#MEMS: "Xtrinsic sensors trigger satellite airbags"

Claiming to shrink the size, increase the reliability and lower the cost of satellite airbag sensors, Freescale Semiconductor unveiled smart Xtrinsic airbag accelerometers using the Distributed Systems Interface (DSI) 2.5 standard at the Convergence 2010 automotive tradeshow in Detroit. Look for faster, safer airbag deployment in future automobiles within three years. R. Colin Johnson, Kyoto Prize Fellow @NextGenLog

High aspect ratio micro-electro-mechanical systems (HARMEMS) uses larger moveable elements to provide overdamped transducers that are immune to high-frequency resonance. 

Here is what EETimes says about airbag sensors: Modern automobiles deploy a variety of airbags depending upon where the impact occurs, requiring that satellite sensors to be deployed around the vehicle to collect and integrate signals to determine whether to trigger front-, side- or other supplemental restraint system (SRS) airbags.
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#CHIPS: "Freescale rolls auto CPUs for in-dash apps"

Fully reconfigurable instrument clusters and customizable apps are turning driver information systems into a mobile touchscreen experience—similar to the way smartphones have transformed cell phones into interactive extravaganzas. Look for in-dash apps enabled by Freescale's new high-end automotive processors announced at this year's Converence in Detroit. R. Colin Johnson, Kyoto Prize Fellow @NextGenLog

Block diagram for Freescale's i.MX534 and  i.MX536 automotive processors show its ARM Cortex-A8 core and many peripherals.

Freescale (Austin, Texas) said its i.MX534 and i.MX536 automotive multimedia processors house two independent graphics processors plus use the latest ARM Cortex-A8 core for running in-dash apps under Android, Linux, QNX or Windows Embedded Compact 7.
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#CHIPS Carbon Microchips Accelerate Beyond Silicon

Pioneering engineering efforts at Georgia Tech are bringing carbon microchips closer to commercialization by fabricating pure carbon sheets—graphene—into the world's largest carbon-transistor array. Look for carbon microchips to begin replacing silicon CMOS chips in five to seven years. RColinJohnson, Kyoto Prize Fellow, @NextGenLog

Georgia Tech's new "templated growth" technique forces graphene sheets (black hexagons) to crystallize on contoured edges on a silicon carbide substrate (source: Georgia Tech).

After the graphene transistor channel is grown, conventional lithography can add a insulating dielectric and gate on top with the source and drain electrodes (gold) at each end of the channel (source: Georgia Tech). 

 Here is what Smarter Technology says about carbon microchips: Researchers around the world are inventing ways to harness carbon—an organic material—to build smaller, faster microchips that sidestep the looming problems with inorganic silicon, which is becoming increasingly difficult to fabricate at the atomic level. IBM, for instance, recently demonstrated how to fabricate field-effect transistors (FETs) by smoothing out carbon into atomically thin sheets, called graphene.
Now the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) has advanced graphene one more step by inventing a "templated growth" technique for fabricating what they claim is the world's largest array of organic carbon-based graphene transistors.
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#CHIPS: "Triple-mode graphene transistors go analog"

Digital circuitry may be destined to migrate from silicon- to carbon-based, but what about analog? These researchers claim that analog functions can also be enhanced by using the ambipolar nature of carbon-transistors to behave as both n-type and p-type transistors, depending on their bias. Look for carbon analog circuitry to evolve along with digital to replace silicon chip by the end of the decade. R. Colin Johnnson, Kyoto Prize Fellow @ NextGenLog

Triple-mode graphene transistors consist of a conventional metal source (S) and drain (D) with graphene serving as the channel (upper left). For the demonstration, a back gate  was used (upper right). When presented with an alternating current input (V[subscript]AC) the output depends the bias voltage--in-phase if its less that the input minimum (third from bottom), out-of-phase if greater (bottom) or frequency doubled if they are equal (second from bottom).

Here is what EETimes says about analog carbon transistors: Post-silicon era transistors fabricated from sheets of pure carbon—graphene—are pioneering a new paradigm for digital circuitry, but what about analog circuits? Now Rice University researchers have demonstrated analog graphene transistors that can not only amplify like p-type and n-type silicon transistors, but can also exploit the ambipolar ability of graphene in a novel frequency-multiplication mode. The Rice researchers demonstrated how such triple-mode graphene transistors can be used to build simpler phase-shift keying and frequency-shift keying circuitry...
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MEMS# Modeling Tool Adds Simulink Integration

Micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) designers have to use general purpose computer aided design (CAD) tools, before Coventor came along to provide a specialized design suite just for MEMS. But when the MEMS designers had a design finished, the could not port the file directly over to the electronic design automation (EDA) tool to finish the part--that's where Coventor MEMS+ comes in. Look for MEMS- and EDA-chip design groups to exchange files when designing accelerometers, gyroscopes, pressure and other sensors and actuators for the next three years. RColinJohnson @NextGenLog

Coventor's MEMS+ 3D design suite for micro-electro-mechanical systems now integrates with Mathlab's Simulink for  behavioral modeling and verification of functional correctness.

