"MATERIALS: "Nanocrystals bid to extend photolithography"

Nanoparticles added atop conventional photo-resists can extend the lifetime of existing semiconductor fabrication equipment according to Pixelligent. Look for widespread adoption of such techniques in the next five years. R.C.J.


Optical lithography can be extended below 32 nanometers, according to Pixelligent Technologies LLC, which has developed a nanocrystalline material that it says enhances the resolution of existing photolithography equipment. The company recently closed a $2 million round of equity financing to commercialize its nanocrystals, which it says have applications in optical lithography and as nanocomposite coatings for microelectronics. Pixelligent's secret sauce involves the fabrication of nonsilicon nanocrystals with properties custom-designed for specific applications. The company declined to identify the exact composition of its proprietary nanoparticles, except to say that they are nonsilicon. By combining the semiconducting nanocrystals with lithographic polymers, Pixelligent claims traditional resists can be improved so that they can image much finer lines. The company also claims its nanocrystal coatings result in higher yields, lower materials costs and improved throughput, all while using existing chip fabrication equipment.
Text: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=217700848

"OPTICS: Seiko Epson preps inkjet-printed OLEDs for big picture"

Printable electronics uses room-temperature processing to fabricate transistorized circuitry atop cheap plastic substrates, sidestepping the usual need for expensive high-temperature semiconductor processing. Printing displays using ink-jet technology works by loading the liquid "color" cartridges with liquid-semiconductors, -insulators and -conductors--all transparent. Then using micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) jets, pico-liter droplets of the electronic circuit materials can be deposited in patterns without the waste of conventional semiconductor processing. Look for printed versions of displays using organic light-emitting diodes within two years.


Printing high-definition organic LED (OLED) displays with ultrahigh-resolution inkjet printers will lower the cost and increase the color accuracy of flat-panel televisions, according to Seiko Epson Corp. Tokyo-based Seiko Epson will reveal details of its fabrication process at the Society for Information Display (SID) International Symposium, Seminar and Exhibition, running May 31-June 5 in San Antonio, Texas. Epson's OLED Development Center will show an ink-jet printed 14-inch OLED display that the company claims has the same resolution as, and better color accuracy than, today's 37-inch 1080p high-definition TVs.
Text: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=217700616

"WIRELESS: Capacitive touchscreen scales up for use on netbooks"

Touchscreens have been here for 20 years, but it took the Apple iPhone to popularize them for consumer electronics. Now everyone and their brother is courting touchscreen makers to create an equally "wow" experience for their users. To rival Apple, however, you can't go with the plastic resistive touch screens, but have to go with the $22 all-glass capacitive version from makers like Ocular, which will demo the first netbook-sized projected capacitive touchscreen at the upcoming SID show next week.


Ocular Inc. will demonstrate the first capacitive touchscreen to be used on a netbook at the Society for Information Display (SID) International Symposium, Seminar and Exhibition May 31"June 5 in San Antonio, Texas. The reference design will demonstrate how gesture recognition, made famous by Apple's iPhone, can be enabled on netbook screens of up to 10.4 inches in size. The company has been manufacturing custom touchscreens at its own fab in China for more than 20 years—mostly smaller screens used by industrial customers for the control panels on embedded equipment. But the popularity of Apple's iPhone screen has left competing handset makers such as Nokia, Palm, Research in Motion (RIM) and Samsung scrambling to emulate Apple's success. Market watcher iSuppli Corp. (El Segundo, Calif.) now predicts the worldwide market for touchscreens will nearly double between 2008 and 2013, going from $3.4 billion to $6.4 billion.
Text: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=217700123

"NANOTECH: Nanosensors could detect cracks in bridges, aircraft"

Since no major bridges have collapsed lately, the push to install 24/7 monitoring equipment has faded of late, but not so for these Austrailian researchers working with colleagues in China. Using nanotube-laced composites, the sensors could be attached to bridge structures, then be monitored by the conductivity which changes if cracks develop Look for systems like this to be called for the next time a bridge collapses :) R.C.J.


