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Thursday, May 23, 2002

NANOTUBES: IBM says experimental carbon-based transistor beats silicon
The next generation of semiconductors will be carbon-based if researchers at IBM's T.J. Watson Research Center here have their way. IBM revealed details Monday (May 20) about what it is calling "the world's best transistor," based on a single carbon nanotube measuring 1.4-nanometers in diameter. Fabricated with conventional MOSFET processing technology, IBM characterized both n-type and p-type FETs using carbon nanotubes as the channel.

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Story in EE Times: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20020520S0020

Monday, May 20, 2002

"CLEAN-FAB: Researchers seek 'green' chip-fabrication techniques"
A research team at the University of Arizona is working to develop environmentally friendly chip-fabrication chemistries that consume fewer resources and produce fewer hazardous byproducts than conventional techniques.

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Story in EE Times: http://EET.com/at/news/OEG20020520S0055

Tuesday, May 14, 2002

"ANTI-TERROR: Sandia enlists MEMS sensors to fight terrorism"
On Sept. 11, 2001, a think tank at Sandia National Laboratories started assessing its advanced technologies against the threat of terrorism. In response to that study, Sandia recently funded a program to counter terrorist threats with microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) � not only to sense dangerous chemical, biological and nuclear agents, but also to identify and track the danger itself � the terrorists.

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Story in EE Times: http://eet.com/at/news/OEG20020514S0033
"NANOTECH: Researchers lengthen carbon nanotubes"
Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have demonstrated the world's longest carbon nanotubes. Using chemical vapor deposition (CVD), the standard process for semiconductor fabrication, researchers discovered that adding hydrogen and sulfur compounds produced high yields of wires as long as eight inches.

Audio interviews: http://ampcast.com/RColinJohnson

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Story in EE Times: http://www.eet.com/at/news/OEG20020514S0024

Tuesday, May 07, 2002

"FPGA: auto-configured by souped up C compiler"
Win Bohm discusses a C compiler developed for systems that use a microprocessor and a field-programmable-gate-array coprocessor. The Single-Assignment C compiler not only speeds up computationally intensive algorithms but does so without a software developer's needing to know the specifics of the FPGA architecture.

Audio interview: http://ampcast.com/RColinJohnson

Interview CDs: http://mp3.com/RColinJohnson

Story in EE Times: http://www.eet.com/at/news/OEG20020507S0033
"NON-BATTERY: Thermogenerator tech could power 'smart clothing"
German semiconductor giant Infineon Technologies AG is developing thermogenerator technology to power the microelectronic devices that it expects to go into 'smart clothing.' Infineon's thermogenerator uses the temperature differential between the human body's surface and the clothing a person is wearing to generate electrical power.

Story in EE Times: http://www.eet.com/at/news/OEG20020507S0012