3D chips

After several years of discussions it appears that, notwithstanding the above mentioned "power wall" issues, through-silicon-via technology (TSV) is being pushed by several companies to develop 3 dimensional ICs. Reporting on the GSA Memory Conference, Electronic Times notes that a plethora of companies, including IBM, Intel, Samsung, Toshiba, TSMC are exploring the possibility of stacking current devices in a 3-D configuration. Additionally, a 3-D working group within SEMI met for the first time last week to sketch out the initial wafer and tool standards for TSV technology. SEMI has three task groups within its 3-D group. A fourth group is being formed, which may be led by Applied Materials, Inc.

Winner - EMBE 2011 BandiT competition

We are delighted to announce that the winner of our very successful BandiT competition is Miryam Elouneg-Jamroz from the Nanophysics and Semiconductors Group in Genoble. This is a joint group between the Institut Néel – CNRS / University J. Fourier, and the Institute for Nanoscience and Cryogenics of the CEA-Grenoble. The prize of €100 Amazon vouchers is on its way to her.

Surprisingly, nobody had the correct answer to the question "Why is the product called BandiT?". The answer is "Band-edge inferred Temperature". Miryam's answer was very creative, "fit a 'Band' through 'iT'" as was one of our users from ETH Zurich - "Band-edge intelligent Temperature measurement" - they know their BandiTs at ETH and have 3 systems!

We had a strong interest from both existing users and non-users ... and yes, there are some MBE scientists who don't yet measure their substrate temperature using BandiT, using all the benefits that it provides.

Thanks for your interest and we will run more competitions in the future - as one of the entrants (a senior Professor) commented "What an excellent ploy to get potential customers to research your product. Congratulations on a great product and an excellent sales strategy".

If you were not at EMBE but would like to have a go at answering the questions, these can be found here.

Game Over or Next Level?

The above question is the subtitle and in effect the conclusion of a report into the future of computing power published by the National Research Council. The electronics industry is greatly concerned that microprocessor computing is coming to a “power wall”. As Moore’s Law runs out of steam and computing goes mobile, everyone is looking for ways to make the leap to new parallel programming solutions that use low-power multicore architectures. As single processors and CMOS technology approach the end of the technology line, the report concludes that chip designers and software developers must shift their focus to parallelism. To that end, the report specifically recommends that research should focus on:New algorithms that can exploit parallel processing; Developing new programming methods with an eye toward broader industry use; overhauling the traditional computing “stack” to account for parallelism and resource-management challenges; investing in new parallel architectures that are driven by emerging applications like mobile computing; investing in R&D that focuses on power efficiency at all system levels.

EMBE 2011 BandiT competition, win €100 Amazon vouchers - last call!

EMBE registrants, please check your inbox for our email giving details of this competition. If you need any help with the answers, go to http://www.k-space.com/Products/BandiT.html

Good luck!

Old ideas are best

Our Newsletter Editor, Dr John Grange, smiled when he read recent press reports about a new technique for boosting the performance of high powered GaN devices. In collaboration with Surrey University he worked back in 1980-2 on various inert gas/proton isolation techniques. To be successful, the NCSU team need to overcome the issues surrounding post implant processing and the lifetime/stability/reproducibility of the implant isolation under real device operational conditions. He came to the conclusion that there are better solutions, but he wishes them well.

Wanted: Innovative Ideas

The Innovative electronics Manufacturing Research Centre (IeMRC) is seeking proposals from eligible UK academics for IeMRC research projects that align or deliver to the Centre's vision: The vision of the IeMRC is to be the UK's internationally recognised provider of world-class electronics manufacturing research. It will focus on sustaining and growing high value manufacturing in the UK by delivering innovative and exploitable new technologies through its highly skilled people and by providing strategic value to the electronics industry. The total funding available is £1.5M and they expect to fund upwards of five projects. Full details are available via this link.

Latest Barbie Phone?

It is not a joke. Takashi Minato at the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (with input from mobile telephone operator NTT DOCoMo) has come up with a human-shaped mobile phone that has a skin-like outer layer that apparently allows you to feel closer to the person on the other end of the phone. I love technological progress.

An Apple a day

The use of mobile devices to access the internet has quadrupled in the US, and tripled in Western Europe over the past four years. However according to a report by Strategy Analytics mobile web browsing remains predominantly a `snacking' or `time critical' behaviour, whereas the PC/laptop is used for more leisurely or intensive usage scenarios. Thanks to surging iPad sales, Apple Inc. soared to the top of the league in worldwide mobile PC shipments with more than 10.2 million notebook and tablet PCs combined shipped in the fourth quarter of 2010. Gartner Inc. lowered its forecast for 2011 PC sales more than five percent citing a shift of consumers from mobile PCs/laptops. They expect growing consumer enthusiasm for mobile PC alternatives, such as the iPad and other media tablets, to dramatically slow home mobile PC sales, especially in mature markets. As Mr Jobs has often indicated, we do appear to be heading to the era of post PC devices.

Graphene, on or off?

This month has seen Texas Instruments give further insights into their CVD work on the growth of graphene and fabrication of FETs. IBM have produced a graphene transistor running at 100GHz and UCLU one with a cut of frequency of 300GHz. However, as real world applications become more feasible, the IBM group has highlighted the issues associated with the difficulty of turning off a graphene FET. Residual leakage currents will generate heat and the inability to always detect the difference between an open and a closed gate are clearly worrying IBM.

More Fab Equipment

Semiconductor equipment sales are on the increase according to SEMI. Total spending on fab projects is estimated as $47.2 billion this year, above the estimated $38.6 billion spent in 2010 and will finally exceed the peak of $46.4 billion set in 2007. Interestingly, companies are reported as being aware of the dangers of creating an oversupply situation and are putting much of the spending into upgrading existing facilities. Some companies will spend record amounts in 2011. For example, Intel is expected to increase its capital spend from $5.2 billion in 2010 to $9.0 billion in 2011. SEMI also note that in 2010 34 new volume fabs began construction with most of them for LED fabrication.

Daytime TV

At the recent CeBIT trade show Samsung exhibited an ambient light powered LCD screen. The prototype featured a 46-inch screen that supported full HD resolution video, at 1920x1080 pixels. Clearly the fact that Samsung has been able to cut down power consumption by such a margin that it can be powered by ambient light is an impressive feat but would I have to switch on extra lights in order to watch my TV at night?