Yearly Archives: 2017

The global CMOS image sensor market is expected to grow at a CAGR of more than 12% during the forecast period, according to Technavio’s latest market research.

In this market research report, Technavio covers the market outlook and growth prospects of the global CMOS image sensor market for 2017-2021. The market is further categorized into four application segments, including consumer devices, automotive, security, and industrial. The consumer devices segment accounted for close to 83% of the market share in 2016.

“The market is characterized by a technological shift from charged CCD sensors to CMOS because of the simple manufacturing process and low costs. Though CCD sensors offer better features, such as great light sensitivity and quality, their adoption is low because of their complicated design and high-power consumption. The consumer device segment will remain the key market driver during the forecast period owing to the increase in the demand for mobile-related applications,” says Chetan Mohan, a lead sensors research expert from Technavio.

CMOS image sensor market in Americas

The CMOS image sensor market in the Americas is expected to maintain its steady growth trajectory in the coming years. The early adoption of new technologies and gadgets drives the market growth. In addition, the region has a large consumer base for consumer electronics, such as tablets and smartphones.

The high rate of industrial automation in the US drives the demand for CMOS image sensors as they are widely used in automated manufacturing and process machinery. The US and Canada boast of a strong healthcare sector which will lead to demand for a large number of medical devices that are integrated with CMOS image sensors.

“The growing demand for camera-enabled phones in South America will drive the market in the region. The government in South America is also focusing on urbanization and improving healthcare sectors. The increasing use of these sensors in automobiles and medical equipment is expected to have a positive impact on the market in the region,” says Chetan.

CMOS image sensor market in APAC

The region is expected to grow at the highest CAGR, owing to the presence of many manufacturing units for consumer electronic devices. In addition, APAC has the largest customer base for consumer devices. Rising disposable incomes have led to increased consumer spending capacity, which has further fueled the demand for latest gadgets. China, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, and India are the key revenue contributors to the market in the region. These countries have numerous consumer electronics manufacturing units.

The presence of numerous semiconductor manufacturers in Japan, Taiwan, Korea, and China, will fuel market growth. In addition, the availability of low-cost labor and setting up of production facilities by global vendors are factors that will have a positive impact on the market in the region.

CMOS image sensor market in EMEA

EMEA will exhibit the lowest growth compared with other regions because of the low concentration of image sensor manufacturers and small consumer base. Germany is among the leading nations in the region. The country has numerous leading car manufacturers that offer CMOS sensing technology in their vehicles. The technology ensures passenger safety and promotes the development of intelligent vehicle systems. The country plans to automate a majority of the industrial process by the end of the forecast period. Advanced R&D in the medical field will also drive the demand for image sensing technology. South Africa is expected to account for the highest contribution to the market share in this region.

The top vendors in the global CMOS image sensor market as highlighted in this market research analysis are:

  • Sony
  • Samsung
  • OmniVision Technologies
  • ON Semiconductor

A team led by Cory Dean, assistant professor of physics at Columbia University, and James Hone, Wang Fong-Jen Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Columbia Engineering, has definitively observed an intensely studied anomaly in condensed matter physics—the even-denominator fractional quantum Hall (FQH) state—via transport measurement in bilayer graphene. The study is published online in Science (October 6 issue).

“Observing the 5/2 state in any system is a remarkable scientific opportunity, since it encompasses some of the most perplexing concepts in modern condensed matter physics, such as emergence, quasi-particle formation, quantization, and even superconductivity,” Dean says. “Our observation that, in bilayer graphene, the 5/2 state survives to much higher temperatures than previously thought possible not only allows us to study this phenomenon in new ways, but also shifts our view of the FQH state from being largely a scientific curiosity to now having great potential for real-world applications, particularly in quantum computing.”

First discovered in the 1980s in gallium arsenide (GaAs) heterostructures, the 5/2 fractional quantum hall state remains the singular exception to the otherwise strict rule that says fractional quantum hall states can only exist with odd denominators. Soon after the discovery, theoretical work suggested that this state could represent an exotic type of superconductor, notable in part for the possibility that such a phase could enable a fundamentally new approach to quantum computation. However, confirmation of these theories has remained elusive, largely due to the fragile nature of the state; in GaAs it is observable only in the highest quality samples and even then appearing only at milikelvin temperaures (as much as 10,000 times colder than the freezing point of water).

The Columbia team has now observed this same state in bilayer graphene and appearing at much higher temperatures¾reaching several Kelvin. “While it’s still 100 times colder than the freezing point of water, seeing the even-denominator state at these temperatures opens the door to a whole new suite of experimental tools that previously were unthinkable,” says Dean. “After several decades of effort by researchers all over the world, we may finally be close to solving the mystery of the 5/2.”

One of the outstanding problems in the field of modern condensed matter physics is understanding the phenomenon of “emergence,” the result of a large collection of quantum particles behaving in concert due to interactions between the particles and giving rise to new characteristics that are not a feature of the individual parts. For instance, in superconductors, a large number of electrons all collapse to a single quantum state, which can then propagate through a metal without any energy loss. The fractional quantum Hall effect is another state in which electrons collude with one another, in the presence of a magnetic field, resulting in quasiparticles with potentially exotic quantum properties.

