The silicon-based chip&#151the first silicon/germanium (SiGe) transistor capable of operating at speeds higher than 500 GHz&#151is a SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistor. The circuits’ potential applications include commercial communications systems, military electronics, and remote sensing. “The purpose of this experiment was to push the boundaries of silicon-germanium at low temperatures. Consumer products would never use a device that required this kind of cooling, though an ability to operate at very cold temperatures could be useful to NASA,” said John Toon, research news and publications, Georgia Tech. However, should the chip break into high-volume consumer markets (with a warmer operating temperature allowance), it could reportedly displace costlier III-V compound semiconductor materials. Researchers used large wafers and silicon-compatible low-cost manufacturing techniques in the tests to create chips that could be produced without high costs.

(June 28, 2006) REDMOND, WA &#151 Data I/O and Spansion announced their collaboration in sales, marketing, and systems engineering to promote the use of automated Flash memory programming in wireless, consumer, and automotive products. Spansion will assume rights to licensing Data I/O software related to device programming, conduct cooperative engineering development and participate in customer communications and field support. Data I/O will provide global priority device support. The companies will jointly advertise the impact of programming quality on end products to industry designers and project managers.