Researchers at the University of Manchester have successfully broken the silicon barrier by using graphene — the world's thinnest material — to develop the world's smallest transistor. Only one atom thick and less than 50 atoms wide, the graphene transistors remain steady and conductive, proving that graphene is likely to be a solid alternative to silicon.

University of Cincinnati researchers Andrew Steckl and Duk-Young Kim created LiquiFET, an alternative, liquid version of the electronic field-effect transistor. The novel liquid transistor allows for the transmission of information from a liquid device directly into conventional electronic signals. The LiquiFET could find applications in biotechnology and in flat panel display technology.

A 1-2 pF tunable MEMS capacitor from CA-based Wispry Inc. is designed specifically for cell phone applications. Relying on an impedance matching technique to reduce front-end losses, the micromachined multi-throw capacitor enables lower power consumption and has a quality factor (Q) of about 100 at 2 GHz and self-resonant frequency greater than 5 GHz.

TDK has introduced the GCB multi-layer capacitor series, which make use of a new dielectric enabling thinner layer thickness. Consisting of eight RoHS compliant and completely lead-free capacitors, the GCB series has a low profile with heights of 0.50 mm or 0.45 mm and capacitance values ranging from 0.47 µF to 4.7 µF.

Dr. Ronald Reedy, CTO of Peregrine Semiconductor, offers his take on how the integration of UltraCMOS technology in mixed-signal designs is helping to improve performance and reduce power consumption in satellite communication systems. In his article, he discusses CMOS for RF, Phased Lock Loops, the need to simply IF downconversion, and minimizing prescaler power.

Three gallium nitride (GaN) high-electron mobility transistors (HEMT) are targeting WiMAX and broadband wireless access applications operating between 2.3 GHz and 3.9 GHz. These HEMTs enable a 50% increase in the WiMAX power amplification efficiency, which represents a significant improvement over other silicon or gallium arsenide (GaAs) device alternatives.

Sponsored by IEEE, the 10th annual International Interconnect Technology Conference (IITC 2007) will cover interconnect-related issues and new technology for the fabrication of advanced interconnects in monolithic ICs, multi-chip modules (MCMs), and state-of-the-art packages. The conference will be held on June 4-6, 2007 in San Francisco, CA.

A recent presentation from France-based STMicroelectronics highlights the company's 120 nm, 90 nm, and 65 nm processes, which have all adopted a copper back-end metallization. For each process, the presentation contrasts feature size with the SIA roadmap, and provides details regarding process features, device list, customers using the processes, and past fabricated designs.

Coordinated with the Electronic Materials Conference, the 2007 Device Research conference (DRC 2007) focuses on recent breakthroughs and advances in device research, including discussions on the future of organic devices, quantum devices, phase change memory, carbon nanotube devices, and more. DRC 2007 will be held on June 18-20, 2007 at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, IN.

Researchers at Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Illinois have developed flexible electronic structures that may soon target applications in sensors and artificial muscles. These structures consist of semiconductor ribbons, which have buckled profiles on polydimethylsiloxane surfaces enabling stretchable geometrical configurations.