Very difficult to predict theoretically, emergence often challenges our foundational understanding of how particles behave. For example, since any two electrons have the same charge, we think of electrons as objects that want to repel each other. However, in a superconducting metal, electrons unexpectedly pair up, forming a new object known as a cooper pair. Individual electrons scatter when moving through a metal, giving rise to resistance, but spontaneously formed cooper pairs behave collectively in such a way that they move through the material with no resistance at all.

“Think of trying to make your way through a crowd at a rock concert where everyone is dancing with a lot of energy and constantly bumping into you, compared to a ballroom dance floor where pairs of dancers are all moving in the same, carefully choreographed way, and it is easy to avoid each other,” says Dean. “One of the reasons that makes the even-denominator fractional quantum Hall effect so fascinating is that its origin is believed to be very similar to that of a superconductor, but, instead of simply forming cooper pairs, an entirely new kind of quantum particle emerges.”

According to quantum mechanics, elementary particles fall into two categories, Fermions and Bosons, and behave in very different ways. Two Fermions, such as electrons, cannot occupy the same state, which is why, for example, the electrons in atoms fill successive orbitals. Bosons, such as photons, or particles of light, can occupy the same state, allowing them to act coherently as in the light emission from a laser. When two identical particles are interchanged, the quantum mechanical wave-function describing their combined state is multiplied by a phase factor of 1 for Bosons, and -1 for Fermions.

Soon after the discovery of the fractional quantum hall effect, it was suggested on theoretical grounds that the quasiparticles associated with this state behave neither as Bosons nor Fermions but instead what is called an anyon: when anyon quasiparticles are interchanged, the phase factor is neither 1 nor -1 but is fractional. Despite several decades of effort, there still is no conclusive experimental proof confirming that these quasiparticles are anyons. The 5/2 state¾-a non-abelian anyon¾-is thought to be even more exotic. In theory, non-abelian anyons obey anyonic statistics as in other fractional quantum Hall states, but with the special feature that this phase cannot simply be undone by reversing the process. This inability to simply unwind the phase would make any information stored in the system uniquely stable, and is why many people believe the 5/2 could be a great candidate for quantum computation.

“Demonstration of the predicted 5/2 statistics would represent a tremendous achievement,” says Dean. “In many regards, this would confirm that, by fabricating a material system with just the right thickness and just the right number of electrons, and then applying just the right magnetic fields, we could effectively engineer fundamentally new classes of particles, with properties that do not otherwise exist among known particles naturally found in the universe. We still have no conclusive evidence that the 5/2 state exhibits non-abelian properties, but our discovery of this state in bilayer graphene opens up exciting new opportunities to test these theories.”

Until now, all of those conditions have needed to be not only just right but also extreme. In conventional semi-conductors, the even-denominator states are very difficult to isolate, and exist only for ultra-pure materials, at extremely low temperatures and high magnetic fields. While certain features of the state have been observable devising experiments that could investigate the state without destroying it, has been challenging.

“We needed a new platform,” says Hone. “With the successful isolation of graphene, these atomically thin layers of carbon atoms emerged as a promising platform for the study of electrons in 2D in general. One of the keys is that electrons in graphene interact even more strongly than in conventional 2D electron systems, theoretically making effects such as the even-denominator state even more robust. But while there have been predictions that bilayer graphene could host the long-sought even-denominator states, at higher temperatures than seen before, these predictions have not been realized due mostly the difficulty of making graphene clean enough.”

The Columbia team built on many years of pioneering work to improve the quality of graphene devices, creating ultra-clean devices entirely from atomically flat 2D materials: bilayer graphene for the conducting channel, hexagonal boron nitride as a protective insulator, and graphite used for electrical connections and as a conductive gate to change the charge carrier density in the channel.
A crucial component of the research was having access to the high magnetic fields tools available at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Fla., a nationally funded user facility with which Hone and Dean have had extensive collaborations. They studied the electrical conduction through their devices under magnetic fields up to 34 Tesla, and achieved clear observation of the even-denominator states.

“By tilting the sample with respect to the magnetic field, we were able to provide new confirmation that this FQH state has many of the properties predicted by theory, such as being spin-polarized,” says Jia Li, the paper’s lead author and post-doctoral researcher working with Dean and Hone. “We also discovered that in bilayer graphene, this state can be manipulated in ways that are not possible in conventional materials.”

The Columbia team’s result, which demonstrates measurement in transport—how electrons flow in the system—is a crucial step forward towards confirming the possible exotic origin of the even denominator state. Their findings are reported contemporaneously with a similar report by a research group at University of California, Santa Barbara. The UCSB study observed the even denominator state by capacitance measurement, which probes the existence of an electrical gap associated with the onset of the state.

