Research

Adding a third terminal to an LED can make it 50% faster, according to researchers at the iGaN Lab, led by Professor Haiding Sun at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). They took the idea of driving an LED via a hybrid-T network, which combine ac and dc drive signals, one stage further, building a capacitively-coupled ac ...

The International Space Station (ISS) National Laboratory is highlighting the return to earth of a range of projects that have been undertaken in space, in its permanent microgravity research environment. After more than 35 days onboard the International Space Station, SpaceX’s 30th Commercial Resupply Services Mission for NASA successfully splashed back to Earth off the Florida coast earlier this week. ...

Northwestern University engineers have developed an artificial intelligence algorithm for smart robots that gather their own raw data. Dubbed ‘MaxDiff RL’ (maximum diffusion reinforcement learning), “the algorithm’s success lies in its ability to encourage robots to explore their environments as randomly as possible in order to gain a diverse set of experiences”, according to the university. “The algorithm works so ...

Quantum researchers from Sweden and Canada will join forces to find a solution to the problem of cosmic radiation affecting quantum qubits in the world’s deepest located clean room (pictured) two kilometers underground. “We are super excited about this project because it addresses the very important question of how cosmic radiation affects qubits and quantum processors. Gaining access to this ...

Semiconductor research lab Imec has demonstrated wafer-bonding with 400nm pitch copper conductors across the boundary, proposing the technology for logic-on-logic and memory-on-logic wafer stacking within ICs, and for adding back-side power networks to die. Top and bottom wafers bonded by contact at room temperature, and then annealed.  Migrating from the usual square array of wafer-to-wafer interconnects, these are in a ...

Intending to map the ground from small aircraft and drones, researchers in China have made a singe-photon radar. It achieves resolution better than 40cm from 2.1km altitude using around two photons per pixel, in the face of 10,000 daylight noise photons per pixel. Created by the University of Science and Technology of China, the lidar combines three 150mA 1.55μm lasers ...

Scientist in Korea are making fast p-channel amorphous thin-film transistors. “Research progress on p-type amorphous semiconductors has been notably sluggish,” according to the Pohang University of Science and Technology (PosTech). “Despite the widespread adoption of n-type amorphous oxide semiconductors, particularly those based on IGZO [indium gallium zinc oxide] in OLED displays and memory devices, the advancement of p-type oxide materials ...

Japanese telco NTT has used machine learning to develop AI which predicts damage to outdoor communications infrastructure during disasters such as earthquakes or deluges. Resolution is as fine as individual telegraph poles. “This technology allows for accurate disaster prediction by building a model that learns disaster patterns from facility data that the NTT Group has inspected and repaired [after] past ...

Researchers at the Tokyo Institute of Technology have found a novel way to reduce source and drain contact resistance, and increase carrier mobility, in amorphous oxide transistors. In particular, they are amorphous indium gallium oxide (a-IGZO) thin-film transistors that are being proposed for a form of DRAM, where memory density can be increased by stacking the transistors. The problem is ...

Imec has demo-ed a major advancement in silicon-based wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) – a compact 32-channel silicon-based wavelength filter with low loss and high tuning efficiency, enabling a 4x increase in the number of transmitted and received wavelength channels compared to today’s commercial transceivers. The demonstrated capability will enable continued scaling of the bandwidth density and power efficiency of next-generation silicon-photonics-based ...