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A new class of 2D semiconductor has been developed by researchers in the US. The free-standing quantum membranes, which are made of indium arsenide (InAs) and are just a few layers thick, have properties that are in stark contrast to the semiconductor layers used in conventional transistors.

Researchers have created a new material that can produce three or more free electrons every time it absorbs a single photon. This is unlike conventional semiconductors, which produce just one free electron per photon. Based on tiny semiconductor structures called quantum dots, the new material - developed by researchers at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and Toyota Europe in Belgium - could someday be used to make more efficient solar cells.

Computer simulations by researchers in the US and China could lead to solar cells that work efficiently across a broad range of the solar spectrum.

doubt that this would work ...

Although vacuum tubes were the basic components of early electronic devices, by the 1970s they were almost entirely replaced by semiconductor transistors. They are now back in nano-form as "nanoscale vacuum channel transistors" that combine the best of vacuum tubes and modern semiconductors into a single device. This old-technology with a new twist could be useful for space applications due to broader temperature operational range and better radiation resilience - authors are with NASA Ames.

Quoted from one of the authors in a separate interview: "We know that the spin states of atomic nuclei associated with semiconductor defects have excellent quantum properties at room temperature," said Awschalom, Liew Family Professor in Molecular Engineering and a senior scientist at Argonne National Laboratory. "They are coherent, long-lived and controllable with photonics and electronics. Given these quantum 'pieces,' creating entangled quantum states seemed like an attainable goal." Bringing the quantum world to the macroscopic scale could see some interesting applications in sensors, or generally entanglement-enhanced applications.

They were previously working on the same concept in N-V centers in diamond (as a semiconductor). Here the advantage is that SiC could in principle be integrated with Si or Ge. Anyway its all about controlling coherence. In the next 10 years some breakthroughs are expected in the field of semiconductor spintronics, but quantum computing in this way lies still in the horizon

Strong evidence for d-electron spin transport at room temperature

WOW! Great non-local signals, at room temperature!!! Spin transistor on the way finally!? (of course electric field gate controlled is fundamental) See more about the "quest" for the spin transistor here: http://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors/processors/the-quest-for-the-spin-transistor

The device, like dolphins, sends out two pulses in quick succession to allow for a targeted search for semiconductor devices, cancelling any background "noise",

Could it be used to measure ocean acidification? I found a study that links sound wave propagation with ocean acidity. Maybe we are able to do such measurement from space even? "Their paper, "Unanticipated consequences of ocean acidification: A noisier ocean at lower pH," published last week in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, found that fossil fuels are turning up the ocean's volume. Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the overall pH of the world's oceans has dropped by about 0.1 units, with more of the changes concentrated closer to the poles. The authors found that sound absorption has decreased by 15 percent in parts of the North Atlantic and by 10 percent throughout the Atlantic and Pacific"

The last time I asked an oceanographer for the use of acoustic waves, she said it is still a bit problematic method to take into account its data, but we were referring to measuring ocean circulation. It may be more conclusive for PH measurements, though. The truth is that there is a whole underwater network with pulse emmitters/receivers covering the North Atlantic basin, remnant infrastructure for spying activities in the WW2 and in the cold war, that stays unexploited. We should look more into this idea

Super lol for all those who abused of the law in their slides / opinions / decisions ..

I used the law in some slides :-)! This sentence is more or less the summary "The end of Moore's law is not a technical issue, it is an economic issue,". As Moore's himself recognized last year, the Moore's law itself is a pretty wild extrapolation of one exponential growth when there were only 5 experimental points. It is remarkable however how the semiconductor industry grabbed this and made every single effort to make it true. This effort was rewarded by turning semiconductor industry into one of the most important industries worldwide. Now these are challenging times indeed, and "when tide is gone, we realize who was swimming naked"...

The "law" is one of the most successful concrete predictions of the technological future... Still very impressive and a lot more long-lived than Moore had probably ever dreamed of :)

Doesn't really sound sexy, but this is of utmost importance for next generation grids for renewable energy.