The team expects that the robust measurements they have now observed in bilayer graphene will enable new experiments that could definitively prove its non-abelian nature. Once this is established, the team hopes to begin demonstrating computation using the even denominator state.

“For many decades now it has been thought that if the 5/2 state does indeed represent a non-abelian anyon, it could theoretically revolutionize efforts to build a quantum computer,” Dean observes. “In the past, however, the extreme conditions necessary to see the state at all, let alone use it for computation, were always a major concern of practicality. Our results in bilayer graphene suggest that this dream may now not actually be so far from reality.”

Using a simple layer-by-layer coating technique, researchers from the U.S. and Korea have developed a paper-based flexible supercapacitor that could be used to help power wearable devices. The device uses metallic nanoparticles to coat cellulose fibers in the paper, creating supercapacitor electrodes with high energy and power densities – and the best performance so far in a textile-based supercapacitor.

By implanting conductive and charge storage materials in the paper, the technique creates large surface areas that function as current collectors and nanoparticle reservoirs for the electrodes. Testing shows that devices fabricated with the technique can be folded thousands of times without affecting conductivity.

“This type of flexible energy storage device could provide unique opportunities for connectivity among wearable and internet of things devices,” said Seung Woo Lee, an assistant professor in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “We could support an evolution of the most advanced portable electronics. We also have an opportunity to combine this supercapacitor with energy-harvesting devices that could power biomedical sensors, consumer and military electronics, and similar applications.”

The research, done with collaborators at Korea University, was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea and reported September 14 in the journal Nature Communications.

Yongmin Ko, Minseong Kwon, Wan Ki Bae, Byeongyong Lee, Seung Woo Lee & Jinhan Cho, “Flexible supercapacitor electrodes based on real metal-like cellulose papers,” (Nature Communications, 2017) http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-00550-3

Yongmin Ko, Minseong Kwon, Wan Ki Bae, Byeongyong Lee, Seung Woo Lee & Jinhan Cho, “Flexible supercapacitor electrodes based on real metal-like cellulose papers,” (Nature Communications, 2017) http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-00550-3

Energy storage devices are generally judged on three properties: their energy density, power density and cycling stability. Supercapacitors often have high power density, but low energy density – the amount of energy that can be stored – compared to batteries, which often have the opposite attributes. In developing their new technique, Lee and collaborator Jinhan Cho from the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Korea University set out to boost energy density of the supercapacitors while maintaining their high power output.

They began by dipping paper samples into a beaker of solution containing an amine surfactant material designed to bind the gold nanoparticles to the paper. Next they dipped the paper into a solution containing gold nanoparticles. Because the fibers are porous, the surfactants and nanoparticles enter the fibers and become strongly attached, creating a conformal coating on each fiber.

By repeating the dipping steps, the researchers created a conductive paper on which they added alternating layers of metal oxide energy storage materials such as manganese oxide. The ligand-mediated layer-by-layer approach helped minimize the contact resistance between neighboring metal and/or metal oxide nanoparticles. Using the simple process done at room temperatures, the layers can be built up to provide the desired electrical properties.

“It’s basically a very simple process,” Lee said. “The layer-by-layer process, which we did in alternating beakers, provides a good conformal coating on the cellulose fibers. We can fold the resulting metallized paper and otherwise flex it without damage to the conductivity.”

Though the research involved small samples of paper, the solution-based technique could likely be scaled up using larger tanks or even a spray-on technique. “There should be no limitation on the size of the samples that we could produce,” Lee said. “We just need to establish the optimal layer thickness that provides good conductivity while minimizing the use of the nanoparticles to optimize the tradeoff between cost and performance.”

The researchers demonstrated that their self-assembly technique improves several aspects of the paper supercapacitor, including its areal performance, an important factor for measuring flexible energy-storage electrodes. The maximum power and energy density of the metallic paper-based supercapacitors are estimated to be 15.1 mW/cm2 and 267.3 uW/cm2, respectively, substantially outperforming conventional paper or textile supercapacitors.

The next steps will include testing the technique on flexible fabrics, and developing flexible batteries that could work with the supercapacitors. The researchers used gold nanoparticles because they are easy to work with, but plan to test less expensive metals such as silver and copper to reduce the cost.

During his Ph.D. work, Lee developed the layer-by-layer self-assembly process for energy storage using different materials. With his Korean collaborators, he saw a new opportunity to apply that to flexible and wearable devices with nanoparticles.

“We have nanoscale control over the coating applied to the paper,” he added. “If we increase the number of layers, the performance continues to increase. And it’s all based on ordinary paper.”

In addition to those already mentioned, the research team included Yongmin Ko and Minseong Kwon from Korea University, Wan Ki Bae from the Photoelectronic Hybrids Research Center at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology, and Byeongyong Lee from Georgia Tech.

Physicists at the University of California, Riverside have developed a photodetector – a device that senses light – by combining two distinct inorganic materials and producing quantum mechanical processes that could revolutionize the way solar energy is collected.

