Scaling friction down to the nano/micro realm
01 June, 2004An improved method for correcting nano- and micro-scale friction measurements has been developed by researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The new technique should help designers produce more durable micro- and nano-devices with moving parts, such as tiny motors, positioning devices or encoders.
Burning issue facing chip and computer designers
26 April, 2004Chip designers, computer makers, researchers and specialists are uniting to tackle one of the most urgent, but overlooked, for the global semiconductor industry: the soaring densities of heat on integrated circuits, particularly high-performance microprocessors.
Prolonging the life of silicon
05 March, 2004Engineers at Ohio State University have looked at the interface between layers of silicon and other materials in electronic devices. What they have learned may help traditional microelectronics remain vital to industry longer than most experts expect
Technology beats transistor heat
05 March, 2004Intel has identified new materials to replace those that have been used to manufacture chips for more than 30 years. This is a significant accomplishment as the industry races to reduce electrical current leakage in transistors
Need for speed in semiconductors
30 July, 2003A new type of standard to be issued by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will help meet the need for speed in semiconductors.
Speeding up the manufacture of super small-scale devices
05 February, 2003Building a computer chip is a painstaking process. Once a chip is designed, a mask, or template, is created and used to transfer the fine circuit patterns to the surface of a silicon wafer
Nano-competence for hard thin films
28 January, 2003Major advances are still being made on magnetic disk drives despite competition from optical storage media like CD-ROM, DVD, semiconductor flash and smart cards.
Research promises faster, cheaper microchips
21 January, 2003The University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK has joined forces with Atmel to create 'strained silicon' microchips, which involves adding a material called germanium to the traditional silicon used in semiconductor manufacturing.
Closure of Semiconductor Facility
11 November, 2002Philips has announced a plan for a phased closure of its semiconductor fabrication operation (fab) in Albuquerque, New Mexico at the end of 2003.
Sales up for semiconductor market
07 November, 2002It has been reported by the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) that global sales of semiconductors are recovering and are forecast to rise 1.8 % to $141 billion in 2002 and about 20% in each of the next 2 years.
Semi-conductor chip for fibre channel SANS
07 November, 2002Agilent has introduced what is claimed to be the industry's smallest four-port serialiser/deserialiser (SerDes) integrated circuit (IC) designed specifically for fibre channel storage area networking (SAN) equipment used to store and transport data between servers and larger corporate data centres.
Organic semiconductors
27 August, 2002A team of Cornell University researchers is planning to develop a method to connect wires to organic transistors. They are hoping this could lead to computers that are smaller, cheaper and more flexible - literally.
90 nm Semiconductor Manufacturing Process
19 August, 2002Intel Corporation has made several technology breakthroughs that the company has integrated into its 90-nanometre process. It has used this process to build silicon structures and memory chips. It will put this process into volume manufacturing next year using 300 mm wafers.
Nanotube technology to replace silicon chips
24 May, 2002IBM scientists have developed a transistor technology that could enable production of a new class of smaller, faster and lower power computer chips than currently possible with silicon.
Low-temperature polysilicon
05 May, 2002In the active-matrix liquid-crystal displays (AMLCDs)now typically found in laptop computers and an increasing number of monitors, each pixel is driven by an amorphous-silicon transistor that is fabricated directly onto the glass
