Electronics & Semiconductors news

Business

UK govt buys semiconductor facility key to defense

The UK government announced on Friday that it had acquired a key semiconductor factory after fears its imminent closure would hamper a crucial supply chain to Britain's armed forces.

Electronics & Semiconductors

Shape-morphing brain sensor adheres to curved surfaces for ultrasound neurostimulation

Transcranial focused ultrasound, a non-invasive technique to stimulate specific areas of the brain using high-frequency sound waves, could be a promising treatment strategy for many neurological disorders. Most notably, it ...

Engineering

Unique straining affects phase transformations in silicon, a material vital for electronics

When Valery Levitas left Europe in 1999, he packed up a rotational diamond anvil cell and brought it to the United States. He and the researchers in his group are still using a much-advanced version of that pressing, twisting ...

Electronics & Semiconductors

There's two sides to this semiconductor, and many simultaneous functions

Gallium nitride-based semiconductors have been a boon for high-frequency and power electronics. They've also revolutionized energy-efficient LED lighting. But no semiconductor wafer has been able to do both at the same time ...

Business

Chipmaker Qualcomm to explore takeover of Intel

Qualcomm Inc. has approached Intel Corp. to discuss a potential acquisition of the struggling chipmaker, people with knowledge of the matter said, raising the prospect of one of the biggest-ever M&A deals.

Engineering

Semi-metals offer new possibilities for electronic devices

Dr. Yuxuan Cosmi Lin, assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University, and a team of researchers are studying the potential applications and unique physical properties of ...

Electronics & Semiconductors

Next-generation computer chip with two heads

EPFL engineers have developed a computer chip that combines two functions—logic operations and data storage—into a single architecture, paving the way to more efficient devices. Their technology is particularly promising ...

Business

With PlayStation 5 launch, Sony needs a high score

Sony launches its PlayStation 5 console next week angling for a mega-hit, and with the Japanese firm increasingly dependent on the lucrative gaming sector there is little room for error.

Electronics & Semiconductors

Tiny micro supercapacitor for wearable devices

A tiny microsupercapacitor (MSC) that is as small as the width of a person's fingerprint and can be integrated directly with an electronic chip has been developed. This has attracted major attention as a novel technology ...

Electronics & Semiconductors

Implantable device can monitor and treat heart disease

Pacemakers and other implantable cardiac devices used to monitor and treat arrhythmias and other heart problems have generally had one of two drawbacks—they are made with rigid materials that can't move to accommodate a ...

Electronics & Semiconductors

Boosting the capacity of supercapacitors

Carefully designed covalent organic frameworks could make supercapacitor electrodes that have a greater ability to store electric charge.

Engineering

Researchers invent flexible and highly reliable sensor

Real-time health monitoring and sensing abilities of robots require soft electronics, but a challenge of using such materials lie in their reliability. Unlike rigid devices, being elastic and pliable makes their performance ...

Electronics & Semiconductors

Researchers break magnetic memory speed record

Spintronic devices are attractive alternatives to conventional computer chips, providing digital information storage that is highly energy efficient and also relatively easy to manufacture on a large scale. However, these ...

Electronics & Semiconductors

Promising strategies for durable perovskite solar cells

Perovskite materials are becoming increasingly popular as the active layer in solar cells. Internal forces in these materials cause distortions in their crystal structures, reducing symmetry and contributing to their intrinsic ...

Electronics & Semiconductors

OPD optical sensors that reproduce any color

Photodiodes are optical sensors that convert the energy of light into electrical energy. Organic photodiodes (OPDs) respond quickly and have the advantage of being able to realize colors free from color filters because they ...

Electronics & Semiconductors

An integrated circuit of pure magnons

Researchers led by Technische Universität Kaiserslautern (TUK) and the University of Vienna successfully constructed a basic building block of computer circuits using magnons to convey information, in place of electrons. ...