Category Archives: Online Magazines

Nearly doubling the efficiency of a breakthrough photovoltaic cell they created last year, UCLA researchers have developed a two-layer, see-through solar film that could be placed on windows, sunroofs, smartphone displays and other surfaces to harvest energy from the sun. 

The new device is composed of two thin polymer solar cells that collect sunlight and convert it to power. It’s more efficient than previous devices, the researchers say, because its two cells absorb more light than single-layer solar devices, because it uses light from a wider portion of the solar spectrum, and because it incorporates a layer of novel materials between the two cells to reduce energy loss.  

While a tandem-structure transparent organic photovoltaic (TOPV) device developed at UCLA in 2012 converts about 4 percent of the energy it receives from the sun into electric power (its "conversion rate"), the new tandem device — which uses a combination of transparent and semi-transparent cells — achieves a conversion rate of 7.3 percent.   

Researchers led by Yang Yang, the Carol and Lawrence E. Tannas, Jr., Professor of Engineering at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, said the new cells could serve as a power-generating layer on windows and smartphone displays without compromising users’ ability to see through the surface. The cells can be produced so that they appear light gray, green or brown, and so can blend with the color and design features of buildings and surfaces. 

The research was published online July 26 by Energy & Environmental Science, a Royal Society of Chemistry journal, and it will appear later in a published edition of the journal.  

"Using two solar cells with the new interfacial materials in between produces close to two times the energy we originally observed," said Yang, who is also director of the Nano

Renewable Energy Center at the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA. "We anticipate this device will offer new directions for solar cells, including the creation of solar windows on homes and office buildings."  

The tandem polymer solar cells are made of a photoactive plastic. A single-cell device absorbs only about 40 percent of the infrared light that passes through. The tandem device — which includes a cell composed of a new infrared-sensitive polymer developed by UCLA researchers — absorbs up to 80 percent of infrared light plus a small amount of visible light. 

Chun-Chao Chen, a graduate student in the UCLA materials science and engineering department who is the paper’s primary author, said using transparent and semi-transparent cells together increases the device’s efficiency, and that the materials were processed at low temperatures, making them relatively easy to manufacture. 

Other authors of the study were Gang Li, a staff researcher in the materials science and engineering department at UCLA; Jing Gao, a materials science and engineering graduate student; and Letian Dou and Wei-Hsuan Chang, graduate students in the UCLA materials science and engineering department and the California NanoSystems Institute. 

The research was funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Office of Naval Research and EFL Tech.

MediaTek Inc., a  fabless semiconductor company for wireless communications and digital multimedia solutions, today announced its breakthrough MT8135 system-on-chip (SoC) for high-end tablets. The quad-core solution incorporates two high-performance ARM Cortex-A15 and two ultra-efficient ARM Cortex-A7 processors, and the latest GPU from Imagination Technologies, the PowerVR Series6. Complemented by a highly optimized ARM big.LITTLE processing subsystem that allows for heterogeneous multi-processing, the resulting solution is primed to deliver premium user experiences. This includes the ability to seamlessly engage in a range of processor-intensive applications, including heavy web-downloading, hardcore gaming, high-quality video viewing and rigorous multitasking — all while maintaining the utmost power efficiency.

In line with its reputation for creating platform solutions, MediaTek has deployed an advanced scheduler algorithm, combined with adaptive thermal and interactive power management to maximize the performance and energy efficiency benefits of the ARM big.LITTLE architecture. This technology enables application software to access all of the processors in the big.LITTLE cluster simultaneously for a true heterogeneous experience.

"ARM big.LITTLE technology reduces processor energy consumption by up to 70 percent on common workloads, which is critical in the drive towards all-day battery life for mobile platforms," said Noel Hurley, vice president, Strategy and Marketing, Processor Division, ARM. "We are pleased to see MediaTek’s MT8135 seizing on the opportunity offered by the big.LITTLE architecture to enable new services on a heterogeneous processing platform."

