ic Related Articles

Industrial design researchers at Brunel University London have solved two of the major challenges which prevent everyday items of clothing being turned into power sources for smartphones, tablets and other personal tech.Technology to produce super capacitor thread capable of being made into cloth has been around for some time. But until now scientists have been unable to make it provide sufficient voltage for most devices or devise a method to produce it economically outside the lab.Now patented breakthroughs made by colleagues Professors David Harrison and John Fyson, Dr Yanmeng Xu, Dr Fulian Qiu and Ruirong Zhang of Brunel's Department of Design mean thread capable of storing and supplying enough power for common devices and of being manufactured at industrial scale are a reality.Explained Prof Harrison: "Supercapacitors are already ubiquitous as back-up power in phones, PCs and tablets."They store energy without a chemical reaction so can be charged and discharged almost indefinitely. But in thread form they have never before been able to break the 1V barrier."What we have done is show we can produce a multi-layered structure with two sequential capacitive layers capable of producing up to 2V. Breaking the 1V threshold is important as in the real world we work on the voltage of common batteries – 1.5V."We also wanted to address mass production issues so developed a process to semi-automatically coat stainless steel wire the thickness of a human hair with eight separate layers."The work at Brunel is part of the EU-sponsored Powerweave programme which brings together researchers from seven countries to produce textiles which can both generate and store power.Reference:KY36-F17724102900KY36-MKP1841410254KY36-BFC246816474

An ultra-compact implantable image sensor using body channel communication has been demonstrated in Japan. The body channel approach allows the sensor-transmitter device to be much smaller and use less power than an RF wireless unit.  Fundamental limitsInterest in implantable medical sensors is on the rise as developments in established technologies and new concepts are making more and more applications feasible. One thing that all such sensors share is the need to be able to get the information they gather within the body, out of the body.RF communication is widely used for such applications, however, with implantable devices size reduction is generally desirable to reduce invasiveness, and in some applications there are also specific size limitations, owing to where and how the sensors are to be implanted. For example, sensors intended for use inside the brain need to be very compact.Using smaller antennas generally means using higher frequencies, and that in turn leads to attenuation problems with biological tissues. To compensate for increased attenuation more power is needed, which is also a serious issue for an implantable device.Conductive communicationAn alternative wireless approach to sending the data is body channel communication, in which an electrical signal is transmitted by conduction through the tissues of the body. In this issue of Electronics Letters, researchers from the Nara Institute of Science and Technology's Graduate School of Materials Science report using this approach to transmit and receive image data from a CMOS sensor fully implanted in a simulated body environment.Their sensor design, using body channel as the transmission method, will allow data to be read from the device by attaching an electrode to the surface of the body near the implantation site, as well as allowing the sensor unit itself to be low-power and small."Our implantable CMOS image sensor is intended for biomedical applications such as brain functional imaging," explains team member Hajime Hayami. "It can be planted with minimum invasiveness. Its features enable implantation of a number of sensors in a brain to investigate collaborative neural activities."In their experiments, the team at Nara have transmitted images from a CMOS sensor submerged in phosphate buffer saline (PBS), a body simulant material, to a receiver electrode 2 mm away. The experiments prove the principle of operation for this form of communication and even this small distance is enough to allow in vivo use in smaller animals."We are planning to apply our device to brain functional imaging of a mouse brain in the near future. Because the size of a mouse brain is only a few mm thick, the transmission distance of 2 mm is sufficient. Even in the case of signal transmission through a longer distance with a larger animal, the experimental results indicate that this method can be applied by adjusting the sensitivity of the receiver circuit," said Hayami.Neural arraysBefore the team can proceed with implantation in an animal, they need to integrate all of their PCB based devices into a single chip. This chip has already been designed and they are now working on the fabrication, with the goal of beginning implantation experiments by the end of 2014.Meanwhile, the Nara researchers have also been working to develop the design and say that relatively long distance transmission is now possible through improvements to the receiver circuit. On the sensor/transmitter side, they have also shown that they can use pulse-width modulation rather than an ADC output from the image sensor.The central goal of their work is creating tools for research into the human brain. "Our research group aims to elucidate the cooperative neural activity with distributed ultra-small sensors in the brain. We think we can achieve the goal by designing more intelligent chips based on the proposed communication method," said Hayami.The team believe that current sociological trends, including aging societies, will continue to drive demand for implantable devices, and that the applications of this kind of technology may develop to include more natural interaction between users and technology. Hayami commented that "I hope we will create an epoch where one can unconsciously use implantable devices by developing a brain-machine interface."Reference:KY45-OVM7695-RAEAKY45- OV09726-A40A-1DKY45- MT9P001I12STC 

