The Society of Chemical Industry (SCI), America Group, announced on May 5, 2016 that Peter Trefonas, Ph.D., corporate fellow in Electronic Materials at Dow Chemical Co (NYSE:DOW), has won the 2016 SCI Perkin Medal. This honor recognizes Trefonas’ contributions in…
RFID Playing Cards “Best Product” at Printed Electronics Europe
Cartamundi, imec and Holst Centre (set up by imec and TNO) recently won the Best Product Award at Printed Electronics Europe for their ultra-thin plastic RFID technology integrated into Cartamundi’s playing cards. In each card, the RFID chip has a…
Omhi kept us Ultra-Clean
Sadly, I just recently learned from the UCPSS 2016 website that Ohmi-sensei—Professor Doctor Tadahiro Ohmi—passed away in Sendai on 21 February 2016. As the guru of ultra-clean technology, he established the global Ultra Clean Society in 1988, founded the International…
Andy Grove blessed us all
Andy Grove, the man who codified the commercial IC industry dynamic as “Only the Paranoid Survive” died yesterday at the age of 79. His instinctive paranoia derived from his tragic experiences while growing up in Hungary, as referenced by Wikipedia…
Litho becomes Patterning
Once upon a time, lithographic (litho) processes were all that IC fabs needed to transfer the design-intent into silicon chips. Over the last 10-15 years, however, IC device structural features have continued to shrink below half the wavelength of the…
3D XPoint uses PCM Material in ReRAM Device
IM Flash pre-announced “3D XPoint”(TM) memory for release later this year, and lack of details has led to widespread confusion regarding what it is. EETimes has reported that, “Chalcogenide material and an Ovonyx switch are magic parts of this technology…
Controlling Polymers to Tune TFTs
Thin-film transistors (TFT) created using only additive process steps could create new low-cost ICs with functionalities beyond silicon, but only if we understand how to control structures at the molecular level. Thin films of conjugated polymers such as poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT)…
CMOS-Photonic Integration Thermally Sensitive
As published in the journal Nature, CMOS transistors have been integrated with optical-resonator circuits using complex on-chip sensors and heaters to maintain temperature to within 1°C. While lacking the laser-source, these otherwise-fully-integrated solutions demonstrate both the capability as well as…
Apple Fab Speculation
Apple Corp. recent purchased an old 200mm-diameter silicon wafer fab in San Jose capable of creating as small as 90nm device features. Formerly owned and operated by Maxim, the US$18.2M purchase reportedly includes nearly 200 working fab tools. Some people…
