Foundry

GaN Systems announces 10X production increase at TSMC

GaN Systems, the leading manufacturer of gallium nitride power transistors, announces that its foundry, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (TMSC), has expanded the high volume production of products based on GaN System's proprietary Island Technology® by 10X in response to surging global demand from consumer and enterprise customers.

Transphorm

Inefficient power conversion wastes tens of billions of dollars every year but now Transphorm of Goleta, California is redefining power conversion. Its work is part of the move from inefficient silicon power semiconductors needing considerable water cooling to silicon carbide or gallium nitride versions is seen as the future of power electronics in a host of IDTechEx interviews across the world. This content has been updated in June 2018 following a further recent interview.

Chemist aims to put his nanohoops into future devices

Nanohoops, can be made using both carbon and other atoms. Because they efficiently absorb and distribute energy, they may be useful in solar cells, organic light-emitting diodes or as new sensors or probes for medicine.

Is 3D printing using binders having a resurgence?

Jetting binder on layers of plastic powder was originally developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1993. This binder-on-powder process was the first to be known as 3D Printing technology.

Powering lightweight devices and wearable electronics

IDTechEx report from a FlexTech Alliance workshop on novel & innovative power sources for lightweight devices and wearable electronics

Emerging application areas for silver nanoparticle inks

Silver nanoparticles have been in the technology-push and pre-commercialisation phase for almost a decade now. May companies have come and gone, and yet success has remained largely elusive. The mood is however beginning to turn. The business landscape, once dominated by small pioneering firms, now also includes large suppliers. The end users, once put off by the high up-front price as well as performance uncertainty of Ag nanoinks, are now seriously engaged. This article gives a top-level overview of several emerging applications areas.

GE announces Predix Cloud

GE has announced plans to enter the cloud services market with Predix Cloud.

Bess-tech

Bess-Tech is commercializing a technology to manufacture doped Si anodes for Li ion batteries. The difference with direct competitors is that the anode is a direct silicon carpet on current collectors, and is not supplied as a Si-C composite.

Infinite Corridor Technology

Infinite Corridor Technology (ICT) was set up in 2009 as an MIT spin-off. Its technology enables the creation of flexible and stretchable PBCs. Its initial target market was wearable devices that can be twisted and flexed. Its technology uses standard PBC technology on copper-clad Kapton and does not require any inherently flexible technology such as special plastic substrates or printed conductive inks.

Precision growth of light-emitting nanowires

A novel approach to growing nanowires promises a new means of control over their light-emitting and electronic properties.

Possible avenue to better electrolyte for lithium ion batteries

Researchers looking for a better understanding of liquid electrolyte may have found a pathway forward.

Carbonics revolutionizing wireless technology by employing carbon

Carbonics aims to revolutionize traditional electronics by employing earth-abundant carbon nanomaterials to vastly improve the power consumption and performance of wireless products that include next-generation smartphone and wearable devices.

MicroOLED

MicroOLED is a French manufacturer of OLED microdisplays for applications in digital viewfinders, head-up displays and wearables. The company was founded in 2007 and started production in 2012. The company is located in Grenoble in the scientific campus of CEA.

Technology uses micro-windmills to recharge cell phones

Researchers have designed a micro-windmill that generates wind energy and may become an innovative solution to cell phone batteries constantly in need of recharging and home energy generation where large windmills are not preferred.

Exotic drops could lead to all-liquid battery

Through the combination of water, oil and nanoparticle surfactants plus an external field, researchers are able to stabilize water drops into non-equilibrium shapes that could find valuable uses as therapeutic delivery systems, biosensors, microfluidic lab-on-a-chip devices, or possibly as the basis for an all-liquid electrical battery.

Longest cycle life reported so far for any lithium-sulfur battery.

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have demonstrated in the laboratory a lithium-sulfur (Li/S) battery that has more than twice the specific energy of lithium-ion batteries and that lasts for more than 1,500 cycles of charge-discharge with minimal decay of the battery's capacity. This is longest cycle life reported so far for any lithium-sulfur battery.

Epigem Ltd

Epigem is a privately-held company whose business model is to act as a foundry for microfluidics and transparent conductive film. They started their work on transparent conductive films in 1996/1997 and can use both photolithography and embossing to create metal mesh TCFs.

Consortium to develop advanced packaging solutions

Reliability and performance issues are technical challenges in packaging solutions for compact sized consumer electronics and high power electronics.

Energy harvester rolls to market production

A new concept becomes proven reality, as MicroGen's nanotechnology-based energy harvester - researched and developed by the company at the Cornell NanoScale Science and Technology Facility (CNF) - begins commercial-scale production this summer.

Prospects of graphene transistors for high-frequency electronics

In the end graphene transistors currently look extremely promising for revolutionize both, high-frequency electronics and plastic electronics, especially as the expected performance has been proven recently at least in single devices.