http://phys.org/technology-news/semiconductors/ en-us PhysOrg Team Phys.Org provides the latest news on semiconductor technology, semiconductor sciences and semiconductors. The National Physical Laboratory (NPL), along with partners In2Tec Ltd (UK) and Gwent Electronic Materials Ltd, have developed a printed circuit board (PCB) whose components can be easily separated by immersion in hot water. http://phys.org/news257765902.html Technology - Semiconductors 2012-06-01T10:38:41-07:00 Sharp Corporation and Semiconductor Energy Laboratory have jointly developed a new oxide semiconductor (IGZO) technology with high crystallinity. This material will enable even higher resolutions, lower power consumption, and higher performance touch screens, as well as narrower bezel widths for LCD display panels used in mobile devices such as smartphones. Details of this new development will be presented at the 2012 SID Display Week Symposium to be held in Boston, USA, on June 5 as part of the annual international conference of the Society for Information Display. http://phys.org/news257757294.html Technology - Semiconductors 2012-06-01T08:15:18-07:00 (Phys.org) -- Sandia National Laboratories researcher Steve Dai jokes that his approach to creating materials whose properties won’t degenerate during temperature swings is a lot like cooking — mixing ingredients and fusing them together in an oven. http://phys.org/news257675012.html Technology - Semiconductors 2012-05-31T09:23:47-07:00 Japan's Renesas Electronics said Monday it will boost the outsourcing of its chip production to Taiwan's TSMC, but it declined comment on reports it would cut about 30 percent of its staff. http://phys.org/news257445094.html Technology - Semiconductors 2012-05-28T17:50:01-07:00 Here is a new microchip that can transfer data the size of 80 MP3 song files (or 250 megabytes) wirelessly between mobile devices, in the flick of a second. Or how about transferring a typical 2-hour, 8-gigabyte DVD movie in just half a minute compared to 8.5 hours on Bluetooth? http://phys.org/news257080273.html Technology - Semiconductors 2012-05-24T12:11:22-07:00 (Phys.org) -- Researchers sponsored by Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) announced that they have successfully created contact hole patterns for a wide variety of practical logic and memory devices using a next-generation directed self-assembly (DSA) process. Applying a relatively simple combination of chemical and thermal processes to create their DSA method for making circuits at 22 nanometers (nm), the research team at Stanford University projects that the nanofabrication technique will enable pattern etching for next-generation chips down to 14nm. http://phys.org/news257077565.html Technology - Semiconductors 2012-05-24T11:27:18-07:00 A new manufacturing technology is expected to greatly reduce the cost of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) in the future. For the first time ever, researchers at the Siemens subsidiary Osram Opto Semiconductors were able to successfully produce gallium nitride LED chips on a silicon substrate instead of the much more expensive sapphire backing. Silicon is a standard material in the semiconductor industry and is therefore an inexpensive and easily obtainable alternative. This development goes a long way toward making it possible for Osram to produce LED components at a much lower cost while maintaining the same level of quality and performance. http://phys.org/news256810323.html Technology - Semiconductors 2012-05-21T09:30:01-07:00 (Phys.org) -- The first purely silicon oxide-based 'Resistive RAM' memory chip that can operate in ambient conditions – opening up the possibility of new super-fast memory - has been developed by researchers at UCL. http://phys.org/news256559732.html Technology - Semiconductors 2012-05-18T11:35:43-07:00 Samsung Electronics announced today that it has begun producing the industry’s first four gigabit (Gb), low power double-data-rate 2 (LPDDR2) memory using 20 nanometer (nm) class technology. The mobile DRAM (dynamic random access memory) chip, which went into mass production last month, will help the market to deliver advanced devices that are faster, lighter and provide longer battery life than today’s mobile devices. http://phys.org/news256548545.html Technology - Semiconductors 2012-05-18T08:29:15-07:00 Toshiba America Electronic Components (TAEC) today announced its DTMOS-IV process, a new-generation of superjunction (SJ) technology for power MOSFETs. Products based on the DTMOS-IV technology will make ideal switching devices in switch mode power supplies, lighting ballasts and other power applications that demand a combination of high-speed operation, high-efficiency and low EMI noise. http://phys.org/news255854090.html Technology - Semiconductors 2012-05-10T13:40:01-07:00 The semiconductor industry is faced with the challenge of supplying ever faster and more powerful chips. The Next-Generation Lithography