Some organic materials might be able to be utilised similarly to silicon semiconductors in optoelectronics. Whether in solar cells, light-emitting diodes, or in transistors – what is important is the band gap, i.e. the difference in energy level between electrons in the valence band (bound state) and the conduction band (mobile state). Charge carriers can […]
Semiconductors
UV Light May Illuminate Improvements for Next Generation Electronic Devices
By adding one more layer of atoms to already infinitesimally small semiconductors, a next-level generation of electrical devices becomes possible. This work to build better and faster electronics is well underway, but little was known about how to test the ingredients of these devices to ensure performance. Now, researchers from the Nagoya Institute of Technology […]
Semiconductor Sphere: Why is SoC Gaining Momentum in IoT Innovation?
Rapid advancements in the Internet of Things (IoT) are accelerating its adoption across the industrial realm. While the number of active IoT devices as of 2018 was about 7 billion, it’s estimated to reach 22 billion by 2025. These will encompass all sorts of devices used across sectors like healthcare, retail, transportation, wearables, and much […]
Lattice sensAI Delivers 10X Performance Boost for Low Power, Smart IoT Devices at the Edge
Lattice Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ: LSCC), the low power programmable leader, today announced major performance and design flow enhancements for its award-winning Lattice sensAI™ solutions stack. The Lattice sensAI stack provides a comprehensive hardware and software solution for implementing low power (1mW-1W), always-on artificial intelligence (AI) functionality in smart devices operating at the Edge. IHS forecasts 40 […]
Ultra-Clean Fabrication Platform Produces Nearly Ideal 2-D Transistors
Semiconductors, which are the basic building blocks of transistors, microprocessors, lasers, and LEDs, have driven advances in computing, memory, communications, and lighting technologies since the mid-20th century. Recently discovered two-dimensional materials, which feature many superlative properties, have the potential to advance these technologies, but creating 2-D devices with both good electrical contacts and stable performance […]
2D Insulators with Ferromagnetism Are Rare; Researchers Just Identified a New One
Collaborating scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and Princeton University have discovered a new layered ferromagnetic semiconductor, a rare type of material that holds great promise for next-generation electronic technologies. As the name implies, semiconductors are the Goldilocks of electrically conductive materials– not a metal, and not an insulator, […]
Semiconductor Sphere: May the Fastest Chips Win
R2-D2 and C-3PO, the robots in the popular movie Star Wars, gave us a glimpse of the artificial intelligence (AI) robots of the future. While some prefer the term “deep learning” over AI, both names pretty much mean the same thing. In recent years, AI robots have become a reality. Sophia, a female robot built […]
Energy-Saving New LED Phosphor
Light emitting diodes or LEDs are only able to produce light of a certain colour. However, white light can be created using different colour mixing processes. “In a white LED, red and yellow-green phosphors are excited by the light from a blue diode. The particles emit light in the red and green range, and in […]
Semiconductor Scientists Discover Effect That Was Thought Impossible
A physical effect known as superinjection underlies modern light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and lasers. For decades this effect was believed to occur only in semiconductor heterostructures — that is, structures composed of two or more semiconductor materials. Researchers from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology have found superinjection to be possible in homostructures, which are […]
2D Gold Quantum Dots Are Atomically Tunable with Nanotubes
Two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors are promising for quantum computing and future electronics. Now, researchers can convert metallic gold into semiconductor and customize the material atom-by-atom on boron nitride nanotubes. Gold is a conductive material already widely used as interconnects in electronic devices. As electronics have gotten smaller and more powerful, the semiconducting materials involved have also […]