Photodetectors are almost ubiquitous, found in cameras, cell phones, remote controls, solar cells, and even the panels of space shuttles. Measuring just microns across, these tiny devices convert light into electrons, whose subsequent movement generates an electronic signal. Increasing the efficiency of light-to-electricity conversion has been one of the primary aims in photodetector construction since their invention.

Lab researchers stacked two atomic layers of tungsten diselenide (WSe2) on a single atomic layer of molybdenum diselenide (MoSe2). Such stacking results in properties vastly different from those of the parent layers, allowing for customized electronic engineering at the tiniest possible scale.

This image shows an energy diagram of the WSe2-MoSe2 device. When a photon (1) strikes the WSe2 layer, it knocks loose an electron (2), freeing it to conduct through the WSe2 (3). At the junction between the two materials, the electron drops down into MoSe2 (4). The energy given off in the drop catapults a second electron from the WSe2 (5) into the MoSe2 (6), where both electrons are free to move and generate electricity. Credit: University Communications, UC Riverside.

This image shows an energy diagram of the WSe2-MoSe2 device. When a photon (1) strikes the WSe2 layer, it knocks loose an electron (2), freeing it to conduct through the WSe2 (3). At the junction between the two materials, the electron drops down into MoSe2 (4). The energy given off in the drop catapults a second electron from the WSe2 (5) into the MoSe2 (6), where both electrons are free to move and generate electricity. Credit: University Communications, UC Riverside.

Within atoms, electrons live in states that determine their energy level. When electrons move from one state to another, they either acquire or lose energy. Above a certain energy level, electrons can move freely. An electron moving into a lower energy state can transfer enough energy to knock loose another electron.

UC Riverside physicists observed that when a photon strikes the WSe2 layer, it knocks loose an electron, freeing it to conduct through the WSe2. At the junction between WSe2 and MoSe2, the electron drops down into MoSe2. The energy given off then catapults a second electron from the WSe2 into the MoSe2, where both electrons become free to move and generate electricity.

“We are seeing a new phenomenon occurring,” said Nathaniel M. Gabor, an assistant professor of physics, who led the research team. “Normally, when an electron jumps between energy states, it wastes energy. In our experiment, the waste energy instead creates another electron, doubling its efficiency. Understanding such processes, together with improved designs that push beyond the theoretical efficiency limits, will have a broad significance with regard to designing new ultra-efficient photovoltaic devices.”

Study results appear today in Nature Nanotechnology.

“The electron in WSe2 that is initially energized by the photon has an energy that is low with respect to WSe2,” said Fatemeh Barati, a graduate student in Gabor’s Quantum Materials Optoelectronics lab and the co-first author of the research paper. “With the application of a small electric field, it transfers to MoSe2, where its energy, with respect to this new material, is high. Meaning, it can now lose energy. This energy is dissipated as kinetic energy that dislodges the additional electron from WSe2.”

In existing solar panels models, one photon can at most generate one electron. In the prototype the researchers developed, one photon can generate two electrons or more through a process called electron multiplication.

The researchers explained that in ultrasmall materials, electrons behave like waves. Though it is unintuitive at large scales, the process of generating two electrons from one photon is perfectly allowable at extremely small length scales. When a material, such as WSe2 or MoSe2, gets thinned down to dimensions nearing the electron’s wavelength, the material’s properties begin to change in inexplicable, unpredictable, and mysterious ways.

“It’s like a wave stuck between walls closing in,” Gabor said. “Quantum mechanically, this changes all the scales. The combination of two different ultra small materials gives rise to an entirely new multiplication process. Two plus two equals five.”

“Ideally, in a solar cell we would want light coming in to turn into several electrons,” said Max Grossnickle, also a graduate student in Gabor’s lab and the research paper’s co-first author. “Our paper shows that this is possible.”

Barati noted that more electrons could be generated also by increasing the temperature of the device.

“We saw a doubling of electrons in our device at 340 degrees Kelvin (150 F), which is slightly above room temperature,” she said. “Few materials show this phenomenon around room temperature. As we increase this temperature, we should see more than a doubling of electrons.”

Electron multiplication in conventional photocell devices typically requires applied voltages of 10-100 volts. To observe the doubling of electrons, the researchers used only 1.2 volts, the typical voltage supplied by an AA battery.

“Such low voltage operation, and therefore low power consumption, may herald a revolutionary direction in photodetector and solar cell material design,” Grossnickle said.

He explained that the efficiency of a photovoltaic device is governed by a simple competition: light energy is either converted into waste heat or useful electronic power.

“Ultrathin materials may tip the balance in this competition by simultaneously limiting heat generation, while increasing electronic power,” he said.

Gabor explained that the quantum mechanical phenomenon his team observed in their device is similar to what occurs when cosmic rays, coming into contact with the Earth’s atmosphere with high kinetic energy, produce an array of new particles.

He speculated that the team’s findings could find applications in unforeseen ways.

