The Kynix Blog

Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has developed the world's first 15-nanometer (nm) process technology, which will apply to 2-bit-per-cell 128-gigabit (16 gigabytes) NAND flash memories. Mass production with the new technology will start at the end of April at Fab 5 Yokkaichi Operations, Toshiba's NAND flash fabrication facility (fab), replacing second generation 19 nm process technology, Toshiba's previous flagship process. The second stage of Fab 5 is currently under construction, and the new technology will also be deployed there.Toshiba has achieved the world's smallest class chip size with the 15nm process plus improved peripheral circuitry technology. The new chips achieve the same write speed as chips formed with second generation 19 nm process technology, but boost the data transfer rate to 533 megabits a second, 1.3 times faster, by employing a high speed interface.Toshiba is now applying the 15nm process technology 3-bit-per-cell chips, and aims to start mass production in the first quarter of this fiscal year, to June 2014. The company will develop controllers for embedded NAND flash memory in parallel and introduce 3-bit-per-cell products for smartphones and tablets, and will subsequently extend application to notebook PCs by developing a controller compliant with solid state drives (SSD). 

Researchers from the University of Twente MESA+ research institute, together with the company SolMateS, have developed a new type of transistor to reduce the power consumption of microchips. The basic element of modern electronics, namely the transistor, suffers from significant current leakage. By enveloping a transistor with a shell of piezoelectric material, which distorts when voltage is applied, researchers were able to reduce this leakage by a factor of five (compared to a transistor without this material). An article presenting the prototype of the transistor appears in the June issue of IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, an authoritative scientific journal in the field of transistor research.Current leakage in transistors is one of the causes of battery depletion in portable electronic devices, such as smartphones and laptops. With the new type of transistor, either the current leakage (while the transistor is not active) or the energy consumption (while the transistor is active) can be addressed. In the latter case, it is estimated that energy consumption can be reduced by approximately 10%.Intelligent squeezingThe trick lies in a piezoelectric material which is applied to the exterior of the transistor. The piezoelectric material expands when you apply a voltage to it and compresses the silicon in the transistor with a pressure of about 10,000 atmospheres. This high pressure ensures that electrons flow through the transistor faster. You can therefore make microchips more efficient by 'intelligently squeezing the transistor'.Incidentally, existing transistors are already put under high pressure in order to improve their efficiency. In this case, however, the pressure is permanently built in, which actually increases the current leakage. In the prototype designed by the UT, the transistor is only put under pressure when required and this makes a big difference. The electric current needed to switch the transistor from on to off is thereby partly replaced by mechanical tension.CrudeAccording to dr. ir. Ray Hueting from the chair Semiconductor Components, this is an initial prototype that can already produce energy savings. "The design is still fairly crude where the material is concerned. With the further development of the transistor, it should therefore be possible to achieve a further significant increase in efficiency."The operating principle of this transistor was theoretically predicted in 2013 by the same research group. But in advance it was by no means certain that the transistor would be a success. The reason for this is that piezoelectric materials and silicon (which transistors are made of) are difficult to combine. The researchers solved this by inserting a buffer layer between the two materials.    

