Imec is a non-profit European research organisation specialising in the study of nanoelectronics, using the expertise of its global partners in ICT, healthcare and energy. Founded in 1984, its headquarters are in Leuven in Belgium with offices in the Netherlands, Taiwan, the US, China and Japan. Its staff of more than 1750 includes over 550 industrial residents and guest researchers. Here are some highlights from recent research projects.

In RF testing, an essential attribute of every signal generator is the maximum output power it can supply to a device under test (DUT) while maintaining spectral purity and level accuracy.

The differences among the types of signals that a test system’s switching hardware must handle are not always well understood. Unless these differences are taken into account in switch system design, they can degrade signal integrity and affect overall test system performance. This article reviews switching techniques for maximising the integrity of current signals.

Over the past 20 years, data acquisition has evolved from a limited, inaccessible set of technologies into an integrated and intuitive platform for high-performance measurements. With the software-centric approach of graphical programming and modular, PC-based hardware, engineers and scientists can rapidly develop powerful, flexible and highly customisable DAQ systems.

A one-day seminar on designing for manufacture, a course on EMI control and a review of PCB technologies are among the events at the Surface Mount 2010 conference that is being held in conjunction with Electronex in Sydney.

Telematics is on the edge of significant changes. A number of markets are emerging due to the strong interest of governments and government organisations or are being pushed by legislation.

Imec has shown that the presence of hydrogen and/or inert species during Ge deposition significantly improves the quality of the Ge layers grown on Si by solid phase epitaxy (SPE). The resulting layers have excellent crystalline quality and low surface roughness, making SPE a valuable alternative for conventional heteroepitaxy which is performed typically at much higher temperatures.

Picoprojectors will drive the green laser market and the ideal light emitting device would be lasers due to their capability to deliver highly saturated colours in the widest possible gamut.

Stress induced by thermal cycles causes power electronic systems to have a finite service life. To estimate this service lifetime, accurate information on the thermal profile in the chips under the given operating conditions is required.

DC/DC converters offer galvanic (input to output) isolation of typically at least 1 kVDC that means the converter will withstand a test voltage of 1000 VDC for one second placed across the input and output pins without the insulation across the transformer breaking down.

Worldwide IT spending is forecast to reach $3.4 trillion in 2010, a 5.3% increase from IT spending of $3.2 trillion in 2009, according to Gartner.

Today’s manufacturers are using a mechatronics-based approach to integrate the electronic, mechanical and software components of their increasingly complex products. Digital prototyping allows disparate engineering teams to work from a single digital model, saving time and reducing errors throughout the design process.

An Australian-first trial that will monitor the performance, environmental benefits, policy, infrastructure and practical implications for electric vehicle fleets has been launched at the University of Western Australia.

Scientists at Cambridge have developed a simple, accurate way of ‘seeing’ chemistry in action inside a lithium-ion battery.

Measuring CPU performance in real-time embedded-control applications has always been a widely debated and subjective topic. The market is composed of 8-, 16- and 32-bit microcontroller and digital signal controller products with a wide variety of device pin counts, memory sizes and types and integrated system support and peripheral functions.