“These materials, being only an atom thick, are nearly transparent,” he said. “It’s conceivable that one day we might see them included in paint or in solar cells incorporated into windows. Because these materials are flexible, we can envision their application in wearable photovoltaics, with the materials being integrated into the fabric. We could have, say, a suit that generates power – energy-harvesting technology that would be essentially invisible.”

The automotive lighting market totaled US$25.7 billion in 2016 and is expected to reach US$35.9 billion in 2022, with a 5.7% CAGR between 2016 and 2022. In 2017, Yole Développement (Yole) estimates that the market should be close to US$27.7 billion.

automotive_lighting_marketsize_yole_oct2017_433x280

This growth is driven by natural LED cost erosion, increasing the LED penetration rate. Standardization of LED modules and their optimization are key factors behind decreasing costs. This has resulted in more vehicles equipped with LED technology.

The market research and strategy consulting company Yole proposes today a detailed analysis of the automotive lighting industry: Automotive Lighting: Technology, Industry and Market Trends 2017. This new report presents all automotive lighting applications and associated market revenue between 2013 and 2022. Yole’s analysts detail the integration status of different lighting technologies and systems, technical trends, market evolution and market size by application.

The automotive lighting is facing to an unexpected fast growth combined with technology revolution that will reshape the industry.

Since the first full LED headlamp was introduced in 2007, LED technology has gradually penetrated headlamp design. LED technology has allowed lighting to become a distinctive feature and enabled innovative functions like the glare free adaptive high beam introduced in 2013. LED technology use had been limited to high-end vehicles and has had to compete with traditional light sources, namely halogen and high-intensity discharge (HID/Xenon). Improved LED performance, lower power consumption and flexible design were the first enablers. Then, cost reductions helped LED technology spread to all vehicle categories.

Automotive lighting is driven by exterior lighting and especially headlamps, generating more than two-thirds of the total market revenue. Rear lighting is the second largest area, representing 17% of total market revenue. Interior lighting represents almost 10% of revenue but growth is expected to be linked to the development of autonomous vehicles and the creation of vehicles as «living homes». Other types of lighting, such as fog lamps, CHMSL or small lamps, comprised the remaining 7% of revenue in 2016.

“More than 100 million vehicles will be sold in 2022, but this has only a limited impact on the lighting market”,comments Pierrick Boulay, Technology & Market Analyst at Yole, in his article published on i-micronews: The automotive lighting industry will be worth $36B in 2022. He adds: “The main reason for lighting growth is that the penetration of LED technology is spreading from high-end cars to mid-range and low-end cars. LED technology propagation and more generally SSL technologies will enable the development of new functionalities.”

Yole’s analysts offer you today a comprehensive overview of this industry, its challenges, its supply chain and key figures. Automotive lighting industry is clearly showing remarkable technical advances including emerging technologies based on microLEDs, LCDs and lasers, explain the consulting company in this report. AFLS architecture and interaction with sensors are also part of this evolution and well described.

WIN Semiconductors Corp (TPEx:3105), the world’s largest pure-play compound semiconductor foundry, has released an optimized version of its 0.25µm gallium nitride technology, NP25, that provides superior DC and RF transistor performance. NP25 is a 0.25µm-gate GaN-on-SiC process, and offers users the flexibility to produce both fully integrated amplifier products as well as custom discrete transistors. In production since 2014, the optimized 0.25µm process offers enhanced RF performance with fast switching time, higher gain and increased power added efficiency for demanding power applications through Ku-band

Optimized NP25 transistors exhibit more ideal DC and RF IV characteristics and provide 2 dB higher maximum stable gain. Increased gain leads directly to higher power density and PAE under a range of tuning and bias conditions. This performance-optimized process is fully qualified and supported with a comprehensive design kit and transistor models.

The WIN NP25 technology is fabricated on 4-inch silicon carbide substrates and operates at a drain bias of 28 volts. At 10GHz, NP25 provides saturated output power of 5 watts/mm with 19 dB linear gain and over 65% power added efficiency. These performance metrics make the NP25 process well suited for a variety of high power, broad bandwidth and linear transmit functions in the radar, satellite communications, and wireless infrastructure markets.

EV Group (EVG), a supplier of wafer bonding and lithography equipment for the MEMS, nanotechnology and semiconductor markets, and SwissLitho AG, a manufacturer of novel nanolithography tools, today announced a joint solution to enable the production of 3D structures down to the single-nanometer scale. Initially demonstrated within the “Single Nanometer Manufacturing for Beyond CMOS Devices (SNM)” project funded by the Seventh Framework Program of the European Union, the joint solution involves SwissLitho’s novel NanoFrazor thermal scanning probe lithography system to produce master templates with 3D structures for nanoimprint lithography (NIL), and EVG’s HERCULES NIL system with SmartNIL® technology to replicate those structures at high throughput.

Target applications

EVG and SwissLitho will initially target the joint solution for developing diffractive optical elements and other related optical components that support photonics, data communications, augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR) and other applications, with the potential to expand into biotechnology, nanofluidics and other nanotechnology applications.

