A technology for stacking several layers of microprocesssors, which is being developed at EPFL in collaboration with ETHZ and IBM Research, could boost the performance of computer chips by a factor 10.

The ultra-small revolution is claimed to have begun with the invention of a laser that allows light to be used on a computer chip.

Converting sunlight to electricity might no longer mean large panels of photovoltaic cells atop flat surfaces like roofs.

Telecoms, healthcare and display technology will be the major beneficiaries of a new generation of semiconductor lasers developed in a massive European research effort. Better cancer treatment, wider bandwidth and smaller, better displays could be on their way.

Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, in cooperation with the International SEMATECH Manufacturing Initiative, have released, for beta testing, a computer-based tool to help the world’s semiconductor manufacturing facilities evaluate and improve their energy efficiency.

One unfortunate side-effect of technological advancements is that they often force end users to accept an 'all-or-nothing' choice between a major investment in enhanced speed and capability, or live with less-than-optimum performance to protect the investment in an installed technology base.

In the megawatt range, high-power electronics applications need powerful semiconductors. However, even the largest semiconductors available today are still not strong enough for some applications. It is therefore necessary to connect them in parallel. The parallel connection of semiconductor devices in a traditional power electronics circuit is very common.

The continuation of Moore’s law by conventional CMOS scaling is becoming more and more challenging, requiring huge capital investments. 3D packaging with 3D TSV interconnects provides another path towards the 'More than Moore', with relatively smaller capital investments.

The introduction of integrated voltage regulators was a boon for electronic engineers. Before that, regulated power supplies were rather complex, particularly if such a power supply had to be short-circuit proof.

RF transformers are widely used in electronic circuits for impedance matching to achieve maximum power transfer and to suppress undesired signal reflection, voltage or current step-up or step-down, DC isolation between circuits while providing efficient AC transmission and interfacing between balanced and unbalanced circuits such as amplifiers.

A voltage controlled oscillator circuit can be modelled as the combination of an amplifier with gain and a frequency dependent feedback loop as illustrated in Figure 1.

RF transformers are widely used in electronic circuits for impedance matching to achieve maximum power transfer and to suppress undesired signal reflection. Part 2 of this article continues the story that began in the July issue.

In modern digital communications systems the information content is typically created digitally and then used to modulate an RF signal. It is useful to evaluate the modulation, both before and after upconversion to diagnose any impairments in the conversion process.

The memory semiconductor industry is about to go through a period of major technological changes as new integration trends and disruptive packaging technologies pave the way to the future growth of this industry …

Invited by the Taiwanese government to see how some of the country’s electronic components are made, I joined an international party of journalists for a series of factory-guided tours round plants making products ranging from miniature cameras to plugs and interconnects.