Fujitsu Semiconductor Europe today announced a new arrival to its FerVID family of chips for RFID tags. As with all members of the FerVID family, the MB89R112 series uses ferroelectric memory (FRAM) for fast write speeds, high-frequency rewritability, radiation tolerance and low-power operation. With industry-leading 9 KB memory, the series offers tailored solutions for factory automation and medical equipment as well as for embedded and industrial applications.  Since 2004, Fujitsu has developed FRAM products as part of the FerVID family with two frequency bands, for use as chips in high-functionality RFID tags operating in the HF band (13.56 MHz) and UHF band (860 to 960 MHz). Today, its products serve a wide range of applications, including chips for data-carrier tags in the factory automation and maintenance sectors, chips capable of withstanding gamma radiation or electron beams for the medical and pharmaceutical sectors, and chips with serial interfaces for embedded applications.The new MB89R112 series includes 9 KB of FRAM, the greatest density available in an RFID chip operating in the HF band as defined in ISO/IEC 15693. Of this 9 KB, 8 KB is provided as user memory, enabling access by read/write operations to the entire 8 KB region as defined in ISO/IEC 15693. The series will be offered in two variants, with 24pF and 96pF input capacitance. Writing 8 KB of data takes approximately four seconds, a high-speed operation that is six times faster than speeds achieved by E2PROM products. The greater data volume available on RFID tags enables greater efficiency for applications such as product lifecycle traceability management – from manufacturing to logistics, use and disposal – or on-site data logging for equipment maintenance records.The market is demanding higher-capacity memory, plus RFID connectivity to sensors and microcontrollers, so as to facilitate the wireless modification of product operating parameters or the logging of environmental factors during distribution. These features would benefit production control in automotive and electronics manufacturing, as well as maintenance applications in aviation, road-building, construction and civil engineering.The MB89R112QN products enable these features by supplementing the HF RFID interface with an additional SPI serial interface for microcontroller connectivity. Since the 8 KB of user memory in FRAM can be accessed from the microcontroller via SPI, shared memory regions can be used both for data logging and as a parametric area for changing the microcontroller's operating parameters.Application examples include logging environmental readings for logistics, detecting equipment errors, modifying electronic displays, altering sensor threshold values, changing firmware settings, plus many other novel and innovative applications that were previously unworkable. 

A new type of transistor that could make possible fast and low-power computing devices for energy-constrained applications such as smart sensor networks, implantable medical electronics and ultra-mobile computing is feasible, according to Penn State researchers. Called a near broken-gap tunnel field effect transistor (TFET), the new device uses the quantum mechanical tunneling of electrons through an ultrathin energy barrier to provide high current at low voltage.Penn State, the National Institute of Standards and Technology and IQE, a specialty wafer manufacturer, jointly presented their findings at the International Electron Devices Meeting in Washington, D.C. The IEDM meeting includes representatives from all of the major chip companies and is the recognized forum for reporting breakthroughs in semiconductor and electronic technologies.Tunnel field effect transistors are considered to be a potential replacement for current CMOS transistors, as device makers search for a way to continue shrinking the size of transistors and packing more transistors into a given area. The main challenge facing current chip technology is that as size decreases, the power required to operate transistors does not decrease in step. The results can be seen in batteries that drain faster and increasing heat dissipation that can damage delicate electronic circuits. Various new types of transistor architecture using materials other than the standard silicon are being studied to overcome the power consumption challenge."This transistor has previously been developed in our lab to replace MOSFET transistors for logic applications and to address power issues," said lead author and Penn State graduate student Bijesh Rajamohanan. "In this work we went a step beyond and showed the capability of operating at high frequency, which is handy for applications where power concerns are critical, such as processing and transmitting information from devices implanted inside the human body." For implanted devices, generating too much power and heat can damage the tissue that is being monitored, while draining the battery requires frequent replacement surgery. The researchers, led by Suman Datta, professor of electrical engineering, tuned the material composition of the indium gallium arsenide/gallium arsenide antimony so that the energy barrier was close to zero—or near broken gap, which allowed electrons to tunnel through the barrier when desired. To improve amplification, the researchers moved all the contacts to the same plane at the top surface of the vertical transistor.This device was developed as part of a larger program sponsored by the National Science Foundation through the Nanosystems Engineering Research Center for Advanced Self-Powered Systems of Integrated Sensors and Technologies (NERC-ASSIST). The broader goal of the ASSIST program is to develop battery-free, body-powered wearable health monitoring systems with Penn State, North Carolina State University, University of Virginia, and Florida International University as participating institutions.   

Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have demonstrated an integrated amplifier with the lowest noise performance so far. The amplifier offers new possibilities for detecting the faintest electromagnetic radiation, for example from distant galaxies.Last year, Chalmers reported a world record for a low-noise amplifier in the prestigious journal Electron Device Letters. The amplifier exhibited a minimum noise figure of 0.018 dB across a bandwidth of 4-8 GHz. However, since the low-noise amplifier was designed in a hybrid solution, scaling up to larger quantities turned out to be very difficult.Chalmers has now in collaboration with a company called Low-Noise Factory published an article on an integrated ultra-low-noise amplifier. The scientists have developed a unique indium phosphide-based process for what is known as high electron mobility transistors (HEMT). Transistors and other semiconductor components have been fabricated on a monolithic chip on an indium phosphide wafer. All parts of the design such as semiconductor layers, components, process and circuit design have been optimised for the lowest noise performance.As a result, an integrated 2.0 x 0.75 mm amplifier with an ultra-low-noise figure of 0.045 dB was demonstrated. The amplifier had a very large bandwidth of 0.5-13 GHz and a high gain exceeding 38 dB across the frequency band. In order to show such extreme performance, the amplifier was cooled to minus 260 degrees of Celsius."The combination of high gain, large bandwidth and ultra-low-noise figure makes this circuit very attractive for large multipixel arrays containing thousands of antennas," says Jan Grahn, research group leader at Chalmers."The integrated ultra-low-noise process enables the fabrication of thousands of amplifiers with identical performance. One potential future application is in the world's largest radio telescope SKA (Square Kilometer Array) that is being planned, an international project where the Onsala Space Observatory at Chalmers is one of the acting members. In huge applications such as the SKA, even a small noise-figure reduction in the first low-noise amplifier in the receiver chain may potentially bring about major savings in the final system design." 

Thermal Solution Resources, LLC (TSR) introduced the world's smallest wireless LED lamp – the intelliSSL MR16 – which can be controlled remotely from IOS, Android or Windows smartphones, tablets or PCs. The intelliSSL lamp incorporates an ultra-compact driver architecture with a powerful antenna system, designed to maximize reception strength, and uses the ultra-low-power JN5168 wireless microcontroller from NXP Semiconductors N.V.. The TSR intelliSSL wireless MR16 lamp will be featured in the NXP booth this week at LIGHTFAIR (no. 2453) and the LEDdynamics booth (no. 100), as well as the ZigBee Alliance booth (no. 3251) as part of a ZigBee Light Link network. The patent-pending intelliSSL design provides strong wireless reception, eliminating signal interference even under high temperatures, while conforming to a standard ANSI format – 1.98 inches in diameter and 1.98 inches in length – with a GU 5.3 base. A GU 10 base version is planned for release later this year. Compliant with the IEEE 802.15.4 standard for wireless communication, TSR's new wireless MR16 LED can be used with a wide range of network software stacks, including ZigBee Light Link, ZigBee Home Automation and JenNet-IP. The intelliSSL smart MR16 LED is ideal for commercial, architectural and outdoor lighting installations, as well as general lighting applications. "Wireless lighting control is becoming a strategic investment for commercial and residential buildings, with significant ROI in terms of energy savings and total cost of ownership, as well as safety and security," said Mikhail Sagal, president of Thermal Solution Resources. "With the world's first wireless MR16 LED, we've opened a host of new use cases for wireless smart lighting. The flexible, ultra-compact design of the intelliSSL lamp enables wireless LED replacement lamps to be integrated in nearly any type of lighting installation, as well as security systems and devices such as motion sensors, cameras and automated shade controls." The intelliSSL smart MR16 LED lamp is made with TSR's moduLED design, which eliminates thermal bottlenecks and inefficient assembly steps, while strengthening wireless range and data accuracy. TSR, a design and manufacturing firm for LED lighting headquartered in Rhode Island, offers unique expertise and IP in thermal management, LED lighting design, manufacturing and wireless integration. "Wireless smart lighting has been embraced enthusiastically by tech-savvy consumers. Now with the first wirelessly-enabled MR16 from TSR, we expect to see broader adoption, also by businesses, for commercial and architectural lighting installations," said Marcel Walgering, general manager, smart home and energy product line, NXP Semiconductors. "As part of a connected home, smart building or intelligent city network, smart LEDs have the potential to significantly change the way we manage lighting, security and energy consumption on a grand scale."