“The ‘phase one’ agreement announced today is welcome news for the semiconductor industry, and we look forward to seeing it finalized. Today’s deal eases tensions and gives both sides a chance to get back to the negotiating table to strike a more comprehensive deal in the future. We’re especially encouraged new tariff increases will not go forward on Oct. 15. We urge negotiators to build on this momentum and reach a high-standard, enforceable, and sustainable agreement that ensures a level playing field for companies doing business in China, protects IP, and removes harmful tariffs.”

A study conducted by researchers at the University of Campinas’s Gleb Wataghin Institute of Physics (IFGW-UNICAMP) in São Paulo State, Brazil, in partnership with colleagues at the University of Michigan’s Physics Department in Ann Arbor, USA, and Sungkyunkwan University’s Advanced Institute of Nanotechnology (SAINT SKKU) in Seoul, South Korea, set out to understand the decoherence process on the femtosecond (10-15 s) timescale. An article describing the results was published in Physical Review Letters.

Trions consist of three charged particles bound together by very weak bonding energy. Although trions can potentially carry more information than electrons in applications such as electronics and quantum computing, trions are typically unstable at room temperature, and the bonds between trion particles are so weak that they quickly fall apart. Most research on trions requires supercooled temperatures, and even then, their fleeting nature has made trions difficult to control and hard to study. A University of Maryland-led team of researchers has discovered a method to reliably synthesize and trap trions that remain stable at room temperature.

The Cornell NanoScale Science and Technology Facility (CNF), a leading university research facility at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY and Plasma-Therm LLC, an innovator in plasma processing technology, located in St. Petersburg, FL, announce a joint development agreement (JDA) to advance atomic layer etching (ALE) for nanoscale device fabrication. Under this agreement, Plasma-Therm will provide a state-of-the-art ALE system, while CNF will provide ALE process and device development on a wide range of materials serving a broad research community.

Semiconductor equipment manufacturer ClassOne Technology announced the sale of its Solstice® S8 electroplating system to MicroLink Devices, a manufacturer of advanced, lightweight, and flexible solar cells. The new 8-chambered Solstice equipment, designed specifically for ≤200mm processing, will be installed at the MicroLink facility in Niles, IL, where it will be used for electroplating of semiconductor based solar cells for use on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and space satellites. The announcement was made jointly by ClassOne Group CEO, Byron Exarcos, and MicroLink Devices CEO and President, Dr. Noren Pan.