"The move towards multi-tasking devices requires increased performance while creating greater power efficiency that can only be achieved through an optimized multi-core system approach. This means that multi-core processing capability is fast becoming a vital feature of mobile SoC solutions. The MT8135 is the first implementation of ARM’s big.LITTLE architecture to offer simultaneous heterogeneous multi-processing.  As such, MediaTek is taking the lead to improve battery life in next-generation tablet and mobile device designs by providing more flexibility to match tasks with the right-size core for better computational, graphical and multimedia performance," said Mike Demler, senior analyst with The Linley Group. 

The MT8135 features a MediaTek-developed four-in-one connectivity combination that includes Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS and FM, designed to bring highly integrated wireless technologies and expanded functionality to multimedia tablets. The MT8135 also supports Wi-Fi certified Miracast which makes multimedia content sharing between devices remarkably easier.

In addition, the tablet SoC boasts unprecedented graphics performance enabled by its PowerVR Series6 GPU from Imagination Technologies. "We are proud to have partnered with MediaTek on their latest generation of tablet SoCs" says Tony King-Smith, EVP of marketing, Imagination. "PowerVR Series6 GPUs build on Imagination’s success in mobile and embedded markets to deliver the industry’s highest performance and efficient solutions for graphics-and-compute GPUs. MediaTek is a key lead partner for Imagination and its PowerVR Series6 GPU cores, so we expect the MT8135 to set an important benchmark for high-end gaming, smooth UIs and advanced browser-based graphics-rich applications in smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices. Thanks to our PowerVR Series6 GPU, we believe the MT8135 will deliver five-times or more the GPU-compute-performance of the previous generation of tablet processors."

The MT8135 is the latest SoC in MediaTek’s line of quad-core processors, which since its launch last December has given rise to more than 350 projects and over 150 mobile device models across the world.

Atrenta Inc. announced today that Doug Aitelli has joined Atrenta’s executive team as vice president of worldwide sales reporting to Dr. Ajoy Bose, chairman, president and CEO of Atrenta.

"Atrenta is enjoying a significant increase in product demand as RTL Signoff becomes more and more important to our customers,” said Dr. Ajoy Bose. “With our business growing on a global scale and many of our customers expanding into increasingly distributed operations, effective management of these relationships has become critical for our business. Doug brings significant specialized skills and a wealth of experience to our team in this important area.”

Doug Aitelli is an EDA veteran with more than 28 years of experience in sales, executive management and strategic account development. Prior to joining Atrenta, Mr. Aitelli held the positions of vice president of worldwide sales and then CEO at Calypto Design Systems. Prior to Calypto, he was a director of global accounts for both Magma Design Automation Inc. and Synopsys Inc. Prior to Synopsys, Doug held various sales and technical roles at Quickturn Design Systems, Racal-Redac, HHB Systems, Computervision, and Control Data. He received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Rutgers University, College of Engineering.

“Atrenta is in exactly the right place to address the ever-increasing complexity of SoC design,” said Aitelli. “I see a clear path to substantial growth at many of Atrenta’s larger accounts. I look forward to helping the company address the needs of all its customers as we continue to grow on a global scale.”

Atrenta is a provider of SoC solutions for the semiconductor and consumer electronics industries.

Spansion Inc. today announced production of a new family of 16 Mb, 32 Mb and 64 Mb Spansion FL-1K Serial Flash memory devices.

“Serial Flash is one of the fastest growing memory markets,” said Alan Neibel, founder and CEO of WebFeet Research. “Worldwide serial NOR Flash shipments will grow from $1.34 billion in 2012 to greater than $2 billion by 2015. Customer platforms, particularly those with low to mid-density storage needs, benefit from serial Flash solutions for its small form factor and low pin count as a means to simplify board layouts and reduce cost."

