like nature where its properties are dependent on previous values. The resistor, capacitor, and inductor comprise the three classical circuit elements. The memristor and the memcapacitor, while earlier theorized, ha... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Tools & IP Imperas Software introduced the RISC-V Verification Interface (RVVI). The open standard and methodology can be adapted to any configuration permitted within the RISC-V specifications. RVVI defines interfaces between RTL, reference model, and testbench for RISC-V design verification, with the aim of making RISC-V processor DV reusable. It supports multi-hart, superscalar, and out... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Jan. 3


Optical device integration Researchers from the University of Strathclyde, University of Glasgow, and the Australian National University propose a way to place multiple micron-scale optical devices made from different materials close together on a single silicon chip. “The development of electronics that are based on silicon transistors has enabled increasingly more powerful and flexible ... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Oct. 11


Finer printed circuits Researchers from the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan, Jiangnan University, Zhengzhou University, Senju Metal Industry Co., and C-INK Co. developed a way to print smaller features for printed electronics. The directed self-assembly method increases the chemical polarity of predetermined areas on a surface, which promoted selective adhesion of metallic na... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Sept. 14


Thermal management material Engineers at the University of California Los Angeles integrated a new thermal management material, boron arsenide, with a HEMT chip to demonstrate the material's potential. The team developed boron arsenide as a thermal management material in 2018 and found it to be very effective at drawing and dissipating heat. In the latest experiments, they used wide band... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Aug. 3


Efficient ADC Researchers at Brigham Young University, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Texas Instruments, and University of California Los Angeles designed a new power-efficient high-speed analog-to-digital converter. The ADC consumes only 21 milli-Watts of power at 10GHz for ultra-wideband wireless communications, much lower than other ADCs that consume hundreds of milli-Watts to... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: March 16


Adaptable neural nets Neural networks go through two phases: training, when weights are set based on a dataset, and inference, when new information is assessed based on those weights. But researchers at MIT, Institute of Science and Technology Austria, and Vienna University of Technology propose a new type of neural network that can learn during inference and adjust its underlying equations to... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Jan. 19


Electronic skin for health tracking Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder developed a stretchy electronic 'skin' that can perform the tasks of wearable fitness devices such as tracking body temperature, heart rate, and movement patterns. "Smart watches are functionally nice, but they're always a big chunk of metal on a band," said Wei Zhang, a professor in the Department of Chem... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Oct. 20


Benchmarking quantum layout synthesis Computer scientists at the University of California Los Angeles found that current compilers for quantum computers are inhibiting optimal performance and argue that better quantum compilation design could help improve computation speeds up to 45 times. The team designed a family of benchmark quantum circuits with known optimal depths or sizes, which cou... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: June 23


Capturing waste heat Researchers at Wuhan University and University of California Los Angeles developed a hydrogel that can both cool down electronics and convert the waste heat into electricity. The thermogalvanic hydrogel consists of a polyacrylamide framework infused with water and specific ions. When they heated the hydrogel, two of the ions (ferricyanide and ferrocyanide) transferred e... » read more

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