Researchers from Intel Corp. and the University of California, Berkeley, are looking beyond current transistor technology and preparing the way for a new type of memory and logic circuit that could someday be in every computer on the planet. In a paper appearing online Dec. 3 in advance of publication in the journal Nature, the…
Faster Electrons Improve Semiconductors
Researchers have found a way to speed up the electrons in semiconductors, which could lead to improved solar power and transistor use. A team from the Graduate School of Bio-Applications and Systems Engineering at the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT) have found a process to speed up the movement of electrons in organic…
Hidden Gapless States on the Path to Semiconductor Nanocrystals
When chemists from the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw were starting work on a new material designed for the efficient production of nanocrystalline zinc oxide, they didn’t expect any surprises. They were thus greatly astonished when the electrical properties of the changing material turned out to be extremely…
New Electrochemistry Theory Decodes Unexplained Behavior
When it comes to designing and optimizing mechanical systems, scientists understand the physical laws surrounding them well enough to create computer models that can predict their properties and behavior. However, scientists who are working to design better electrochemical systems, such as batteries or supercapacitors, don’t yet have a comprehensive model of the driving forces that…
Boron Nitride Separation Process Could Facilitate Higher Efficiency Solar Cells
A team of semiconductor researchers based in France has used a boron nitride separation layer to grow indium gallium nitride (InGaN) solar cells that were then lifted off their original sapphire substrate and placed onto a glass substrate. By combining the InGaN cells with photovoltaic (PV) cells made from materials such as silicon or gallium…
Levitating 2D Semiconductor Offers Superior Performance
Atomically thin 2D semiconductors have been drawing attention for their superior physical properties over silicon semiconductors; nevertheless, they are not the most appealing materials due to their structural instability and costly manufacturing process. To shed some light on these limitations, a KAIST research team suspended a 2D semiconductor on a dome-shaped nanostructure to produce a…
New Molecular Wires for Single-Molecule Electronic Devices
Scientists at Tokyo Institute of Technology designed a new type of molecular wire doped with organometallic ruthenium to achieve unprecedentedly higher conductance than earlier molecular wires. The origin of high conductance in these wires is fundamentally different from similar molecular devices and suggests a potential strategy for developing highly conducting “doped” molecular wires. Since their…
New Material Could Improve Efficiency of Computer Processing and Memory
A team of researchers led by the University of Minnesota has developed a new material that could potentially improve the efficiency of computer processing and memory. The researchers have filed a patent on the material with support from the Semiconductor Research Corporation, and people in the semiconductor industry have already requested samples of the material.…
Blaming China, Qualcomm Nixes Takeover of Rival Semiconductor Firm
American computer chip conglomerate Qualcomm has announced that it will drop its proposed $43 acquisition of Dutch competitor NXP, after the company was unable to gain approval from antitrust authorities in China. The ultimate deadline was midday Thursday in China, and Beijing’s Ministry of Commerce ran out the clock without approving the takeover. As part…
Taking the Heat Off
New material draws heat away from hotspots much faster than current materials, which could lead to dramatic improvements in computer chip performance and energy efficiency Working to address “hotspots” in computer chips that degrade their performance, UCLA engineers have developed a new semiconductor material, defect-free boron arsenide, that is more effective at drawing and dissipating…
Semiconductor Study Offers New Industry Opportunities
An international team of scientist of Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University (SPbPU), Leibniz University Hannover (Leibniz Universität Hannover) and the Ioffe Institute report a way to improve nanocomposite material, opening new opportunities in industry. The study, titled “The mechanism of charge carrier generation at the TiO2 — n-Si heterojunction activated by gold nanoparticles,”…
U.S.-China Tariff Spat Could Hit Semiconductor, Electronics Industries Hard
President Donald Trump recently announced that he would seek tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods, following up on a 2016 campaign promise to use tariffs in order to cut U.S. trade deficits. The White House has stated that the tariffs, which will initially target over 800 kinds of products worth $34 billion in imports, are retaliation for what it…
UV Narrow-Band Photodetector Based on Indium Oxide Nanocrystals