with EUV radiation will help meeting that challenge. Fraunhofer researchers have developed key components. http://phys.org/news255856188.html Technology - Semiconductors 2012-05-10T08:10:08-07:00 Toshiba America Electronic Components (TAEC) today announced that it has expanded its family of low-voltage, high-speed MOSFETs with new, ultra-efficient 60V and 120V devices that will save space and reduce losses in secondary synchronous rectification designs. http://phys.org/news255853983.html Technology - Semiconductors 2012-05-10T07:50:01-07:00 (Phys.org) -- Micron Technology is polishing up its DDR4 memory modules, “sampling” the modules and getting feedback from major customers. The company plans to reach volume production later this year. In brief, Micron is getting ready to bring its DDR4 DRAM modules for market This means the computer industry can expect a new memory standard to make a difference across a range of computing devices, from enterprise computing to so called ultra-thins and tablets. Boise Idaho based Micron this week announced the first piece of its portfolio of DDR4-based modules as the 4-gigabit (Gb) DDR4 x8 part. The announcement said the complete portfolio of DDR4-based modules will include RDIMMs, LRDIMMs, 3DS, SODIMMs and UDIMMs (standard and ECC). http://phys.org/news255845029.html Technology - Semiconductors 2012-05-10T05:40:01-07:00 Freescale Semiconductor introduces two 64-bit, multicore QorIQ P5 family control plane processors delivering 2.4 GHz of single threaded performance per core. The new quad-core QorIQ P5040 and dual-core P5021 products feature a robust mix of accelerators, high-speed interfaces and security features, resulting in advanced embedded solutions ideally suited for power-conscious control plane applications. http://phys.org/news255689351.html Technology - Semiconductors 2012-05-08T09:50:46-07:00 Imec, in collaboration with Panasonic, has developed a prototype of a 60GHz radio transceiver allowing to reach data rates of 7Gbps over short distances at very low power consumption. The chip achieves this performance over the 4 channels specified by the IEEE802.11ad standard. Imec’s low-power 60GHz solution is an important step towards adoption of 60GHz technology in low-cost battery-operated consumer products such as smart phones and tablets. http://phys.org/news255151883.html Technology - Semiconductors 2012-05-02T04:32:11-07:00 Researchers at Chalmers have developed a new generation of amplifiers, which the European Space Agency (ESA) will be using throughout the world to receive signals from its space probes and satellites. ESA will be able to use the new amplifiers to measure data that is currently buried by noise. http://phys.org/news254649400.html Technology - Semiconductors 2012-04-26T08:57:38-07:00 A miniature atom-based magnetic sensor developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has passed an important research milestone by successfully measuring human brain activity. Experiments reported this week verify the sensor's potential for biomedical applications such as studying mental processes and advancing the understanding of neurological diseases. http://phys.org/news254070955.html Technology - Semiconductors 2012-04-19T16:16:15-07:00 Record speed, low-voltage, and ultra-small size make nanodots a "triple threat" for electronic memory in computers and other electronic devices. http://phys.org/news253973831.html Technology - Semiconductors 2012-04-18T13:50:01-07:00 Researchers sponsored by Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC), the world's leading university-research consortium for semiconductors and related technologies, today announced that they have identified a path to overcome challenges for scaling multi-core semiconductors by successfully addressing how to scale memory communications among the cores. The results can lead to continued design of ever-smaller integrated circuits (ICs) into computer hardware without expensive writing of all new software from scratch to accommodate the increased capabilities. http://phys.org/news253791267.html Technology - Semiconductors 2012-04-16T10:34:44-07:00 The TDK Corporation has extended its range of EPCOS thyristor modules for dynamic PFC. The new TSM-LC-I module now also allows single-phase PFC of networks with rated voltages from 230 to 525 V AC. Depending on the voltage, the new module is designed for reactive powers of between 10 and 22 kvar. 110 V AC versions are available upon request. http://phys.org/news253356181.html Technology - Semiconductors 2012-04-11T09:47:57-07:00 TDK Corporation presented the new MHQ1005P series of multilayer ceramic inductors with a Q factor that, depending on the type, is as good or much better than comparable, but more expensive, wirewound inductors. The new multilayer ceramic components are thus suitable for use in low-loss RF matching circuits in devices such as smartphones and conventional mobile phones. The MHQ1005P, a series is already in mass production. http://phys.org/news252919153.html Technology - Semiconductors 2012-04-06T08:19:29-07:00 (PhysOrg.com) -- TowerJazz, the global specialty foundry leader, and The University of California, San Diego, provider of a leading program in microwave, millimeter-wave and mixed-signal RFICs, today announced they have demonstrated the first wafer-scale phased array with 16 different antenna elements operating at 110 GHz frequency range.  