IEEE Presidents’ Change the World Competition
Do you know a student who is making a positive impact on the world? To help celebrate 125 years of engineering the future, IEEE is hosting a global competition for students who develop unique solutions to real-world problems using engineering, science, computing and leadership skills to benefit their community or humanity. Winners could walk away with up to US$10,000 and a trip to the 2009 IEEE Honors Ceremony in Los Angeles, California, USA. The competition runs from 1 September 2008 to 28 February 2009. For more information, read the Competition Flyer
Also be sure to visit the IEEE 125th Anniversary Web site for information on how you can help celebrate IEEE’s 125th Anniversary.
2008 Embedded Systems Week
Sponsored by the IEEE Circuits and Systems and IEEE Computer Societies, the 2008 Embedded System Week will take place 19-24 October in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Embedded Systems Week is an exciting event which brings together conferences, tutorials and workshops centered on various aspects of embedded systems research and development. The event features three leading conferences, allowing attendees to benefit from a wide range of topics covered by these conferences and their associated tutorials and workshops. The featured conferences include:
- International Conference on Compilers, Architecture and Synthesis for Embedded Systems
- International Conference on Hardware-Software Codesign and System Synthesis
- International Conference on Embedded Software
Discounted registration rates are available for IEEE members. To register, or learn more, visit the 2008 Embedded Systems Week Web site
 BACK TO TOP
India Expected to Earn Top Spot in World’s Semiconductor Market Growth
With a compound annual growth rate of 19.2 percent between 2007 and 2012, India is expected to become the world’s quickest growing semiconductor market. Vietnam earned second place as the next fast growing market, followed by Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. According to Gartner, the Asia-Pacific market is expected to rise 6.4 percent this year to reach US$160 billion. Rising domestic demand for electronic equipment and a supportive investment environment are two main reasons cited by Gartner for the positive gains India and Vietnam has made in this market. Read more
BACK TO TOP
Society Provides Answers to Questions on Electron Devices
Getting answers to questions about electron devices and finding articles on specific topics in the field just got easier, thanks to two services recently introduced by the IEEE Electron Devices Society (IEEE EDS).
QuestEDS is a free online question-and-answer service that allows IEEE EDS members to ask subject experts questions related to the Society’s areas of interest. Simply type in your technical question and add your contact information to the form on the site and an expert will respond there within two weeks. While only society members may ask questions, anyone may view the questions and answers.
If it is an article on a particular subject you’re looking for, you might find it in the society’s newly available DVD Article Archive update package, which complements its archival DVD collection. The update package includes articles from 2004 to 2007 from four publications: Transactions on Electron Devices, Electron Device Letters, Digests of the International Electron Devices Meeting and the EDS Newsletter. The price of the update package for EDS members is US$30 and US$15 for IEEE student members.
For more information on either service, visit
BACK TO TOP
New Technique Increases Yields, Performance of Organic Circuits
Researchers from the Center for Neutron Research at the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST), USA, and Seoul National University (SNU), South Korea, have cooperatively developed a way to make printed organic-based semiconductor circuits easier to manufacture, while increasing yield and eventually leading to better performing organic circuits (relative to silicon). Unlike conventional semiconductors, which require complex and expensive vacuum as well as high heat and laser processes to manufacture, organic semiconductors are basically sprayed onto a thin film with a type of ink-jet printer. The new research has developed a method for better molecular materials deposition and higher yields, adding up to an easier-to-manufacture, more-likely-to-work circuit. The technique should also allow researchers to focus on performance and stability issues rather than simple design problems. Read more
Learn more about organic circuits in IEEE Xplore®
BACK TO TOP
Gordon Moore to Receive IEEE Medal of Honor
Known widely for his prediction of the doubling of transistors on a chip, Gordon E. Moore will receive the IEEE Medal of Honor for his contributions to the advancement of semiconductor technology. The award, which is sponsored by the IEEE Foundation and will be presented at the IEEE Honors Ceremony in Quebec City, Canada on Monday, 20 September, recognizes Moore for pioneering technical roles in IC processing and leadership in the development of MOS memory, the microprocessor computer and the semiconductor industry. Moore has authored more than 80 papers on semiconductor technology and holds multiple patents. He has received numerous awards and honors, including the IEEE Frederik Phillips Award, IEEE Founders Medal, the National Medal of Technology, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the EE Times ACE Awards Lifetime Achievement Award. An IEEE Life Fellow, Moore is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Engineers. Read more
