Latest Nanoelectronics Stories

TAIPEI, Taiwan, Sept. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM), the leading supplier of MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) devices for consumer and portable applications(1), today announced that Benedetto Vigna, Group Vice President and General Manager of its MEMS, Sensors and High Performance Analog Division, will deliver the opening keynote speech at the SEMICON Taiwan 2010 MEMS Forum to discuss the challenges of sensor integration and the trends for future smart-sensor...

Strain-gatingResearchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a new class of electronic logic device in which current is switched by an electric field generated by the application of mechanical strain to zinc oxide nanowires.The devices, which include transistors and diodes, could be used in nanometer-scale robotics, nano-electromechanical systems (NEMS), micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) and microfluidic devices. The mechanical action used to initiate the strain could...

Breakthrough discovery enables nanoscale manipulation of the piezoelectric effectThe generation of an electric field by the compression and expansion of solid materials is known as the piezoelectric effect, and it has a wide range of applications ranging from everyday items such as watches, motion sensors and precise positioning systems. Researchers at McGill University's Department of Chemistry have now discovered how to control this effect in nanoscale semiconductors called "quantum...

Bioprobes offer first intracellular measurements with a semiconductor deviceChemists and engineers at Harvard University have fashioned nanowires into a new type of V-shaped transistor small enough to be used for sensitive probing of the interior of cells.The new device, described this week in the journal Science, is smaller than many viruses and about one-hundredth the width of the probes now used to take cellular measurements, which can be nearly as large as the cells themselves. Its...

A new technology enabling tiny machines called micro electromechanical systems to "self-calibrate" could make possible super-accurate and precise sensors for crime-scene forensics, environmental testing and medical diagnostics.The innovation might enable researchers to create a "nose-on-a-chip" for tracking criminal suspects, sensors for identifying hazardous solid or gaseous substances, as well as a new class of laboratory tools for specialists working in nanotechnology...

NIST researchers grow nanowires made of semiconductors"”gallium nitride alloys"”by depositing atoms layer-by-layer on a silicon crystal under high vacuum. NIST has the unusual capability to produce these nanowires without using metal catalysts, thereby enhancing luminescence and reducing defects. NIST nanowires also have excellent mechanical quality factors.The latest experiments, described in Advanced Functional Materials,* maintained the purity and defect-free crystal structure of NIST...

Processes which lend materials new characteristics are generally complicated and therefore often rather difficult to reproduce. So surprise turns to astonishment when scientists report on new methods which not only produce outstanding results despite the fact that they use economically priced starting materials but also do not need expensive instrumentation.Just a simple framework made of polystyreneThis is exactly what Jamil Elias and Laetitia Philippe of Empa's Mechanics of Materials and...

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif., July 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Strasbaugh (OTC Bulletin Board: STRB), a leading provider of equipment and tools for advanced chemical mechanical planarization (CMP), prime wafer polishing, and grinding equipment for device and wafer manufacturing, announced today that it has engaged E-Dot Technology, a CMP service and support company in Taiwan R.O.C., to represent Strasbaugh. From their headquarters in the Hsinchu Industrial Park, E-Dot will provide service and...

Surface tension isn't a very powerful force, but it matters for small things "” water bugs, paint, and, it turns out, nanowires.Nanowires are so tiny that a human hair would dwarf them "” some have diameters 150 billionths of a meter. Because of their small size, surface tension that occurs during the manufacturing process pulls them together, limiting their usefulness. This is a problem because the wires are seen as a potential core element of new and more powerful microelectronics,...

Imagine being able to drop a toothpick on the head of one particular person standing among 100,000 people in a stadium. It sounds impossible, yet this degree of precision at the cellular level has been demonstrated by researchers affiliated with the Johns Hopkins University Institute for NanoBioTechnology. Their study was published online in June in Nature Nanotechnology.The team used precise electrical fields as "tweezers" to guide and place gold nanowires, each about one-two...