First time success was achieved for the RFIC using TowerJazz’s own proprietary models, kit and the mmWave capabilities of its 0.18-micron SiGe BiCMOS process, SBC18H3.   The device targets applications for automotive radar, aerospace and defense, passive imaging, security, and mmWave imaging. The collaboration of the phased array chip was partly funded by DARPA. http://phys.org/news252912496.html Technology - Semiconductors 2012-04-06T06:28:33-07:00 (PhysOrg.com) -- ETH Zurich physicists, in collaboration with colleagues at universities in Switzerland and abroad, have made a breakthrough in the manufacture of monolithic semiconductor structures on silicon. The new structures are nearly perfect, and likely to revolutionise not only X-ray technology. http://phys.org/news252259776.html Technology - Semiconductors 2012-03-29T17:09:58-07:00 The overall performance of modern computers and communications networks is dependent on the speed of electronic components, such as transistors and optical switches, as well as the quality of the wire network that powers and relays signals between these electronic components. Power and signal integrity are two important parameters for gauging the quality of a wire network, but simulating these parameters for next-generation electronic systems can take a considerable amount of time, particularly when there is a large number of components involved. Zaw Zaw Oo at the A*STAR Institute for High Performance Computing and co-workers have now significantly decreased the amount of computer time needed by developing a modelling technique that is much more efficient. http://phys.org/news252228189.html Technology - Semiconductors 2012-03-29T08:23:30-07:00 New memory chips that are transparent, flexible enough to be folded like a sheet of paper, shrug off 1,000-degree Fahrenheit temperatures — twice as hot as the max in a kitchen oven — and survive other hostile conditions could usher in the development of next-generation flash-competitive memory for tomorrow’s keychain drives, cell phones and computers, a scientist reported today. http://phys.org/news252144763.html Technology - Semiconductors 2012-03-28T09:12:55-07:00 Researchers at the A*STAR, Data Storage Institute (DSI), have filed a patent on low-density parity-check (LDPC) coding with soft decision decoding, which is an advanced error correction coding scheme for spin-torque transfer magnetic random access memory (STT-MRAM). This cutting edge technology will shed more light to the limited study on coding and signal processing which is still at its infancy. http://phys.org/news250926469.html Technology - Semiconductors 2012-03-14T06:48:01-07:00 Imec today announces that it has released an early-version PDK (process development kit) for 14nm logic chips. This PDK is the industry’s first to address the 14nm technology node. It targets the introduction of a number of new key technologies, such as FinFET technology and EUV lithography. The PDK is made available to imec’s partners, and will be followed by incremental updates. Imec and its partners are developing a 14nm test chip to be released in the 2nd half of 2012 using this PDK. http://phys.org/news250333393.html Technology - Semiconductors 2012-03-07T09:03:35-07:00 Broadly speaking, the two major areas of research at MIT’s Microsystems Technology Laboratory (MTL) are electronics — transistors in particular — and microelectromechanical systems, or MEMS — tiny mechanical devices with moving parts. Both strains of research could have significant implications for manufacturing in the United States, but at least for the moment, the market for transistor innovation is far larger. http://phys.org/news250323790.html Technology - Semiconductors 2012-03-07T06:23:18-07:00 Fujitsu Semiconductor America (FSA) today extended its growing portfolio of Ferroelectric memory products with the introduction of a new Ferroelectric Random Access Memory (FRAM) product series that features a wide voltage range of 3.0V to 5.5V, offering significant design flexibility for consumer and industrial applications. http://phys.org/news250164197.html Technology - Semiconductors 2012-03-05T10:40:01-07:00 Fujitsu Semiconductor today introduced the MB86L11A, the company’s next-generation, single-chip 2G/3G/4G transceiver. The multiband, multimode device supports all modes, including LTE (FDD and TDD), HSPA+, WCDMA, GSM, EDGE, EDGE-EVO, CDMA, and TD-SCDMA. Sampling of the MB86L11A will begin in Q2 2012. http://phys.org/news250160786.html Technology - Semiconductors 2012-03-05T09:06:38-07:00