As part of the joint solution, SwissLitho’s NanoFrazor system will be used to create imprint masters. Compared to conventional approaches, including electron beam (e-beam) and grayscale lithography, the novel technology has the unique ability to print 3D structures with unsurpassed accuracy. EVG’s HERCULES NIL system will then be used to create working templates for production use, cost-effectively and at high throughput, using the company’s proprietary large-area nanoimprint SmartNIL technology.

Dr. Thomas Glinsner, corporate technology director at EV Group, noted, “SwissLitho’s NanoFrazor solution is highly complementary to EVG’s SmartNIL technology. Together we can offer a complete NIL solution for photonics and other applications involving 3D structure patterning, providing significant opportunity for both companies to expand our customer base and market reach. Our NILPhotonics® Competence Center will be the first point of contact for customers interested in this joint solution, where we will be able to offer feasibility studies, demonstrations and pilot-line production.”

A closer look at the technologies

Thermal scanning probe lithography, the technology behind the NanoFrazor, was invented at IBM Research in Zurich and acquired by SwissLitho AG. This maskless, direct-write lithography approach involves spin-coating a unique, thermally sensitive resist onto the sample surface before patterning. A heated ultra-sharp tip is then used to decompose and evaporate the resist locally while simultaneously inspecting the written nanostructures. The resulting arbitrary resist pattern can then be transferred into almost any other material using lift-off, etching, plating, molding or other methodologies.

“We developed our NanoFrazor line to provide a high-performance, affordable alternative and extension to costly e-beam lithography systems,” said Dr. Felix Holzner, SwissLitho CEO. “The technology allows manufacturing of the master with many ‘levels’ in a single step. In particular, 3D structures with single nanometer accuracy can be produced more easily and with greater fidelity compared to traditional e-beam or grayscale lithography methods. We look forward to working with customers to combine our technology with EVG’s successful SmartNIL process at their NILPhotonics Competence Center in Austria.”

The HERCULES NIL combines EVG’s extensive expertise in NIL, resist processing and high-volume manufacturing solutions into a single integrated system that offers throughput of up to 40 wph for 200-mm wafers. The system’s configurable, modular platform accommodates a variety of imprint materials and structure sizes–giving customers greater flexibility in addressing their manufacturing needs. In addition, its ability to fabricate multiple-use soft stamps helps extend the lifetime of master imprint templates.

Gartner, Inc. this week highlighted the top strategic technology trends that will impact most organizations in 2018. Analysts presented their findings during Gartner Symposium/ITxpo, which took place through Thursday.

Gartner defines a strategic technology trend as one with substantial disruptive potential that is beginning to break out of an emerging state into broader impact and use, or which are rapidly growing trends with a high degree of volatility reaching tipping points over the next five years.

“Gartner’s top 10 strategic technology trends for 2018 tie into the Intelligent Digital Mesh. The intelligent digital mesh is a foundation for future digital business and ecosystems,” said David Cearley, vice president and Gartner Fellow. “IT leaders must factor these technology trends into their innovation strategies or risk losing ground to those that do.”

The first three strategic technology trends explore how artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are seeping into virtually everything and represent a major battleground for technology providers over the next five years. The next four trends focus on blending the digital and physical worlds to create an immersive, digitally enhanced environment. The last three refer to exploiting connections between an expanding set of people and businesses, as well as devices, content and services to deliver digital business outcomes.

The top 10 strategic technology trends for 2018 are:

AI Foundation
Creating systems that learn, adapt and potentially act autonomously will be a major battleground for technology vendors through at least 2020. The ability to use AI to enhance decision making, reinvent business models and ecosystems, and remake the customer experience will drive the payoff for digital initiatives through 2025.

“AI techniques are evolving rapidly and organizations will need to invest significantly in skills, processes and tools to successfully exploit these techniques and build AI-enhanced systems,” said Mr. Cearley. “Investment areas can include data preparation, integration, algorithm and training methodology selection, and model creation. Multiple constituencies including data scientists, developers and business process owners will need to work together.”

Intelligent Apps and Analytics
Over the next few years, virtually every app, application and service will incorporate some level of AI. Some of these apps will be obvious intelligent apps that could not exist without AI and machine learning. Others will be unobtrusive users of AI that provide intelligence behind the scenes. Intelligent apps create a new intelligent intermediary layer between people and systems and have the potential to transform the nature of work and the structure of the workplace.

“Explore intelligent apps as a way of augmenting human activity and not simply as a way of replacing people,” said Mr. Cearley. “Augmented analytics is a particularly strategic growing area which uses machine learning to automate data preparation, insight discovery and insight sharing for a broad range of business users, operational workers and citizen data scientists.”

AI has become the next major battleground in a wide range of software and service markets, including aspects of enterprise resource planning (ERP). Packaged software and service providers should outline how they’ll be using AI to add business value in new versions in the form of advanced analytics, intelligent processes and advanced user experiences.