At the 2015 International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC), nanoelectronics research center imec, in collaboration with Tyndall National Institute, the University of Leuven (KULeuven) and the Ghent University, demonstrated a 4x20Gb/s wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) hybrid CMOS silicon photonics transceiver, paving the way to cost-effective, high-density single-mode optical fiber links.Hybrid CMOS silicon photonics transceivers, transmitting and receiving data over single-mode optical fiber, are expected to play a key role in next-generation datacenter connectivity. By leveraging existing CMOS manufacturing and 3-D assembly infrastructure, the hybrid CMOS silicon photonics platform enables high integration density and reduced power consumption, as well as high yield and low manufacturing cost. Combined with wavelength division multiplexing capability, highly scalable single-mode optical transceivers can be constructed, satisfying the growing need for interconnect bandwidth in next-generation cloud infrastructure.Imec's CMOS silicon photonics transceiver comprises a silicon photonics (SiPh) chip, flip-chip integrated with a low-power 40nm CMOS chip. The SiPh chip, fabricated on imec's 25Gb/s Silicon Photonics Platform (iSiPP25G), comprises an array of four compact 25Gb/s ring modulators, coupled to a common bus waveguide to allow WDM transmission. On the receive side, a ring-based, low-loss (2dB) demultiplexing filter with 300GHz channel spacing is implemented and further connected to an array of four 25Gb/s Ge waveguide photodetectors. Both the ring modulators and the ring WDM filters include highly efficient integrated heating elements to tune their resonant wavelengths to the desired WDM channels. The CMOS chip includes four differential 20Gb/s ring modulator drivers and four 20Gb/s trans-impedance amplifiers. A 12 channel single-mode fiber array is packaged onto the grating coupler array on the chip, using a planar approach developed at Tyndall National Institute.Error-free operation was demonstrated in a 20Gb/s loop-back experiment for all four WDM channels as well as with two channels running together. The dynamic power consumption of the transceiver, including the CMOS driver and receiver, was less than 2pJ/bit. Thermal tuning of the WDM channel wavelengths consumed only 7mW/nm per channel. The transceiver can be further scaled to higher bandwidth capacity by adopting more advanced CMOS technology and by adding more WDM channels, enabling optical modules for 100GbE, 400GbE and beyond for future datacenter interconnects.Reference:KY59-AFBR-5805ZKY59-HFBR-7924EWZKY59-HFBR5320

Samsung Electronics unveiled the industry’s first removable memory cards based on the JEDEC UFS 1.0 Card Extension Standard, for use in high-resolution mobile shooting devices such as DSLRs, 3D VR cameras, action cams and drones. Coming in a wide range of storage capacities including 256, 128, 64 and 32 GB, Samsung’s UFS cards are expected to bring a significant performance boost to the external memory storage market, allowing much more satisfying multimedia experiences.“Our new 256GB UFS card will provide an ideal user experience for digitally-minded consumers and lead the industry in establishing the most competitive memory card solution,” said Jung-bae Lee, senior vice president, Memory Product Planning & Application Engineering, Samsung Electronics.“By launching our new high-capacity, high-performance UFS card line-up, we are changing the growth paradigm of the memory card market to prioritise performance and user convenience above all.”Samsung’s new 256GB UFS removable memory card ─ simply referred to as the UFS card will provide greatly improved user experiences, especially in high-resolution 3D gaming and high-resolution movie playback.It provides more than five times faster sequential read performance compared to that of a typical microSD card, reading sequentially at 530 MB/s which is similar to the sequential read speed of the most widely used SATA SSDs.With this UFS card, consumers have the ability to read a 5GB, Full-HD movie in approximately 10 seconds, compared to a typical UHS-1 microSD card, which would take over 50 seconds with 95MB/s of sequential reading speed.Also, at a random read rate of 40,000 IOPS, the 256GB card delivers more than 20 times higher random read performance compared to a typical microSD, which offers approximately 1,800 IOPS.When it comes to writing, the new 256GB UFS card processes 35,000 random IOPS, which is 350 times higher than the 100 IOPs of a typical microSD card, and attains a 170MB/s sequential write speed, almost doubling the top-end microSD card speed.With these substantial performance improvements, the new 256GB UFS card significantly reduces multimedia data downloading time, photo thumbnail loading time and buffer clearing time in burst shooting mode, which, collectively, can be particularly beneficial to DSLR camera users.To shoot 24 large/extra fine JPEG photographs (1,120 MB-equivalent) continuously with a high-end DSLR camera, the 256GB UFS card takes less than seven seconds, compared to a UHS-1 microSD card which typically takes about 32 seconds, at 35MB/s.To achieve the highest performance and most power-efficient data transport, the UFS card supports multiple commands with command queuing features and enables simultaneous reading and writing through the use of separately dedicated paths, doubling throughput.As the leading memory storage provider, Samsung has been aggressive in preparing UFS solutions for the marketplace, while contributing to JEDEC standardisation of the Universal Flash Storage 2.0 specification in September 2013 and the UFS 1.0 Card Extension standard in March 2016.Following its introduction of the industry-first 128GB embedded UFS chip in January 2015, the company successfully launched a 256GB embedded UFS memory for high-end mobile devices in February of this year.As of earlier this month, Samsung also completed the Universal Flash Storage Association (UFSA)’s certification program that evaluates electrical and functional specifications for compatibility of a UFS card, and Samsung’s new UFS card products were approved as UFSA-certified UFS cards with the right to use the official UFS logo for the first time in the industry.Reference:S29GL032N11FFIS42S29GL064N90FFIS30S29AS016J70BFA040  

