"3D Printer Creates World's Best Inverter"

This 3-D printed inverter for electric cars that is lighter, smaller and more energy efficient than today's inverters was produced by Oak Ridge National Labs: R. Colin Johnson @NextGenLog

Oak Ridge National Laboratory's 3D-printed 30-kilowatt power inverter offers greater reliability and power in a compact package.

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"Lucio Lanza Receives Long-Deserved Award at ICCAD"

Lucio Lanza has been the driving force behind EDA innovations for over two decades. He is the most deserving recipient of this award. If you w9ll be at ICCAD 2014 you should try to attend the ceremony and dinner where many will speak about Lanza's accomplishments (click "ECA website" at the end of the story.) R. Colin Johnson @NetGenLog

Lucio Lanza will receive the Phil Kaufman award for excellence in EDA at ICCAD 2014
(Image: Sandra Henneman)

Registration for the 2014 Phil Kaufman Award Dinner at the EDAC website.

FULL STORY

"Nanotube Field Emitters Beat LEDs"

Using nanotubes a field emitters--like the electron-guns of cathode ray tubes of old--makes brighter flat panel displays that burn a fraction of the power required for LEDs: R. Colin Johnson @NextGenLog

Illuminated nanotube field emitter array stimulating phosphors of a planar light source device through a neutral density filter.

Further Reading

"China's 5-Year Plan Revealed"

China is catching up to the developed countries of the world by leaps and bounds. Qualcomm tried to beat them and was beaten down itself by the Chinese government. Intel decided to join them, but risks loosing its intellect property (IP) to Chinese companies with impunity from their government. China's 5-Year Plan is working and the next one will be a whopper: R. Colin Johnson @NextGenLog

The 13th Five-Year Plan, starting in the Year of the Monkey (2016), will emphasize connectivity. The company aims to control more than 10% of the worldwide market by 2018.

EETimes Story

"World's Wireless Record Breaks 40 Gbit/s"

LTE beat by 40X by a new protocol described this week at the Compound Semiconductor Integrated Circuits Symposium in San Diego. Next their aim is wireless 100 Gbit WLAN: R. Colin Johnson @NextGenLog

A 140 GHz transmitter chip, containing an I-Q modulator, a 3-stage amplifier, and an x3 frequency multiplier for the local oscillator measures just 1.6 x 1 square millimeters.

EETimes Story

"Intel, IBM Dueling Over 14nm FinFETS"

Intel has been shipping FinFETS since 2011, but all the other semiconductor makers are still gearing up. IBM is closest and is dueling with Intel over which approach is best in the long run.: R. Colin Johnson @NextGenLog

Built on a fully depleted SOI technology base, IBM's 3D, FinFET architecture retains the advantages of SOI over bulk-based planar technologies, which IBM claims is a simpler manufacturing process, with isolation by structure, not doping, low-voltage operation, and lower power.

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"First 2D Atomic Piezoelectrics Unleash New Apps"

Taking piezoelectric materials into the second-dimention (atomically flat) should open the door to a whole new ranges of applications: R. Colin Johnson @NextGenLog

Postdoctoral fellow Wenzhuo Wu (left) and Professor Zhong Lin Wang (right) at Georgia Tech tested samples of an atomically thin material, molybdenum disulfide, which could is optically transparent, extremely light, bendable and stretchable.

Further Reading

"Hybrid Solar Cells Promise 95% Efficiency"

Hybrid solar cells that harvest all of the suns energy, instead of just a few narrow bands, could transform the energy economies worldwide: R. Colin Johnson @EETimes

High-energy light is absorbed by a special organic coating that produces pairs of triplets that can be efficiently absorbed
by underlying inorganic solar cells.

EETimes Story

"IBM's Watson Spreading Worldwide"

IBM's new global headquarters for Watson and cognitive computing may become its most important asset in the long run. Computers modeled on the brain will eventually make even supercomputers seem like antiques: R.
Colin Johnson @EETimes

IBM CEO Ginni Rometty and Senior Vice President Mike Rhodin open IBM's new Watson Global Headquarters in New York City, which IBM claims is now the center-of-gravity for next-generation computing systems that learn.

Read EETimes Story

"River Sensors to Clean Up Waterways"

The rivers of the future will be cleaner and safer due to a network of sensors that can track pollutants down to their source: R. Colin Johnson @EETimes

The Recon Sonde cost 20 times less than its competitors and sends its measurements of water quality wirelessly to a central location 24/7.

EETimes Story

"Med Implants Get Dissolvable"

Today medical implants require a second operation to remove, but these researchers have found a sway to command them to dissolve when they have finished doing their job--just like dissolvable stitches: R. Colin Johnson @EETimes

Implant that has been ordered to self-destruct dissolves in bodily fluids like dissolvable stitches.

Further Reading

"Cheap Fusion Beats Fossil Fuels"

The stars are the only stead-state fusion reactors in the universe, but researchers at University of Washington believe they have a new design that will make fusion reactors economical to build on Earth.

The University of Washington's current fusion experiment, HIT-SI3, is about one-tenth the size of the gigaWatt power-producing Dynomak that beats fossil fuels in energy efficiency.

EETimes Story

#LED: "Blue LED Inventors Win Nobel Prize"

Light emitting diodes (LEDs) hit a roadblock after making red and green, but eventually hard working scientists make a breakthrough resulting in LED TVs and more importantly white LED lighting.

The 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to three researchers, including Shuji Nakamura, professor of materials and electrical and computer engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Nakamura is also co-director of the UCSB Solid State
Lighting & Energy Electronics Center.

Further Reading

#MEMS: "Why Do Big Companies Make Their Own Sensors?"

MEMS sensors often make the difference between winning a contract and losing it for big systems companies like GE and Honeywell. Here analysts tell all about why big companies make their own: R. Colin Johnson

Wafer level packaging uses simplified construction to make thousands of infrared, vacuum-packaged sensors at the same time.

Further Reading

#Optics: $200M Photonics Effort to Keep US Ahead

Staying ahead of Asia and Europe in photonics--and doing he manufacturing on U.S. soil--means making it a strategic goal for academic researchers, industry partners and the national security establishment: R. Colin Johnson @NextGenLog

Creating optical fibers and other photonic components on U.S. soil is crucial to national security.

FURTHER READING

#CHIPS: "3-D Magnetic Gates Smaller and CMOS Compatible"

Magnetic materials are mostly considered for next-generation memory devices, but these magnetic gates via for CMOS-compatible logic functions beyond the capabilities or normal silicon gates: R. Colin Johnson @NextGenLog

3D majority logic gates (left) show dimensions less than 200 nanometers (upper right) and a third input magnet (lower right).

Majority gate logic shows three inputs NOR and NAND gates with dark color representing 0 and light color representing a one (outputs to right)

Further Reading