Intelligent Things
Intelligent things are physical things that go beyond the execution of rigid programming models to exploit AI to deliver advanced behaviors and interact more naturally with their surroundings and with people. AI is driving advances for new intelligent things (such as autonomous vehicles, robots and drones) and delivering enhanced capability to many existing things (such as Internet of Things [IoT] connected consumer and industrial systems).

“Currently, the use of autonomous vehicles in controlled settings (for example, in farming and mining) is a rapidly growing area of intelligent things. We are likely to see examples of autonomous vehicles on limited, well-defined and controlled roadways by 2022, but general use of autonomous cars will likely require a person in the driver’s seat in case the technology should unexpectedly fail,” said Mr. Cearley. “For at least the next five years, we expect that semiautonomous scenarios requiring a driver will dominate. During this time, manufacturers will test the technology more rigorously, and the nontechnology issues such as regulations, legal issues and cultural acceptance will be addressed.” 

Digital Twin
A digital twin refers to the digital representation of a real-world entity or system. Digital twins in the context of IoT projects is particularly promising over the next three to five years and is leading the interest in digital twins today. Well-designed digital twins of assets have the potential to significantly improve enterprise decision making. These digital twins are linked to their real-world counterparts and are used to understand the state of the thing or system, respond to changes, improve operations and add value. Organizations will implement digital twins simply at first, then evolve them over time, improving their ability to collect and visualize the right data, apply the right analytics and rules, and respond effectively to business objectives.

“Over time, digital representations of virtually every aspect of our world will be connected dynamically with their real-world counterpart and with one another and infused with AI-based capabilities to enable advanced simulation, operation and analysis,” said Mr. Cearley. “City planners, digital marketers, healthcare professionals and industrial planners will all benefit from this long-term shift to the integrated digital twin world.”

Cloud to the Edge
Edge computing describes a computing topology in which information processing, and content collection and delivery, are placed closer to the sources of this information. Connectivity and latency challenges, bandwidth constraints and greater functionality embedded at the edge favors distributed models. Enterprises should begin using edge design patterns in their infrastructure architectures — particularly for those with significant IoT elements.

While many view cloud and edge as competing approaches, cloud is a style of computing where elastically scalable technology capabilities are delivered as a service and does not inherently mandate a centralized model.

“When used as complementary concepts, cloud can be the style of computing used to create a service-oriented model and a centralized control and coordination structure with edge being used as a delivery style allowing for disconnected or distributed process execution of aspects of the cloud service,” said Mr. Cearley.

Conversational Platforms
Conversational platforms will drive the next big paradigm shift in how humans interact with the digital world. The burden of translating intent shifts from user to computer. The platform takes a question or command from the user and then responds by executing some function, presenting some content or asking for additional input. Over the next few years, conversational interfaces will become a primary design goal for user interaction and be delivered in dedicated hardware, core OS features, platforms and applications.

“Conversational platforms have reached a tipping point in terms of understanding language and basic user intent, but they still fall short,” said Mr. Cearley. “The challenge that conversational platforms face is that users must communicate in a very structured way, and this is often a frustrating experience. A primary differentiator among conversational platforms will be the robustness of their conversational models and the application programming interface (API) and event models used to access, invoke and orchestrate third-party services to deliver complex outcomes.” 

Immersive Experience
While conversational interfaces are changing how people control the digital world, virtual, augmented and mixed reality are changing the way that people perceive and interact with the digital world. The virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) market is currently adolescent and fragmented. Interest is high, resulting in many novelty VR applications that deliver little real business value outside of advanced entertainment, such as video games and 360-degree spherical videos. To drive real tangible business benefit, enterprises must examine specific real-life scenarios where VR and AR can be applied to make employees more productive and enhance the design, training and visualization processes.

Mixed reality, a type of immersion that merges and extends the technical functionality of both AR and VR, is emerging as the immersive experience of choice providing a compelling technology that optimizes its interface to better match how people view and interact with their world. Mixed reality exists along a spectrum and includes head-mounted displays (HMDs) for augmented or virtual reality as well as smartphone and tablet-based AR and use of environmental sensors. Mixed reality represents the span of how people perceive and interact with the digital world.

Blockchain
Blockchain is evolving from a digital currency infrastructure into a platform for digital transformation. Blockchain technologies offer a radical departure from the current centralized transaction and record-keeping mechanisms and can serve as a foundation of disruptive digital business for both established enterprises and startups. Although the hype surrounding blockchains originally focused on the financial services industry, blockchains have many potential applications, including government, healthcare, manufacturing, media distribution, identity verification, title registry and supply chain. Although it holds long-term promise and will undoubtedly create disruption, blockchain promise outstrips blockchain reality, and many of the associated technologies are immature for the next two to three years.

Event Driven
Central to digital business is the idea that the business is always sensing and ready to exploit new digital business moments. Business events could be anything that is noted digitally, reflecting the discovery of notable states or state changes, for example, completion of a purchase order, or an aircraft landing. With the use of event brokers, IoT, cloud computing, blockchain, in-memory data management and AI, business events can be detected faster and analyzed in greater detail. But technology alone without cultural and leadership change does not deliver the full value of the event-driven model. Digital business drives the need for IT leaders, planners and architects to embrace event thinking.