cientists have created a material that could make reading biological signals, from heartbeats to brainwaves, much more sensitive. Organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) are designed to measure signals created by electrical impulses in the body, such as heartbeats or brainwaves. However, they are currently only able to measure certain signals.Now researchers led by a team from Imperial College London have created a material that measures signals in a different way to traditional OECTs that they believe could be used in complementary circuits, paving the way for new biological sensor technologies.Semiconducting materials can conduct electronic signals, carried by either electrons or their positively charged counterparts, called holes. Holes in this sense are the absence of electrons - the spaces within atoms that can be filled by them.Electrons can be passed between atoms but so can holes. Materials that use primarily hole-driven transport are called 'p-type' materials, and those that use primarily electron-driven transport are called, and 'n-type' materials.An 'ambipolar' material is the combination of both types, allowing the transport of holes and electrons within the same material, leading to potentially more sensitive devices. However, it has not previously been possible to create ambipolar materials that work in the body.The current most sensitive OECTs use a material where only holes are transported. Electron transport in these devices however has not been possible, since n-type materials readily break down in water-based environments like the human body.But in research published today in Nature Communications, the team have demonstrated the first ambipolar OECT that can conduct electrons as well as holes with high stability in water-based solutions.The team overcame the seemingly inherent instability of n-type materials in water by designing new structures that prevent electrons from engaging in side-reactions, which would otherwise degrade the device.These new devices can detect positively charged sodium and potassium ions, important for neuron activities in the body, particularly in the brain. In the future, the team hope to be able to create materials tuned to detect particular ions, allowing ion-specific signals to be detected.Lead author Alexander Giovannitti, a PhD student under the supervision of Professor Iain McCulloch, from the Department of Chemistry and Centre for Plastic Electronics at Imperial said:"Proving that an n-type organic electrochemical transistor can operate in water paves the way for new sensor electronics with improved sensitivity. "It will also allow new applications, particularly in the sensing of biologically important positive ions, which are not feasible with current devices. For example, these materials might be able to detect abnormalities in sodium and potassium ion concentrations in the brain, responsible for neuron diseases such as epilepsy." Reference:2N3811DMA204020RDMMT5551S-7-F 

How many users get exasperated when their hard drive slows down? We've all found ourselves annoyed and feeling stressed watching that little spinning wheel. Will it ever stop? Usually the problem is with the hard drive. More often than not has been cluttered with all sorts of unnecessary information either malicious or otherwise. At the extreme, the hard drive becomes so corrupted that a data recovery specialist is needed. However if you keep your hard drive healthy, it can serve you well for many years.Delete your temporary files.The first port of call when your hard drive slows is to delete your temporary files. Internet browsers store these temporary files on your hard drive in an effort to speed up performance. Often they are not needed and many users never delete them. Potentially this can mean than hundreds of thousands of unnecessary files are indexed and stored on your hard disk drive. You can also remove files from your recycle bin that you are sure you want to be deleted forever. These simple actions will create a little bit more space in the data areas. Next time you attempt a read or write, there is much less ‘clutter' for the heads to work through. The result – a faster hard drive! You can always setup an automatic delete function through the operating system, weekly or monthly.Partition your hard drive.Partitioning your hard drive can reduce the risk of files being corrupted by viruses. Viruses are responsible for many performance issues and are very difficult to get rid of. Make sure your hard drive is organised by storing frequently used files and programs near each other. This also boosts the speed of your hard drive. It uses short stroking technology to minimize head repositioning delays. Although this greatly increases speed and performance it also decreases the capacity so is not always the best option, especially if you are nearing full capacity already.Install good anti-virus and anti-Trojan software.All of us understand the need for anti-virus software but how many know the difference between viruses and Trojans? Anti-virus software will not detect Trojans and these are primarily responsible for slow hard drives. Routinely run ‘on demand' scans from various different anti-Trojan applications and be sure to keep your anti-virus software upgraded.   Defrag your hard drive.Defragmenting your hard drive increases the efficiency. Ordering all the blocks and rationalising the free space is a little like tidying up your garage. Next time you need to find something, it won't take you nearly as long! You can use specialised software easily found on your machine which looks at the physical location of the files on your hard drive and optimizes those files so the computer doesn't need to search around to find the information it needs. MyDefrag is a free program that once set up will run at least every other week to ensure that your hard drive is kept running effectively.Upgrade!Sometimes it's simply hardware issues which are affecting the speed of your hard drive. This means you need to just upgrade. Do some research into your current hard drive as well as other popular ones. Consider upgrading to a high efficiency hard drive, or consider an solid state drive（SSD）.ReferenceKY259-SFSA128GV1AA4TO-I-NC-216-STDKY259-SFSA128GM1AA4TO-I-NC-616-STDKY259- SFSA128GV1AA4TO-C-NC-216-STD