"With the introduction of FL-1K family, Spansion continues to expand its serial peripheral interface (SPI) portfolio, delivering high performance, code-efficient small sectors and advanced security for next generation electronics," said Jackson Huang, vice president of product marketing at Spansion. "In particular, the FL-1K’s flexible data protection and one-time-programmable (OTP) features help prevent unintentional programming errors and hacking, allowing for a more secure user experience and high levels of system integrity."

The entire Spansion FL Serial Flash portfolio scales from 4 Mb up to 1 Gb to serve the broad needs of embedded applications with input output (IO) options for single, dual and quad bit read operation as well as a double data rate (DDR) mode that doubles the read throughput of the system.

Samsung announced today that it is mass producing the world’s fastest embedded memory – the industry’s first eMMC 5.0 devices – in 16 gigabyte (GB), 32GB and 64GB densities for next-generation smartphones and tablets.

Featuring an interface speed of 400 megabytes per second (MB/s), the lightning-fast eMMC PRO memory provides exceptionally fast application booting and loading. The chips will enable much faster multi-tasking, web-browsing, application downloading and file transfers, as well as high-definition video capture and playback, and are highly responsive to running large-file gaming and productivity applications.

“With timely mass production of our ultra-fast eMMC PRO line-up offering a more than 10X performance increase over external memory cards, Samsung will accelerate the spread of high-end mobile devices as the market for devices with larger screens and more multimedia functionality expands even further,” said KyongMoo Mang, vice president of memory marketing. “We will continue to provide advanced mobile memory solutions that allow users to enjoy high definition, large-volume content seamlessly, as we also strengthen technological cooperation with mobile devices manufacturers.”

Samsung’s eMMC PRO memory chips, being produced in 16, 32 and 64GB versions, are based on Samsung 64Gb 10nm class NAND flash technology.

The new Samsung chips support the eMMC version 5.0 standard now nearing completion at JEDEC – the largest standards-setting body in the microelectronics industry.

In 32GB and 64GB densities, the new memory solution has a random read speed of 7000 IOPS (inputs/outputs per second), and a random write speed of 7000 IOPS (in cache on mode, without host overhead). In addition, these chips read sequentially at 250MB/s and write sequentially at 90MB/s.

As the fastest eMMC devices at more than 10 times the speed of a class 10 external memory card (which reads at 24MB/s and writes at 12MB/s), the new mobile memory greatly enhances the movement from one application to another in multitasking activities.

Samsung’s 16GB, 32GB and 64GB eMMC 5.0 devices come in 11.5x13mm packages, making them ideal for mobile devices where space on the printed circuit board is extremely limited.

In a season when their sales should be rising sharply, suppliers of large-sized liquid-crystal (LCD) panels instead are encountering weak demand growth in the third quarter, exacerbating the glut already plaguing the market.

Measured in terms of square meters, supply of large-sized LCDs is expected to exceed demand by 15.9 percent during the period from July through September, according to the latest report entitled “Oversupply to Continue Due to Weak Economy” from information and analytics provider IHS. This is up nearly 3 percentage points from the previous forecast of a 13.2 percent oversupply, as presented in the figure below.

While the glut will decline compared to the second quarter—as is normal during the pre-holiday season—the surplus remains at elevated levels.

“This is the time of the year when LCD panel makers usually are ramping up production to meet holiday demand for televisions, notebook PCs, tablets and other consumer-oriented electronics,” said Ricky Park, senior manager for large-area displays at IHS. “However, the display industry is confronting the prospect of weak sales growth and a lack of visibility into future demand trends. With a combination of flagging economic conditions and the end of a popular television incentive plan in China, large-sized LCD panel supply is expected to overshoot demand by a higher margin than previously predicted.”

IHS defines large-sized LCDs as panels that have a diagonal dimension of 7 inches or greater used in devices such as televisions, notebook PCs and monitors.

Demand dearth

Global large-sized LCD panel demand in terms of square meters is expected to rise by a tepid 6 percent in the third quarter compared to the second. In most years, growth is typically larger because of seasonal factors. Expansion in 2012, for instance, was in double-digit territory at more than 10 percent.

