Moore's Law Reaches Atomic Scale, and more...

Moore's Law Reaches Scale of Atoms We've long known that Moore's Law will eventually run up against the limits of physics. But as Richard Feynman observed in the late 1950s, there's still plenty of room at the bottom. Making smaller and smaller wires to carry signals has always encountered an impediment in increasing resistance. Now, as researchers in Australia and at Purdue University in Indiana have discovered, not necessarily. Chains of phosphorus atoms four atoms wide and one atom high deposited on a silicon substrate allowed reducing the scale of signal traces without incurring the resistance penalty. This article and the accompanying video describe the breakthrough.   Micromotors Speed Up PCB Assembly MICROMO M2M Application Platform Perfected ILS Technology, LLC Today, mass-market electronics are manufactured almost exclusively on high-performance assembly machines. Given the nature of these fast-moving products, time is literally money. Therefore, two aspects are of particular importance for the production equipment deployed within this area: maximum quantities and minimum changeover time. The deviceWISE M2M Application Platform from ILS Technology is the world's leading ready-to-use, off-the-shelf cloud platform to connect enterprise IT systems to the devices and machines on which businesses depend. It's easy to deploy to any device without months of development. Plus, it offers unparalleled security to protect data and ensure compliance. 3-axis Light Source Holder Machining Services Jurman Metrics, Inc. Air Conditioning/Refrigeration Compressors and Pressure Vessels BITZER US, Inc. The 3-axis light source was built to hold an optical light source. It allows adjustment in X, Y, and Z axis for a customer's specialized light source.Jurman Metrics worked with the designers from the prototype to the production stage. It contains over 30 machined parts, all of which were manufactured in house. BITZER Companies — The world's largest independent manufacturer of refrigerant compressors, represented by sales and production locations globally for reciprocating, screw and scroll compressors, as well as pressure vessels. In 2010, some 2,700 employees generated consolidated sales of 525 million euros. Visit us at www.bitzer.de or in the U.S. atwww.bitzerus.com.
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Design . . . Learn More Design Rules' Importance Increases at 22 nm The more circuits you put onto a piece of silicon, the more complex the layout task. The migration to 22 nm geometries will accelerate that trend. Add the complication of variations in signal speed and power consumption and it becomes more important than ever to establish design rules and ensure compliance. Mobile device manufacturers are already pushing to exploit more than the current 20% of the available silicon. Take a Giant Step Forward How many times have you heard a semiconductor company tout a "true revolution" of the technology? Still, when the announcement comes from industry giant Intel, you'd better pay attention. Analysts are expecting just such an announcement centering on the production process rather than the products themselves at the company's annual event in May. Stay tuned, or you may be left behind. Materials. . . Learn More In Case of Emergency, Break Glass Or not. With the demand for thin, durable glass plates to cover the displays of mobile phones and other devices, Corning's Gorilla Glass has taken the market by storm. As demonstrated in this video, the new version of the glass is just as resilient, but 20% thinner than before (down to 0.8 mm). You can still break it of course. It just isn't easy. MEMS Keep the Image Still When taking a picture with a mobile phone, its MEMS gyroscope helps to recognize when the photographer does not remain perfectly still. This new incarnation — a two-core device — also stabilizes the image itself to further increase its quality. The device replaces the two-device solution in current phones, providing more reliable performance. Power-down and sleep modes aid in power management.   OLED Takes FPD to New Level H.C. Starck Inc. — Fabricated Products Group Miniature Linear Scale for Tight Spaces HEIDENHAIN Corporation Innovative thinking creates future vision with OLED technology. Higher resolution and lower energy consumption in FPD requires higher efficiency in material utilization. Gen 5.5 molybdenum sputtering targetshave higher deposition efficiencies, 1580 mm expanded width for 14 mm x 1580 mm x 1950 mm targets, and > 99.5% material density for thin film coatings. Ideal where installation space is limited, the Numerik Jena Kit L4encoder offers high-resolution (up to 50 nm), high-measuring speed (10 m/s) and high-absolute accuracy (1 µm/m). Post-install signal optimization minimizes interpolation error and activates functional reserves. Available in North America through Heidenhain Corporation. Test & Measurement . . . Learn More Depends on How You Use It Qualifying semiconductor reliability requires more than a one-dimensional verification test. Because most devices can be found in a plethora of disparate applications, establishing a single standard does not make sense.Circuits degrade differently over time, depending on power consumption, heat dissipation, duty cycle, and other parameters. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is working on new guidelines that take these factors into account. 3D Chips Challenge Test and Design Keeping test costs down despite increasing device complexity has often proved elusive. With the advent of 3D chips — stacking several layers together — how can you verify that the whole chip works, including the vias that connect the layers? Efforts to champion one solution — designing to facilitate manufacturing and test — prove once again that test is the Rodney Dangerfield of the industry. It gets no respect. Applications & Commercialization . . . Learn More MEMS May Hold the Secret to Holography If you believe its proponents, 3D is all the rage for movies and TV. But conventional 3D technology is inherently hard on the eyes and the brain. Here, researchers are applying MEMS technology to the display of trulythree-dimensional holographic images. Although the process is as yet too slow for seamless motion, it is closer to that ideal than any previous efforts. Going After the Fakes A new law signed by President Obama on December 31, 2011, aims directly at stemming the tide of counterfeit semiconductors that can cause such havoc with companies' product-development plans, not to mention both reducing the revenue and damaging the reputation of legitimate manufacturers. This article provides some of the backstory to that event, including a small but significant role played by EE Times   Electrically Insulative Snap Cure Epoxy Master Bond, Inc. New Magnetic Switches Feature High-speed, Low-power MultiDimension Technology Co., Ltd. Master Bond EP17HT-3 is a single component epoxy offering high chemical and temperature resistance while maintaining outstanding electrical properties. This high performance adhesive sets up in 20-30 seconds and snap cures in only two to three minutes at 250-300° F. EP17HT-3 is capable of curing in sections as thick as ¼ in. MultiDimension (MDT) announcedMMS103H/MMS105H magnetic switches. Designed with high frequency response up to 100 kHz, and current consumption as low as 5 µA, they are superior choices for battery-powered smart flow meters, including water/heat/air flow meters. They integrate TMR (Tunneling Magnetoresistance) sensors and CMOS signal processing ASIC into a small SOT-23 package.