MagnaChip Semiconductor Corporation (“MagnaChip” or the “Company”) (NYSE: MX), a designer and manufacturer of analog and mixed-signal semiconductor products, announced today that CEO YJ Kim was awarded the Industrial Service Medal by the Korean Government in acknowledgement of his efforts to attract investment and encourage job development in Korea. The medal was presented today at the annual ‘Foreign Company Day’ ceremony hosted by the Korea Ministry of Industry, Trade and Energy, and the Korea Foreign Company Association (FORCA).

Not everything is bigger in Texas — some things are really, really small. A group of engineers at The University of Texas at Austin may have found a new material for manufacturing even smaller computer chips that could replace silicon and help overcome one of the biggest challenges facing the tech industry in decades: the inevitable end of Moore’s Law. Researchers in the Cockrell School of Engineering are searching for other materials with semiconducting properties that could form the basis for an alternative chip. Yuanyue Liu, an assistant professor in the Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering and a member of UT’s Texas Materials Institute, may have found that material.

Scientists from Cardiff University have, for the first time, spotted previously unseen “instabilities” on the surface of a common compound semiconductor material. The findings could potentially have profound consequences for the development of future materials in the electronic devices that power our daily lives.

People can be good at hiding strain, and we’re not alone. Solar cells have the same talent. For a solar cell, physical strain within its microscopic crystalline structure can interrupt its core function — converting sunlight into electricity — by essentially “losing” energy as heat. For an emerging type of solar cell, known as lead halide perovskites, reducing and taming this loss is key to improving efficiency and putting the perovskites on par with today’s silicon solar cells.In order to understand where strain builds up within a solar cell and triggers the energy loss, scientists must visualize the underlying grain structure of perovskite crystals within the solar cell. But the best approach involves bombarding the solar cell with high-energy electrons, which essentially burns the solar cell and renders it useless.

Gigaphoton Inc. (Head Office: Oyama, Tochigi; President & CEO: Katsumi Uranaka), a manufacturer of light sources used in semiconductor lithography, announced the establishment and start of business for a new company GIGAPHOTON CHINA Inc. in China. Up until now, Gigaphoton’s service support in China has been conducted by Komatsu Industries Shanghai Ltd.’s optical machinery division. To expand business in China and strengthen governance, Gigaphoton China Inc. has been established as a subsidiary of Komatsu China Ltd., the regional headquarters of Komatsu, which is the parent company of Gigaphoton. Effective November 1, control of operations is transferred from Komatsu Industries Shanghai Ltd. to Gigaphoton China Inc.

At the recently concluded TECHCET Critical Materials Council (CMC) Seminar in Taoyuan, Taiwan, a diverse gathering of industry experts discussed materials value-chain topics including quality issues, logistics best practices, and geopolitical disruptions. Seminar participants included individuals from device makers, material suppliers, and equipment and component providers from China, Europe, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and the U.S.