I agree on the significance indeed - a small boost also for my favourite Desertec project ... Though their language is a bit too "grandiose": "ABB has successfully designed and developed a hybrid DC breaker after years of research, functional testing and simulation in the R&D laboratories. This breaker is a breakthrough that solves a technical challenge that has been unresolved for over a hundred years and was perhaps one the main influencers in the 'war of currents' outcome. The 'hybrid' breaker combines mechanical and power electronics switching that enables it to interrupt power flows equivalent to the output of a nuclear power station within 5 milliseconds - that's as fast as a honey bee takes per flap of its wing - and more than 30 times faster than the reaction time of an Olympic 100-meter medalist to react to the starter's gun! But its not just about speed. The challenge was to do it 'ultra-fast' with minimal operational losses and this has been achieved by combining advanced ultrafast mechanical actuators with our inhouse semiconductor IGBT valve technologies or power electronics (watch video: Hybrid HVDC Breaker - How does it work). In terms of significance, this breaker is a 'game changer'. It removes a significant stumbling block in the development of HVDC transmission grids where planning can start now. These grids will enable interconnection and load balancing between HVDC power superhighways integrating renewables and transporting bulk power across long distances with minimal losses. DC grids will enable sharing of resources like lines and converter stations that provides reliability and redundancy in a power network in an economically viable manner with minimal losses. ABB's new Hybrid HVDC breaker, in simple terms will enable the transmission system to maintain power flow even if there is a fault on one of the lines. This is a major achievement for the global R&D team in ABB who have worked for years on the challeng

A bit late, but it is very interesting and instructive to listen to Gordon Moore's words "It almost doubled every year (...) so I said in the next 10 years it's going to continue to double every year, we are going to go from 16 components on a chip to 16 000. Pretty wild extrapolation!". This extrapolation (exponential with only 5 initial points) is now well-known and is one of the things that changed the World, it is pretty amazing how this "wild" futuristic vision came true.

A great source is also the blog from Chris Mack (http://life.lithoguru.com/?p=451) who is a semicon pioneer and publisher of many books on the subject. He wrote an article for IEEE Spectrum on Moore's law and its future. Find it here, http://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors/processors/the-multiple-lives-of-moores-law

Whenever I think about moore's law and extrapolating like that I end up back at this xkcd comic https://xkcd.com/605/

Trends in materials and condensed matter. Check out the topological insulators. amazing field.

I will try my best. In a nutshell: http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100714/full/466310a.html

*you* tried *your* best .... ??

interesting paper for wireless energy transmission ... Duncan have a look ...

Yeah, its nice to see some research into semiconductors which aren't silicon. This paper would be useful for us if we wanted to do a study of the efficiency of the DC to microwave conversion systems for SPS.

how "large" could these distances be? - ready for SPS?

I don't think that the distance is the important criteria... It seems that the directivity is of the order of a laser one, so the divergence will be equivalent. Perhaps the important criteria is that the cost of these type of light sources could be cheaper...? and also perhaps what power transmission is achievable? It seems also that now that this concept could be used for to focus cheap lasers, instead of using complex optics in cd-rom players, etc... see http://news.softpedia.com/news/Highly-Directional-Semiconductor-Laser-Created-at-Harvard-90839.shtml

In the space industry, concurrent design is frequently implemented as requirements are frequently not set but developed along the design process. In many cases this is due to the interconnection between (sub)systems. In the industry however, this is hardly done, but it is becoming more relevant as lead times and innovation speed needs to increase. There is a webinar tomorrow 10 december from Agile on this topic regarding the semiconductor industry

missed it ... did anybody attend?

is this the breaktrough that we were waiting for?

That depends on what application you are thinking of. For circuit board electronics this will allow integration of micro sized supercapacitors to provide operational power. They will have to be fed by external batteries still, but the close proximity allows for better tailored power demands. They also propose tapping into thermal/mechanical energy to charge the supercaps. In the end, they can provide significant specific power (W/kg) but you still need to upscale the production to cover large areas to also gain high specific energy (Wh/kg). This breakthough is for micro sized applications, not for replacement of large scale energy storage (electric vehicles, satellites) going up to kWh. That said, I know of several studies in supercaps at ESA, but they are still qualifying current relatively old commercial solutions.

Berkeley Lab researchers are using M. thermoacetica to perform photosynthesis - despite being non-photosynthetic - and also to synthesize semiconductor nanoparticles in a hybrid artificial photosynthesis system for converting sunlight into valuable chemical products.