Here is what EETimes says about Coventor MEMS+: MEMS-chip designers can now use Coventor Inc.'s 3-D modeling tool, then verify their designs using MathWorks Inc.'s Mathlab behavioral modeling tool, thanks to modifications made by Coventor (Cary, N.C.) in its latest version of its MEMS+. MEMS+ can now generate schematic symbols and simulation models for The Mathworks' Simulink, Coventor said. MEMS+ already allowed MEM designers to work closely with the CMOS-chip designers by virtue of its tight integration with Cadence Design Systems Inc.'s Virtuoso IC design environment. Now MEMS-chip designers can also use Mathlab's Simulink behavior modeling tools to verify that the design functions correctly.
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#CHIPS: Freescale debuts 'green' digital signal controller

Greener appliances, industrial process controllers and data-center server farms are being made possible, according to Freescale Semiconductor, by its just announced MC56F82xx digital signal controller (DSC). The new greener-DSC combines a high-speed microcontroller core with digital signal processor (DSP) capabilities and pulse-width modulators with nanoscale precision. Look for more "green" alternatives to current chip designs for the foreseeable future. RColinJohnson, Kyoto Prize Fellow @NextGenLog

Freescale's MC56F82xx family takes aim at digital power conversion applications such as board-mounted digital power supplies for servers, industrial and telecom power supplies and advanced motor control.

Here is what EETimes says about DSC: Freescale designed the DSC for advanced motor control as well as for power-conversion applications in on-board digital power supplies used in telecommunications, industry and servers. Its 56900E core provides programmability with DSP capabilities and on-chip peripherals include pulse-width modulators with nanoscale placement accuracy, fast analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) and embedded flash memory for algorithms.
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#SENSORS Medical Breathalyzer to Diagnosis from Exhalation

Just a single exhalation into a medical breathalyzer being developed at Stony Brook University could instantly diagnose patients for cholesterol levels, diabetes and even lung cancer. Look for a revolution in Dr. McCoy-style medical scanners over rest of the decade. RColinJohnson, Kyoto Prize Fellow @NextGenLog

Recent Stony Brook University doctoral graduate Krithika Kalyanasundaram demonstrates the medical breathalyzer which she developed with professor Perena Gouma to detect disease.

Here is what Smarter Technology says about breathalyzers: Using nanoscale sensors developed in the Center for Nanomaterials and Sensor Development, researchers at Stony Brook University in New York have designed medical breathalyzers that recognize signal gases in a single exhalation. Specific sensors could potentially be crafted for nearly any disease, according to the researchers. The National Science Foundation is currently funding pre-clinical trials for a diabetes breathalyzer.

Perena Gouma is the brainchild at Stony Brook University who believes a medical breathalyzer can detect disease just by exhaling into it.

A single-breath exhalation has over 300 identifiable gases, according to lead researcher, Prof. Perena Gouma, director of Stony Brook's Center for Nanomaterials and Sensor Development. The key to identifying disease is developing a sensor for a gas that is only present in the breath for those infected—called a signal gas—such as acetone, which indicates a diabetic's blood sugar level.
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#CHIPS: PRAM Aims to Replace Flash Memory

Diagram shows enthalpy curves sketched for the liquid, crystalline and amorphous phases of a new class of nanomaterials called “BEANs” for Binary Eutectic-Alloy Nanostructures. (Image courtesy of Daryl Chrzan)

Researchers at the University of California Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory claim to have a nano-structured formulation that makes phase-change random access memory (PRAM) the prime candidate to replace flash. By storing bits as a phase-change in a polymer—from amorphous to crystalline—PRAM will achieve terabit densities on chips that can pack hundreds of full-length movies and whole libraries of books into our mobile devices. Look for PRAMs to replace flash over the next five years. RColinJohnson @NextGenLog

Joel Ager, Daryl Chrzan and Eugene Haller (left to right) claim binary eutectic-alloy nanostructure (BEAN can enable quantum dots and nanowires a phase-changing memory elements for optical data storage technologies. (Photo by Roy Kaltschmidt, Berkeley Lab Public Affairs)

Here is what Smarter Technology says about PRAM: As flash memory becomes so dense that atomic-scale defects cause failure, many different approaches are being tried to replace the aging technology—from ferroelectric RAM (FRAM, which uses electrical polarization to enhance its DRAM-like bit cells) to magnetic RAM (MRAM, which stores information in magnetic bit cells). The most promising alternative for future terabit chips, however, is phase-change RAM (PRAM). PRAM stores bits as an amorphous or crystalline state of its polymer bit cell. Now a new formulation invented by researchers from the University of California (UC) Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) aims to enable PRAM to take the baton from flash memories and win the race to succeed it.

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