Chip Industry Week In Review


CSIS issued a new report that says Intel is "not too big to fail, but too good to lose." The report noted that Intel is needed for national security, and that it must be viewed in a geopolitical context rather than from a purely business standpoint when it comes to funding the company. Japan's government is creating a 10 trillion yen (~$65 billion) fund for next-gen technologies, including A... » read more

Research Bits: Aug. 7


Stretchy semiconductors Researchers from Pennsylvania State University, University of Houston, Southeast University, and Northwestern University are working towards fully flexible electronics. “Such technology requires stretchy elastic semiconductors, the core material needed to enable integrated circuits that are critical to the technology enabling our computers, phones and so much more,... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Qualcomm, NXP, Infineon, Nordic, and Bosch are jointly investing in a new RISC-V company, to be formed in Germany, that will speed up RISC-V’s adoption in commercial products. The company will be “a single source to enable compatible RISC-V based products, provide reference architectures, and help establish solutions widely used in the industry,” according to a press release. The co... » read more

Research Bits: Jan. 24


Transistor-free compute-in-memory Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, Sandia National Laboratories, and Brookhaven National Laboratory propose a transistor-free compute-in-memory (CIM) architecture to overcome memory bottlenecks and reduce power consumption in AI workloads. "Even when used in a compute-in-memory architecture, transistors compromise the access time of data," sai... » read more

Research Bits: Jan. 9


Making stretchy semiconductors Researchers from Pennsylvania State University, University of Houston, Purdue University, and Texas Heart Institute developed a new method to make soft, stretchable transistors easier and cheaper to manufacture. The lateral phase separation induced micromesh (LPSM) process involves mixing a semiconductor and an elastomer and spin coating the liquid mixture pre... » read more

Technical Paper Round-Up: July 26


New technical papers added to Semiconductor Engineering’s library this week. [table id=41 /] Semiconductor Engineering is in the process of building this library of research papers. Please send suggestions (via comments section below) for what else you’d like us to incorporate. If you have research papers you are trying to promote, we will review them to see if they are a good fit f... » read more

Cubic Boron Arsenide’s Unique Semiconducting Properties (MIT)


New research claims cubic boron arsenide could be a “game-changing” semiconductor with a “very high mobility for both electrons and holes,” according to this MIT article. “Heat is now a major bottleneck for many electronics,” says Shin, the paper’s lead author. “Silicon carbide is replacing silicon for power electronics in major EV industries including Tesla, since it has thr... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Jan. 25


Nanoscale 3D optics Researchers at Rice University and University of Houston are using 3D printing to build nanostructures of silica for micro-scale electronic, mechanical, and photonic devices. “It’s very tough to make complicated, three-dimensional geometries with traditional photolithography techniques,” said Jun Lou, a professor of materials science and nanoengineering at Rice. �... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Sept. 22


Drawing sensors on skin Researchers from the University of Houston and University of Chicago created an ink pen that can draw multifunctional sensors and circuits directly on skin. These "drawn-on-skin electronics" aim to provide more precise health data, free of the artifacts that are associated with wearable devices and flexible electronic patches. Caused when the sensor doesn't move prec... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Sept. 9


Fusion energy The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced $29 million in funding for several projects to develop fusion energy technology. The projects will focus on the components, materials and technologies to develop a long-awaited but elusive net-energy-gain “fusion core.” For years, companies, governments and universities have been working on fusion power technology. Fu... » read more

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