Nanocomposites are being developed to monitor the safety of bridges and aircraft by embedding nanotubes into sensors that change their conductivity when cracks or other structural defects occur. The Queensland University of Technology (Brisbane, Austrailia) said it will conduct the research in cooperation with the four other Australian universities. The polymer nanocomposite contains carbon nanotubes which change the conductivity of the material when cracks appear in structures where it is used. By monitoring the electrical conductivity of the material, early detection of structural faults may be possible.
Text: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=217600656

"MATERIALS: "Invisibility cloaks spread out"

Invisibility cloaks, made famous by Harry Potter but now possible in the lab, promise to hide our submarines from sonar, our missiles from radar and maybe someday even our soldiers wearing Potter-like capes. Despite the obvious hype, the scientific feasibility of invisibility cloaks as spawned a new field of science called transformation optics, which seeks to harness exotic metamaterials, nanophotonics and plasmonics to build super lenses for powerful microscopes.


Transfomation optics were used recently to develop an improved invisibility cloak with a 100-fold increase in area compared to previous visible-wavelength cloaks. The new design from Purdue University uses a relatively inexpensive glass and gold waveguide that achieved a more economical design using transformation optics. An inexpensive waveguide directs light around cloaked objects (center) so that even a laser bends around it to emerge on the other side with no shadow cast. Other invisibility cloaks use optical diffraction gratings that tune into specific wavelengths with a negative index of refraction that allows the cloak to provide invisibility, but only at those wavelengths. The Purdue device was formed from two gold-coated surfaces, one a curved lens, the other a flat sheet. The result was a broadband cloak, working at a wide swath of wavelengths simultaneously, enabling it to shield an area covering the entire spectrum of visible light. The demonstration showed how a laser benda around the cloaked area, leaving no shadow, even though the area was 100 times larger than the wavelength of the laser.
Text: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=217600639

"ALGORITHMS: Software pirates pinpointed on Google maps"

Every time you update your software from the dialog box that automatically pops up while you are using a program, that software vendor collects information about you from your own computer then "phones home" to report your doings. Now a company has turned that capability into a product, selling their stealth code to software developers where it lies dormant until pirated, then reports in about the pirates whereabouts. Look for everybody's software to start reporting in about your activities. Make sure you are not using any "free" copies of software--big brother is watching. R.C.J.

Software vendors fed up with software piracy have responded by beefing up their licensing and activation procedures, only to have pirates crack their code again. A company called V.i. Laboratories Inc. is proposing a new approach called CodeArmor Intelligence, which embeds stealth algorithms inside programs that "phone home" with information about the unauthorized usage of software, including their Internet domain and even a company location on a Google map.
Text: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=217600543

"ALGORITHMS: Acoustic applications are cutting through the noise"

In a world dominated by electronic signals, is good to know that the acoustic world of natural sounds is still being harnessed to serve the cause of good--from saving the manatee by warning them off from propeller sounds to clarifying speech perception with noise-canceling algorithms. Over 1100 papers will be presented at this week's ASA2009. R.C.J.
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Acoustic signal processing technologies examined at this week's Acoustical Society of America meeting here focused on cutting through noise to improve signal detection and localization using arrays of MEMS microphones. Researchers from the National Cheng Kung University of Taiwan proposed using MEMS microphones with a time-reversal technique to improve voice reception for mobile speakerphones and laptop computers.
Text: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=217600067

"ALGORITHMS: Coventor/Cadence to dovetail MEMS with EDA"

MEMS designers can have their cake and eat it too, now that Cadence has teamed with Coventor to allow its 3D CAD tool to seamlessly integrate with the EDA environment. Look for Coventor to team with Mentor Graphics, Matlab and others to add MEMS capabilities to most EDA environments by 2010.


Cadence Design Systems Inc. has teamed with Coventor Inc. on what the pair says is the first environment to allow 3-D microelectromechanical system (MEMS) models to be designed and simulated in tandem with CMOS integrated circuitry. Traditionally, MEMS chip design requires a separate design effort for a CMOS application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). Now MEMS structures can be designed using a 3-D computer-aided design (CAD) system, then automatically tranfered to Cadence's Virtuoso Schematic Editor, enabling full co-simulation and co-verification.
Text: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=217500355