Meanwhile, production capacity utilization among large-sized LCD makers is on the rise, increasing to 84 percent in the third quarter, up from 79 percent in the second.

The combination of the weaker-than-normal increase in demand and the significant expansion in utilization will combine to inflate the excess supply to higher levels.

China’s challenge

For their part, Chinese television makers are experiencing swelling inventories because of weaker-than-expected sales. The companies are likely to reduce their sales targets for 2013 and are trimming panel orders for the second half of the year.

Although China continues to enjoy the strongest economic growth among the major world economies, signs of weakness abound as export growth has declined sharply, due to a stagnant global economic recovery, a stronger yuan, and the Chinese government’s efforts to stem currency speculation. Given the deterioration of its export industry and the sluggish global economy, China can no longer depend on exports to fuel its overall economic growth.

Furthermore, the Chinese government has terminated its subsidy program for energy-saving TVs that had been driving sales earlier this year. This will further reduce panel demand.

Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of North Carolina have demonstrated a new design for an instrument, a "instrumented nanoscale indenter," that makes sensitive measurements of the mechanical properties of thin films — ranging from auto body coatings to microelectronic devices — and biomaterials. The NIST instrument uses a unique technique for precisely measuring the depth of the indentation in a test surface with no contact of the surface other than the probe tip itself.

Nanoindenter head

Indenters have a long history in materials research. Johan August Brinell devised one of the first versions in 1900. The concept is to drop or ram something hard onto the test material and gauge the material’s hardness by the depth of the dent. This is fine for railway steel, but modern technology has brought more challenging measurements: the stiffness of micromechanical sensors used in auto airbags, the hardness of thin coatings on tool bits, the elasticity of thin biological membranes. These require precision measurements of depth in terms of nanometers and force in terms of micronewtons.

Instead of dents in metal, says NIST’s Douglas Smith, "We are trying to get the most accurate measurement possible of how far the indenter tip penetrates into the surface of the specimen, and how much force it took to push it in that far. We record this continuously. It’s called ‘instrumented indentation testing’."

A major challenge, Smith says, is that at the nanoscale you need to know exactly where the surface of the test specimen is relative to the indenter’s tip. Some commercial instruments do this by touching the surface with a reference part of the instrument that is a known distance from the tip, but this introduces additional problems. "For example, if you want to look at creep in polymer — which is one thing that our instrument is particularly good at—that reference point itself is going to be creeping into the polymer just under its own contact force. That’s an error you don’t know and can’t correct for," says Smith.

The NIST solution is a touchless surface detector that uses a pair of tiny quartz tuning forks — the sort used to keep time in most wrist watches. When the tuning forks get close to the test surface, the influence of the nearby mass changes their frequency — not much, but enough. The nanoindenter uses that frequency shift to "lock" the position of the indenter mechanism at a fixed distance from the test surface, but without exerting any detectable force on the surface itself.

"The only significant interaction we want is between the indenter and the specimen," says Smith, "or at least, to be constant and not deforming the surface. This is a significant improvement over the commercial instruments."

The NIST nanoindenter can apply forces up to 150 millinewtons, taking readings a thousand times a second, with an uncertainty lower than 2 micronewtons, and while measuring tip penetration up to 10 micrometers to within about 0.4nm. All of this in done in a way that can be traceably calibrated against basic SI units for force and displacement in a routine manner.

The instrument is well suited for high-precision measurements of hardness, elasticity and creep and similar properties for a wide range of materials, including often difficult to measure soft materials such as polymer films, says Smith, but one of its primary uses will be in the development of reference materials that can be used to calibrate other instrumented indenters. "There still are no NIST standard reference materials for this class of instruments because we wanted to have an instrument that was better than the commercial instruments for doing that," Smith explains.

Together with its partners STFC and Fraunhofer IIS, imec announced today that the European Commission has pledged to continue funding the Europractice IC services for another three years under the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7).

