Scientists at Tokyo Institute of Technology(Tokyo Tech) explore a new material combination that sets the stage for magnetic random access memories, which rely on spin–an intrinsic property of electrons– and could outperform current storage devices. Their breakthrough published in a new study describes a novel strategy to exploit spin-related phenomena in topological materials, which could spur several advances in the field of spin electronics. Moreover, this study provides additional insight into the underlying mechanism of spin-related phenomena.
Semiconductors
Global Semiconductor Sales Decrease Slightly Month-to-Month in November
As 2019 winds down, global semiconductor sales continued to lag behind the previous year’s total. Month-to-month sales slipped 0.3 percent; year-to-year sales were down 10.8 percent.
Founder of Tera-Barrier Films named Innovator of the Year for Technology
Tera-Barrier Films Pte Ltd (TBF) Founder and Chief Technology Officer Senthil Ramadas clinched the Innovator of the Year Award for Technology at the Singapore Business Review Management Excellence Awards 2019. When Senthil was still with the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering of the Agency for Science, Technology & Research (A*STAR), he developed a platform barrier technology for flexible electronics, organic solar and displays. Subsequently, he spun-off the technology from A*STAR to start Tera-Barrier Films.
MIPT Physicists Find Ways to Overcome Signal Loss in Magnonic Circuits
Researchers from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Kotelnikov Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics, and N.G. Chernyshevsky Saratov State University have demonstrated that the coupling elements in magnonic logic circuits are so crucial that a poorly selected waveguide can lead to signal loss. The physicists developed a parametric model for predicting the waveguide configuration that avoids signal loss, built a prototype waveguide, and tested the model in an experiment. Their paper was published in the Journal of Applied Physics.
IEEE to Define a Formal Model for Safe Automated Vehicle Decision-Making
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has approved a proposal to develop a standard for safety considerations in automated vehicle (AV) decision-making and named Intel Senior Principal Engineer Jack Weast to lead the workgroup. Participation in the workgroup is open to companies across the AV industry, and Weast hopes for broad industry representation. Group members will hold their first meeting in 2020’s first quarter. Industry and regulators are struggling to agree on a method for evaluating the safety of AVs, although most people agree that standards are needed to establish regulatory thresholds for granting AVs their driver’s licenses. Multiple approaches are in development even though industry consensus is lacking.
North American Semiconductor Equipment Industry Posts November 2019 Billings
North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $2.12 billion in billings worldwide in November 2019 (three-month average basis), according to the November Equipment Market Data Subscription (EMDS) Billings Report published today by SEMI. The billings figure is 1.9 percent higher than the final October 2019 level of $2.08 billion, and is 9.1 percent higher than the November 2018 billings level of $1.94 billion.
Tweaks Behind the Rebirth of Nearly Discarded Organic Solar Technologies
A solar energy material that is remarkably durable and affordable is regrettably also unusable if it barely generates electricity, thus many researchers had abandoned emerging organic solar technologies. But lately, a shift in the underlying chemistry has boosted power output, and a new study has revealedcounterintuitive tweaks making the new chemistry successful. The shift is from “fullerene” to “non-fullerene acceptors” (NFAs), terms detailed below, and in photovoltaic electricity generation, the acceptor is a molecule with the potential to be to electrons what a catcher is to a baseball. Corresponding donor molecules “pitch” electrons to acceptor “catchers” to create electric current. Highly cited chemist Jean-Luc Brédas at the Georgia Institute of Technology has furthered the technology and also led the new study.
On-Chip Light Source Produces Versatile Range of Wavelengths
Researchers have designed a new chip-integrated light source that can transform infrared wavelengths into visible wavelengths, which have been difficult to produce with technology based on silicon chips. This flexible approach to on-chip light generation is poised to enable highly miniaturized photonic instrumentation that is easy to manufacture and rugged enough to use outside the lab. In Optica, The Optical Society’s (OSA) journal for high impact research, investigators from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), University of Maryland, and University of Coloradodescribe their new optical parametric oscillator (OPO) light source and show that it can produce output light that is a very different color, or wavelength, than the input light. In addition to creating light at visible wavelengths, the OPO simultaneously generates near-infrared wavelengths that can be used for telecommunication applications.
XMC Introduces 50nm High-Performance Serial NOR Flash Memory
As a world leading provider of non-volatile memory, XMC, a core subsidiary of Unigroup, today announced the mass production status of new SPI NOR Flash series – XM25QWxxC, with the industry’s advanced 50nm Floating Gate NOR Flash manufacturing process, which features wide voltage range and low power consumption, offering excellent design flexibility for IoT, wearable and other power consumption sensitive applications.
Blaize Presents Breakthrough AI Processing Architecture at CES 2020
Blaize™ today announced plans for the first public demonstrations of its Blaize Graph Streaming Processor™ (GSP™) architecture at CES 2020. A next-generation computing architecture designed for AI workloads, the Blaize offering tackles the economic and technical barriers to widespread AI adoption, addressing energy, cost and complexity challenges.
