Updates in silicon and electronics technology.

Ed.: This is a special feature courtesy of Binghamton University.

Breakthrough quantum-dot transistors create a flexible alternative to conventional electronics. Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory have created fundamental electronic building blocks out of tiny structures known as quantum dots and used them to assemble functional logic circuits. This development provides a low-cost and manufacturing-friendly approach to complex electronic devices. The building blocks can be fabricated in a laboratory with simple, solution-based techniques, and provide these components for a host of innovative devices. Potential applications of the new approach to electronic devices based on non-toxic quantum dots include printable circuits, flexible displays, lab-on-a-chip, wearable devices, medical testing, smart implants, and biometrics. (IEEC file #11971, Science Daily, 10/29/20)

This flexible and rechargeable battery is 10 times more powerful than state-of-the-art. University of California researchers working with ZPower have developed a flexible, rechargeable silver oxide-zinc battery that provides five to 10 times greater energy density than current state-of-the-art. The battery also is easier to manufacture, as it can be screen-printed in normal lab conditions. The areal capacity for this innovative battery is 50ma/cm2 at room temperature, which is 10 to 20 times greater than the areal capacity of a typical lithium-ion battery. The device can be used in flexible, stretchable electronics for wearables as well as soft robotics. (IEEC file #12027, Science Daily, 12/7/20)

To continue reading, please log in or register using the link in the upper right corner of the page.

Last Saturday, my family and I reminisced about the Great East Japan Earthquake that happened almost 10 years ago.

How a new trade group is aiding the DoD’s desire for a trusted supply chain.

For decades the printed circuit industry has asserted the lack of government support has a deleterious effect on the supply chain’s ability to properly supply the US military. Attempts to correct this over the years have been numerous but largely unsuccessful.

Led by IPC, industry has lobbied the US Congress since the early 1990s to reduce barriers to winning military contracts, and, as margins were slashed beginning in the early 2000s, to fund research and development that could be shared among Defense Department suppliers to help their competitiveness.

IPC, for its part, has threaded the needle in terms of trying to support its domestic constituents and meet the needs of the DoD while not alienating other members that are foreign-based. It has provided support and advocacy to the Executive Agent for Printed Circuit Boards and Interconnect Technology, a position funded by Congress in the annual National Defense Authorization Act and assigned to the Navy. The EA’s role is to help the DoD access reliable, trusted and affordable PCB fabrication and assembly products, and facilitate R&D collaboration. In practice, it’s a politically intense position that comes with unwritten but very real limits on how hard the EA can push for funding and priorities. The results are clear: The US industry remains behind several geographical competitors in terms of capabilities and capacity. Moreover, as new edicts were handed down to promote greater security of IP, smaller companies, especially fabricators, have found it financially treacherous to remain on the DoD’s acquisition list.

To continue reading, please log in or register using the link in the upper right corner of the page.

The Taiwan Printed Circuit Association (TPCA) released December’s shipment data.