i2549.pdf
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7908 KB
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Pobierz
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22 May – 4 June 2013
|
No. 2549
|
Electronic
V:HHNO\
.com
Getting the measure
of MEMS
RESEARCHERS MEASURE ENERGY-HARVESTING MEMS
PAGE 3
What PXI offers testers
A PREVIEW OF NEXT MONTH’S PXI SHOW
PAGE 12-13
Wireless success story
HOW WIRELESS DESIGN IS REVITALISING UK MANUFACTURING
PAGE 6
Product focus: Analogue ICs
PAGE 18
news
RESEARCH
MARKETS
MEMS device energy harvesters
will be measured electrically
Is Europe’s chip
market on the
way back up?
E
veryone knows that winter
doldrums Q1 is always worse
than pre-Christmas Q4, right?
Well, not this year. At last there
are signs of recovery in Europe’s
semiconductor distribution market.
A positive view of the market came
from STMicroelectronics CEO Carlo
Bozotti speaking in London last week.
“The positive bookings trend
continues,” said Bozotti. “We have
achieved good point of sales results
from our distributors. We are
encouraged and motivated by the
more positive business environment
since the beginning of the year.”
Earlier this month, Texas
Instruments also reported a stronger
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Looking at the market as a whole,
there are indications that on a quarter
by quarter basis, the picture is more
promising. Q1 was 16% up on Q4 of
2012, with Q1 sales of €1.48bn,
according to DMASS (Distributors’
and Manufacturers’ Association of
Semiconductor Specialists).
This bucks the seasonal trend,
according to which Q1 would be
expected to be down on the preceding
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“extremely promising”, said DMASS.
“I am sure that many market
participants are relieved that the
worst is behind us,” said Georg
Steinberger, chairman of DMASS.
“However, a 5% decline against Q1 last
year shows that there is still some risk
in the market, particularly through
price pressure and production shifts.
At least, the booking situation has
slightly improved.”
Product-wise, the major segments
developed within a reasonable
corridor, between -11% and +13%.
Programmable logic dropped by
11.3% to €130m, opto devices grew by
2.3% to €142m, analogue sales fell 2.8%
to €426m, and MOS micro fell 6.2% to
€302m.
“While most technologies are used
across industry segments and
participated in the general weakness,
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and MOS micro; sensors and opto
devices stood out as growth
opportunities,” said Steinberger.
R
esearchers in France have
developed a technique to
characterise the mechanical
properties of energy-harvesting
MEMS solely through electrical
measurements. The technique works by
applying a current across the device
with a varying frequency, and
measuring the harmonic content of
the resultant voltage.
“With some additional calculations,
the technique electrically determines
all the mechanical characteristics of
the MEMs device, including the
damping factor and the frequency of
maximum electrical power generation
from mechanical vibrations,” said the
Laboratoire national de métrologie et
d’essais (LNE).
“It’s very easy and quick to make
the measurement because all you are
doing is connecting your system with
two wires, applying a current and
sampling the output signal,” said LNE
scientist Dr Alexandre Bounouh.
“This doesn’t require big investment
but still delivers precise knowledge of
the parameters and limits of the
performance of your device, and could
be scaled up to measure energy-
harvesting technologies across the
microscopic and macroscopic scales.”
LNE is one of seven national
European research centres making up
the Metrology for Energy Harvesting
Project. The project, funded by the
European Commission through the
European Metrology Research
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co-ordinated international attempt to
apply the principles of metrology to
energy harvesting products and
materials.
The UK-based National Physical
Laboratory is a partner in the project,
along with LNE in France and
Germany’s Physikalisch-Technische
Bundesanstalt.
LNE
www.lne.fr
PROCESSORS
ARM joins group in multi-core research
A
research programme for multi-
core embedded processor
design has received £5.6m in
funding from the UK’s
Engineering and Physical Sciences
Research Council (EPSRC).
The programme, called Power-
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Embedded systems, or PRiME,
involves researchers at four UK
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companies – ARM, Imagination
Technologies, Altera, Microsoft
Research and Freescale.