Continuous Adaptive Risk and Trust
To securely enable digital business initiatives in a world of advanced, targeted attacks, security and risk management leaders must adopt a continuous adaptive risk and trust assessment (CARTA) approach to allow real-time, risk and trust-based decision making with adaptive responses. Security infrastructure must be adaptive everywhere, to embrace the opportunity — and manage the risks — that comes delivering security that moves at the speed of digital business.

As part of a CARTA approach, organizations must overcome the barriers between security teams and application teams, much as DevOps tools and processes overcome the divide between development and operations. Information security architects must integrate security testing at multiple points into DevOps workflows in a collaborative way that is largely transparent to developers, and preserves the teamwork, agility and speed of DevOps and agile development environments, delivering “DevSecOps.” CARTA can also be applied at runtime with approaches such as deception technologies. Advances in technologies such as virtualization and software-defined networking has made it easier to deploy, manage and monitor “adaptive honeypots” — the basic component of network-based deception.

Gartner clients can learn more in the Gartner Special Report “Top Strategic Technology Trends for 2018.” Additional detailed analysis on each tech trend can be found in the Smarter With Gartner article “Gartner Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2018.”

NXP Semiconductors N.V. (NASDAQ:NXPI) announced that it had received the 2017 Excellence in Quality award from Cisco.

This prestigious award recognizes NXP for Excellence in Quality for displaying the highest quality standards, practices, and methodologies in their products and processes, and differentiating through their quality management systems and alignment to Cisco’s strategies and values.

The distinction was awarded during Cisco’s 26th Annual Supplier Appreciation Event, held August 31 at the Santa Clara Convention Center in California.

“The theme this year for our Supplier Appreciation event is ‘Connecting the Unconnected: Transforming to the Digital Supply Chain,’ which highlights our laser focus on enabling break-through value in operational commitments and customer satisfaction through digital orchestration,” said Jeff Gallinat, senior vice president, Global Manufacturing Operations, Cisco.

“As we continue on our digitization journey, our strong relationships and close collaboration with our supplier and partner ecosystem will continue to play a critical role in our continued innovation, productivity and ultimately success.”

Cisco presented awards to its partners and suppliers in recognition of their contributions to Cisco’s success in the fiscal year 2017.  At the event, Cisco celebrated the collective achievements of its most strategic suppliers and partners, and reaffirmed its commitment to a strong, continued partnership that will further accelerate innovation, alignment and operational excellence.

Nordson Corporation (Nasdaq: NDSN) today announced the launch of its initial Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Report, available as a dedicated web site at www.nordson.com/responsible-and-sustainable.

The report enhances transparency in the environmental, social and governance (ESG) areas determined to be most material to the company and its stakeholders. These areas include: Community Investment, Product Quality & Safety, Ethics & Compliance, Environmental Footprint, Talent Management & Development, Innovation, Customer Relations & Satisfaction, Management Systems & Operational Excellence, Workplace Health & Safety, and Supply Chain.

“On behalf of all Nordson employees, we are proud to publish our inaugural corporate responsibility and sustainability report,” said Michael F. Hilton, Nordson President and Chief Executive Officer. “Since Nordson’s founding in 1954, we have held fast to our values of Integrity, Respect for People, Customer Passion, Excellence and Energy. Our report is a reflection of these values and our enduring commitment to grow and produce wealth for our stakeholders. Managing our economic, environmental, social and governance impacts enhances our ability to continue creating and delivering positive results over the long term.”

The report is the result of a detailed effort begun in late 2016 with the goal of increasing the robustness of the company’s corporate responsibility practices and reporting. A thorough materiality assessment guided by an independent third party identified Nordson’s potential universe of ESG topics. Topics were prioritized based upon evidence provided by internal and external stakeholders, including Nordson’s executive leadership team, investors, customers, industry associations, competitors and suppliers. Stakeholder interviews were supplemented with best practice research from sources related to the external stakeholder groups. These steps created a robust data set, which was analyzed through a rigorous scoring process. At the conclusion of the process, Nordson executive leaders reviewed the results and verified the approach, providing the impetus for the creation of the report.

“This report is another step in an ongoing journey and aligns with our longstanding commitment to be a responsible corporate citizen,” added Hilton. “The priorities described in the report have long been embedded within our overall strategy, which remains focused on accelerating organic growth, further optimizing our operations, enhancing our organizational capability, and sharing our success.”

Except for historical information and comparisons contained herein, statements included in this release may constitute “forward-looking statements,” as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors, as discussed in the company’s filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that could cause actual results to differ.

Nordson Corporation engineers, manufactures and markets differentiated products for the precision dispensing of adhesives, coatings, sealants, biomaterials, polymers and other materials, fluid management, test and inspection, UV curing and plasma surface treatment, all supported by application expertise and direct global sales and service.