MEMS and sensors are proliferating across consumer, automotive, biomedical/healthcare, robotics, industrial and agriculture applications to harvest sensory data in a hyper-connected world and meet demand from workers and consumers alike as they clamor for more intelligence in electronics. Take the ubiquitous iPhone. Shipped in 2007, Apple’s first iPhone sported five sensors. By 2021, the most feature-packed smartphone will embed up to 20 sensors, according to Yole Développement’s Jérôme Azémar. He estimates that the device will feature four MEMS microphones, four CMOS image sensors (CIS), a RGB color sensor, a laser rangefinder, an infrared sensor, a gas sensor, a heart rate monitor and a fingerprint sensor, not to mention the MEMS inertial sensors that device users have come to know and trust.
Strategy Analytics: RF GaN Revenue Growth Shows No Sign of Slowing
Revenue from RF GaN-enabled devices grew by nearly 22 percent in 2018. The Strategy Analytics Advanced Semiconductor Applications (ASA) report “RF GaN Market Forecast: 2018 – 2023 (Data Tables)” forecasts that this growth will accelerate and RF GaN revenue will surpass $1.7 billion in 2023. The drivers for this explosive growth will be continuing 4G and emerging 5G base station deployments, along with a variety of defense applications.
AKHAN Semiconductor Issued Major Patent in Taiwan
AKHAN Semiconductor, a technology company specializing in the fabrication and application of lab-grown, electronic-grade diamonds, announced today that it has been issued a patent by the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO). The patent covers AKHAN’s next-generation N-type diamond semiconductor system and diamond-based multilayer antireflective coating systems, key components in military & aerospace sensor and detector applications, amongst other use cases. It is the Company’s third Taiwan-issued patent, and the fifth foreign counterpart that’s been issued. The technology enables breakthrough performance in semiconductor devices as well as new capabilities in optical sensing, detecting, and transmission.
IBM Elects Thomas Buberl to Its Board of Directors
The IBM (NYSE:IBM) board of directors has elected Thomas Buberl to the board, effective April 28, 2020.Mr. Buberl, 46, is the chief executive officer of AXA S.A. Headquartered in Paris, France, AXA is one of the world’s largest global insurance firms. Since becoming CEO in September 2016, Mr. Buberl has been leading AXA through a digital transformation, accelerating business innovation and leveraging data to meet customers’ rapidly evolving needs in the digital world.
New Spin Directions in Pyrite an Encouraging Sign for Future Spintronics
A Monash University study revealing new spin textures in pyrite could unlock these materials’ potential in future spintronics devices. The study of pyrite-type materials provides new insights and opportunities for selective spin control in topological spintronics devices. The new Monash Engineering study demonstrates for the first time that pyrite-type crystals can host unconventional energy- and direction-dependent spin textures on the surface, with both in-plane and out-of-plane spin components, in sharp contrast to spin textures in conventional topological materials.
Rational Transparent Conductor Design Provides a Boost to Carbon Nanotubes Application
An international team of scientists led by researchers from the Laboratory of Nanomaterials at the Skoltech Center for Photonics and Quantum Materials (CPQM) have rationally designed a novel p-type flexible transparent conductor using single-walled carbon nanotubes. This opens new avenues for its applications in next generation opto-electronics and energy technologies. The results of the study were published in the prestigious international journal Nano Energy. Most of the optical and electronic devices encountered daily are constituted of transparent conductors. However, all the presently available transparent conductors are n-type semiconductors, thus restricting technological advancement. The emergence of carbon nanotubes as p-type transparent conductors has been promising. Its further development will be tremendously instrumental for various opto-electronics and energy technologies.
EV Group and Delo Partner to Expand Materials and Process Capability for Wafer-Level Optics and Nanoimprint Lithography
EV Group (EVG), a leading supplier of wafer bonding and lithography equipment for the MEMS, nanotechnology and semiconductor markets, today announced that it is partnering with DELO, a leading manufacturer of industrial high-tech adhesives, in the area of wafer-level optics (WLO). Both companies, well-known for their leading roles in optical sensor manufacturing, are combining efforts to enable novel optical devices and applications, such as biometric authentication and facial recognition, for the industrial, automotive and consumer electronics markets utilizing EVG’s leading lens molding and nanoimprint lithography (NIL) process equipment and DELO’s advanced adhesives and resist materials.
Presto Engineering Achieves EAL6 Certification for Secure Product Provisioning
Presto Engineering, an outsourced operations provider to semiconductor and Internet of Things (IoT) device manufacturers, has achieved EAL6 (Evaluation Assurance Level 6) — an assurance and independent verification of very high levels of security to protect valuable data. Secured applications initiated with the smart card industry and now permeate most industrial applications, as well as automotive and IoT. EAL, which ranges from 1-7 (a higher level means that the evaluation completed a more stringent set of quality assurance requirements), is a critical aspect to consider when selecting an outsourced manufacturing partner for secure applications.
Heilind Electronics Adds American Sensor Technologies (AST) to TE Connectivity Portfolio
Heilind Electronics, a premier distributor of electronic components worldwide, has partnered with TE Connectivity (TE) to bring its customers an extensive range of harsh environment pressure and liquid level sensors. The new products are part of TE’s American Sensor Technologies (AST) brand, which complements the distributor’s existing TE Measurement Specialties solutions. A key part of Heilind’s new AST offering is hazardous location pressure transducers. These items are certified to CSA, UL, ATEX and other standards that qualify them as explosion proof, intrinsically safe or non-incendive. In addition, customers can request customized designs and configure options like process connections, materials, pressure ranges and output.
Blaize Emerges from Stealth to Transform AI Computing
Blaizeä today emerged from stealth and unveiled a groundbreaking next-generation computing architecture that precisely meets the demands and complexity of new computational workloads found in artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Driven by advances in energy efficiency, flexibility, and usability, Blaize products enable a range of existing and new AI use cases in the automotive, smart vision, and enterprise computing segments, where the company is engaged with early access customers. These AI systems markets are projected to grow rapidly* as the disrupting influence of AI transforms entire industries and AI functionality becomes a “must-have” requirement for new products.