The universities involved include
Imperial College, London,
Southampton, Manchester and
Newcastle. The research will focus on
low-power and highly-parallel
processor design.
“The programme will also include
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challenge of developing the theory and
practice of future high-performance
embedded systems designed with
many-core processors,” said PRiME.
Two focus areas include what the
programme calls “holistic design
methods and cross-layer system
optimisation”.
www.electronicsweekly.com/
university-electronics
www.electronicsweekly.com/
distribution-world
22 MAY - 4 JUNE 2013
EW
|
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ElectronicsWeekly
.com
news
Sheffield firm gets funding to develop
low-power SRAM for finfet processes
The green light is on for embedding low-power memory on advanced processes, writes
Richard Wilson
A
Sheffield-based company has
secured a Technology Strategy
Board SMART award of
£250,000 to develop low-power
SRAM technology for advanced process
technology including finfets.
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semiconductor foundries developing
fully-depleted silicon-on-insulator
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to research and develop device
technologies for next generation
process technologies with sub-28nm
feature sizes. Its research addresses
the challenges posed at these nodes,
with the aim of developing new
semiconductor device architectures to
exploit sub-28nm process technologies
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“The current transistor structure,
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has successfully scaled from gate
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million transistors per square mm to
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“However, process scaling has not
been without problems. Power
consumption due to sub-threshold
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whilst ‘powered down’ or ‘asleep’ has
caused shorter recharge cycles for the
most capable mobile devices.”
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challenge for semiconductor
manufacturers is that of inherent
statistical variations between
transistors. This is caused by the
discreteness of charge and
granularity of matter.
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of dopant atoms in the conductive
channel that controls its electrical
behaviour are reduced. For instance,
at the 28nm process there are only
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channel.
“The relative positions of these
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operating parameters such as
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based company.
This means that the large numbers
of transistors integrated on a chip can
exhibit a degree of operational
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increasingly challenging but, as
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impossible using the existing
manufacturing methodology”.
At the same time, on-chip memory
grows in important and may exceed
50% die area.
“This presents a challenge as
memory density considerably exceeds
that of logic, and thus variability is
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resultant impacts on both yield and
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“Through a combination of detailed
analysis and using advanced
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designed an SRAM memory
consuming less than half the power of
existing solutions,” said the company.
“We have proven the technology in
simulation, but to fully characterise
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implementation in silicon is a must,”
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“This is a critical next step in
demonstrating the value of our IP
to our customers.”
The company said, “The aim is
much improved power performance
and manufacturability.”
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semiconductor process technology
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Simulations (GSS), a spinout from
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Professor Asen Asenov from
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LVDGLUHFWRURI6XUH&RUH+HGLUHFWV
the development of 2D and 3D
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and classical device simulators and
their application in the design of
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&XVWRPHUVRI*66LQFOXGHWKUHHRI
the largest foundries in the world, and
two large IDMs.
Finfet and FD-SOI are the two
alternate transistor structures being
considered. Finfet has been adopted
by Intel after considerable investment
in both process development and
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Global Foundries will also be
pursuing this technology.
Introduction of this technology for
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FD-SOI technology being championed
by ST demonstrates many advantages,
particularly low power, so it’s
important for the mobile space.
6XUH&RUHZLOOXVHWKLVIXQGLQJWR
support its development of IP that
exploits the underlying semiconductor
process technology changes. It plans
to develop a demonstrator chip for its
patented array control and sensing
scheme, which it claims will lower
active power consumption.
SureCore
www.sure-core.com
Europe well-placed to become a design centre for silicon photonics
E
urope is strongly positioned to
design and manufacture volume
silicon photonics devices, says
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This follows the completion of the
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which created a complete design and
fabrication supply chain for
integrating a photonic layer with a
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fabrication processes.