BACK TO TOP
World’s Tiniest Double Emulsions Created for Possible Drug Delivery
Researchers at the University of California-Los Angeles, USA, have achieved a breakthrough in the development of using nanoscale droplets to deliver pharmaceuticals to patients. After discovering a water droplet within each oil droplet in their experiments, scientists showed how to create these emulsions in the sub-100-nanometer size range and have them remain stable. Their research on the world’s smallest double emulsions appears in nature and can be viewed online. Read more
BACK TO TOP
Graphene Pioneers Receive Europhysics Prize
Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov of the University of Manchester, UK, have been awarded the 2008 Europhysics Prize for discovering and isolating a single free-standing atomic layer of carbon (graphene) and elucidating its remarkable electronic properties. The annual award, given by the European Physical Society’s condensed-matter division, is worth €10,000 in prize money. The two researchers discovered graphene in 2004 by using a piece of adhesive tape to peel a single atomic layer off a piece of graphite—a process known as micromechanical cleavage or the “Scotch tape method.” More recently, Geim and Novoselov have shown that graphene has the ideal optical properties to form the transparent electrodes in liquid crystal displays (LCDs); fabricated tiny quantum dots from graphene; and developed a new way of manufacturing sizable quantities of graphene. Read more
Learn more about graphene in IEEE Xplore®
BACK TO TOP
HP Plans to Incorporate Memristors into Electronics Mainstream
The memristor, the fourth passive circuit element after resistors, capacitors and inductors, is expected to be introduced into the electronics mainstream by Hewlett-Packard Labs (HP), with models of these memory cells available next year. While resistive random access memories are the first target areas for HP, the company is also looking at ways neural networks could be used for the memristor. Their ultimate goal is to change computing by developing adaptive control circuits that can learn and adapt by allowing currents to move in either direction. Through the use of a crossbar system, HP says that large memristor arrays with a tunable resistance at each crossbar could allow for brain-like learning. Read more
Learn more about memristors in IEEE Xplore®
BACK TO TOP
New Conference Proceedings in IEEE Xplore®: Circuits and Systems for Communications
IEEE Xplore digital library subscribers can now access the conference proceedings from the 2008 IEEE European Conference on Circuits and Systems for Communications. The conference, which took place 10-11 July, welcomed researchers from around the world to discuss the latest advances in circuits and systems for communications. The conference proceedings include 70 papers on recent progress in the field. View conference proceedings
BACK TO TOP
Crystal Generation Process Spells Benefits for Electron Mobility Research
Researchers in Germany have created a high vacuum semiconductor crystal generation process which claims to generate crystals that are five times more pure than all former epitaxy systems. The entity rests on a molecular beam epitaxy system, with gallium arsenide and aluminum-gallium-arsenide semiconductor heterostructures forming a base. Once this is achieved, these elements are evaporated in a vacuum and pressed down in atomic layers that are several nanometers thin. Next, these layers create an electron layer within the crystals, named a two-dimensional electron gas. The end result leads to potential benefits for quantum Hall resistance metrology and electrical current as a function of frequency and electron charge. Read more
Learn more about crystals in IEEE Xplore®
BACK TO TOP
Novaled Achieves CMOS Logic Technology Breakthrough
Through the introduction of dopants into current organic transistor technologies, Novaled, a global company specializing in the organic light-emitting diode field, has shown that both n-type and p-type organic thin-film transistors can be made from a single active material. According to representatives of the company, the creation of n- and p-type organic thin-film transistors from a single organic semiconductor material may provide benefits to the performance and manufacturability of OTFT circuits and allow for the use of CMOS logic. In 2009, Novaled plans to start offering thin OLED lighting prototype products that use this combined technology to lighting companies in the commercial sector. Read more
Learn more about CMOS logic technology in IEEE Xplore®
BACK TO TOP
Read Past What's
New @ IEEE Newsletters 
Search
Issues Prior to May 2007
|