"The EU’s continued support of the Europractice IC services speaks to the value of our efforts to help get European ASIC (application specific integrated circuits)-based products to market quickly and cost effectively,” stated Carl Das, director of the Europractice IC service at imec. “This funding will enable us to continue to provide the best and most advanced solutions to European academia and research institutes, start-up companies and companies within small niche markets.”

Europractice IC service is internationally recognized as a leading service to universities and industry for design, development, prototyping and manufacturing of application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) on a cost-sharing basis. Today, about 500 universities, 150 research centers and more than 200 European companies have access to this service.

Europractice IC services offers dedicated training courses on design flows and methods in advanced technologies, and has negotiated low cost opportunities with the most popular industry-standard CAD vendors and foundries.  As such, academics and research centers have access to state-of-the-art CAD tools for training and non-commercial research, and to multi-project wafer (MPW) runs for prototyping and manufacturing.  Europractice IC services also supports companies in the assembly and testing phase. Over the next three years, the service will expand its offering from ASIC services to prototyping possibilities in MEMS and photonics-related technologies.

Compound Photonics announced an agreement with RFMD whereby Compound Photonics will purchase Europe’s largest gallium arsenide (GaAs) manufacturing facility in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, England.

"Compound Photonics will soon release projector products for mobile devices that are three times brighter and smaller than current state of the art.  To achieve these next generation levels of performance we need to vertically integrate the design and manufacture of the entire light engine.  This acquisition will bring in-house the manufacturing capabilities for the lasers required to power these engines," said Jonathan A. Sachs, Ph.D., president and CEO of Compound Photonics. "The skilled and experienced people, the fab with its toolset, supply chain, mature processes, and a track record of high volume production are ready made for our laser production."

Compound Photonics will use the 53 acre site with its 50,000-square-foot GaAs wafer fab to produce green, red and infrared lasers. The addition of the systems, fabrication equipment, and research and development capabilities as well as the manufacturing team with experience supplying high volume components to leading mobile phone manufacturers  expands Compound Photonics capacity and flexibility to meet its aggressive growth plans.

The powerful, high efficiency, wavelength stabilized laser diodes will be used as illumination sources in miniature high definition 1080p projectors for smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices, as well as ultra high definition 4K projectors and automotive head up displays. Wavelength stabilized infrared lasers for emerging gesture recognition applications will also be manufactured using wafer scale production methods in Newton Aycliffe.

The Newton Aycliffe facility complements Compound Photonics’ 40,000 square-foot semiconductor processing facility in Phoenix, Arizona where it manufactures liquid crystal on silicon displays and optics systems for its laser projection light engines.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Micralyne, Inc., an independent MEMS developer-manufacturer specializing in high-value applications, today announced a collaboration with Adamant-Kogyo Co., Ltd., a leading supplier of fine precision products for the optical communications industry, for the development and manufacture of micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS)-based fiber-optic subsystems. The companies’ joint solutions will serve markets for which a high-performance, ultra-reliable sensor-enabled communications backbone is essential.

Building upon a decade-long partnership in the global MEMS industry, Micralyne and Adamant will leverage their respective core competencies to develop new MEMS-based optical subsystems.

“Micralyne’s strength in optical MEMS component integration in performance-intensive industrial applications complements the subsystem design and packaging expertise of our longstanding partner, Adamant,” said Mike Ciprick, acting president and CEO, Micralyne. “Through our new alliance with Adamant, we aim to lead the industry in quality and reliability for the wide range of applications that benefit from MEMS-based fiber-optic sensors.”

“The global market for fiber-optic point sensors and related subsystems is growing exponentially,” said Yoichi Shimoda, president, Adamant. “In fact, the market research firm, ElectroniCast, has forecast a compound annual growth rate of more than 20 percent between 2012-2017, reaching US$3.98 billion by 2017. With demand for high-performance MEMS sensors especially strong—and with Micralyne so proficient there—we will work in partnership to map out the best possible solutions for this market.”