“It is strategically important for
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design and chip-integrating functions
to compete with other countries, and
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microelectronics companies,” said
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+(/,26ZKLFKZDVFRRUGLQDWHGE\
/HWLDOVRGHPRQVWUDWHGDFRPSOHWH
GHVLJQĠRZLQWHJUDWLQJERWKVLOLFRQ
photonics device design and
electronic/photonic system design in
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“This programme underscores the
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technological cooperation plays in a
very competitive global business
environment,” said Malier.
Silicon photonics is expected to be
used in optical telecommunications or
for on-chip optical interconnects.
&026SKRWRQLFVPD\OHDGWRORZFRVW
solutions for a range of applications
such as optical communications,
optical interconnections between
semiconductor chips and circuit
boards, optical signal processing,
optical sensing, and biological
applications.
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&RPPLVVLRQLQ+(/,26IRFXVHG
on developing essential building
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sources (silicon-based and
heterogeneous integration of III-V on
silicon), integrated lasers, high-speed
modulators and photo-detectors.
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DOVRFRPELQHGDQGSDFNDJHGWKHVH
EXLOGLQJEORFNVWRGHPRQVWUDWH
complex functions that address a
variety of industrial needs.
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LQWHJUDWHGZLWKDQHOHFWURQLF%L&026
GULYHUD[*ELWVWUDQVFHLYHUIRU
WDM-PON applications, a photonic
4$0*ELWVZLUHOHVVWUDQVPLVVLRQ
system and a mixed analogue-and-
digital transceiver module for
multi-function antennae.
Leti
www.leti.fr/en
|
EW
22 MAY - 4 JUNE 2013
4
ElectronicsWeekly
.com
news
Engineering firms must work more closely with universities
E
ngineering company and
university representatives meeting
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(QJLQHHULQJDQG7HFKQRORJ\,(7KDYH
concluded that stronger collaboration is
needed between higher education and
the commercial engineering sector if the
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The event, which was organised by
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graduates were not learning the right
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commercial careers.
Ń([SHFWDWLRQVDUHFKDQJLQJDVWR
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be learning at university,” said Dr
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“Stronger collaboration between
industry and academia must become
the norm rather than the exception.”
The forum featured representatives
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Ń,WłVYHU\GLIğFXOWIRUXVWRğQG
VXIğFLHQWJUDGXDWHOHYHOHQJLQHHUV
ZLWKWKHULJKWVNLOOVDQGH[SHULHQFH
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said Andrew Richardson, head of
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Ń:HłUHDGGUHVVLQJWKLVE\ZRUNLQJ
with a number of universities to roll
out our TAS (Technical Accreditation
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there’s still a lot more that needs to be
done,” said Richardson.
It was thought that greater
collaboration between higher
education and industries such as
aerospace and automotive was needed
to prepare students for commercial
careers.
“Many of the participants had
DOUHDG\WDNHQVWHSVWREXLOGFORVHUWLHV
between higher education and the
commercial world, but we’re clearly
still at the start of this process,” said
Mohtadi.
Professor Dame Ann Dowling from
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“While higher education needs to
prepare students for the commercial
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industry must commit relevant
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product releases and code available
for academic use and research, and in
a way that is cost-effective.”
Dr Graham Herries, head of the
software centre of excellence at
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such as model-based design being
taught more widely at a higher
education level.
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for collaboration, but also engenders
better, more systematic ways of
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are versed in these agile approaches
to product development,” said
Herries.
“We believe that universities need
to develop a curriculum that promotes
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board, from mechanical engineers
through to software engineers.”
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PHVVDJHRI,(7FKLHIH[HFXWLYH1LJHO
Fine, who last November told the
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society should learn to value the role
of engineering. He said this must begin
with better careers advice at schools,
which is currently “very poor.”
Ń0RUHZRUNQHHGVWREHGRQHWR
improve the public’s understanding of
what engineering is and the diversity
RIHQJLQHHULQJMREVDQGFDUHHUV
including vocational routes and
especially apprenticeships,” Fine said.
According to Fine, if this issue is
not addressed, there will be a
worryingly small pipeline of young
people going on to pursue technical
careers, resulting in a continuing
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IRUWKH8.HFRQRP\
MathWorks
www.mathworks.com
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