Semiconductor Nanomaterials Offer New Solar Technology
It is crucial that we prevent the Earth from warming by more than two degrees Celsius compared with the pre-industrial era. This is a key aim of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. To achieve this goal, greenhouse gas emissions have to be drastically reduced. And for this to happen, we need a global energy revolution,…
Electronics Benefit from Electrons Pairing Off in Semiconductors
The way that electrons paired as composite particles or arranged in lines interact with each other within a semiconductor provides new design opportunities for electronics, according to recent findings in Nature Communications. What this means for semiconductor components, such as those that send information throughout electronic devices, is not yet clear, but hydrostatic pressure can…
Electrons Face “Speed Bumps” When Navigating Semiconductors
UCLA scientists and engineers have developed a new process for assembling semiconductor devices. The advance could lead to much more energy-efficient transistors for electronics and computer chips, diodes for solar cells and light-emitting diodes, and other semiconductor-based devices. A paper about the research was published in Nature. The study was led by Xiangfeng Duan, professor…
Fungi-Produced Pigment Used in Semiconductor Material
Researchers at Oregon State University are looking at a highly durable organic pigment, used by humans in artwork for hundreds of years, as a promising possibility as a semiconductor material. Findings suggest it could become a sustainable, low-cost, easily fabricated alternative to silicon in electronic or optoelectronic applications where the high-performance capabilities of silicon aren’t…
Golden Nanoglue Completes the Semiconductor Puzzle
Graphene has undoubtedly been the most popular research subject of nanotechnology during recent years. Made of pure carbon, this wonder material is in principle easy to manufacture: take ordinary graphite and peel one layer off with Scotch tape. The material thus obtained is two-dimensional, yielding unique properties, different from those in three-dimensional materials. Graphene, however,…
Sea Urchin Skeletons Turned into Semiconductors
Researchers at AMOLF have found a way of making calcium carbonate structures, such as a sea urchin skeleton, suitable for use in electronics. They do this by modifying the composition of the material so that it becomes a semiconductor without losing its shape. This could lead to more efficient and stable solar cells. This research…
Nanoribbons Created from Speeding Nano Droplets
An international team of researchers affiliated with UNIST has discovered a novel method for the synthesis of ultrathin semiconductors. This is a unique growth mechanism, which yielded nanoscopic semiconductor ribbons that are only a few atoms thick. This breakthrough has been jointly conducted by Distinguished Professor Feng Ding and Dr. Wen Zhao from the Center…
Light Induces Magnetization in Certain Semiconductors
University of Waterloo chemists have found a much faster and more efficient way to store and process information by expanding the limitations of how the flow of electricity can be used and managed. In a recently released study, the chemists discovered that light can induce magnetization in certain semiconductors — the standard class of materials…
Atomically Thin Semiconductor Material Gets Stronger with Strain
Researchers in UConn’s Institute of Materials Science significantly improved the performance of an atomically thin semiconductor material by stretching it, an accomplishment that could prove beneficial to engineers designing the next generation of flexible electronics, nano devices, and optical sensors. In a study appearing in the research journal Nano Letters, Michael Pettes, assistant professor of…
Solving Superconductor Puzzles
A 2017 theory proposed by Rice University physicists to explain the contradictory behavior of an iron-based high-temperature superconductor is helping solve a puzzle in a different type of unconventional superconductor, the “heavy fermion” compound known as CeCu2Si2. An international team from the U.S., China, Germany, and Canada have reported the findings in the Proceedings of…
Energy Flowing Through Vibrations Spotted in Superconducting Crystals
Manipulating the flow of energy through superconductors could radically transform technology, perhaps leading to applications such as ultra-fast, highly efficient quantum computers. But these subtle dynamics — including heat dispersion — play out with absurd speed across dizzying subatomic structures. Now, scientists have tracked never-before-seen interactions between electrons and the crystal lattice structure of copper-oxide…
Semiconductor Computers Could Be a Million Times Faster
A technique to manipulate electrons with light could bring quantum computing up to room temperature. A team of researchers in Germany and at the University of Michigan have demonstrated how infrared laser pulses can shift electrons between two different states, the classic 1 and 0, in a thin sheet of semiconductor. “Ordinary electronics are in…