Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have invented a new way to align 3D semiconductor chips by shining a laser through concentric metalenses patterned on the chips to produce a hologram. Their work, published in Nature Communications, can help to lower the cost of producing 2D semiconductor chips, enable 3D photonic and electronic chips, and may pave the way for other low-cost, compact sensors.
Semiconductor chips enable electronic devices to process, store and receive information. These functions are controlled by the specific pattern of components inlaid into the chip. However, this 2D design has reached its upper limit of technological advancement and 3D integration is considered the most promising solution.
To make a 3D chip, multiple 2D chips are stacked and their layers need to be aligned down to tens of nanometers (one millimeter is equal to 1 million nanometers). And they need to be aligned along three dimensions—forward and back, left to right and the gap between the two chips (along the x, y and z axes).
'Self-assembling' nano-electronics: Faster, cheaper, more reliable
By Loz Blain
December 03, 2024
https://newatlas.com/manufacturing/self ... ectronics/
A remarkable proof-of-concept project has successfully manufactured nanoscale diodes and transistors using a fast, cheap new production technique in which liquid metal is directed to self-assemble into precise 3D structures.
In a peer-reviewed study due to be released in the journal Materials Horizons, a North Carolina State University team outlined and demonstrated the new method using an alloy of indium, bismuth and tin, known as Field's metal.
The liquid metal was placed beside a mold, which the researchers say can be made in any size or shape. As it's exposed to oxygen, a thin oxide layer forms on the surface of the metal. Then, a liquid is poured onto it, containing negatively-charged ligand molecules designed to pull individual metal atoms off that oxide layer as positively-charged ions, and bind with them.
These metal ions held in the ligands become a little like magnetic building blocks, attracted to one another, and as the ligand solution begins to flow through channels in the mold, driven by capillary action, it pulls these building blocks through with it. The mold essentially gets the blocks to line up into orderly structures, like wires, and stick to each other in place.
The Vastly Improved HDMI 2.2 Spec Is Coming in January
Look for higher resolution and faster refresh rates.
By Devesh Beri December 17, 2024
The new specification will have "next-gen HDMI technology and higher bandwidth," the report said, enabling a "wide range of higher resolutions and refresh rates." But a new HDMI cable will be needed to support these advancements.
Experts at PCMag expect the new standard to keep the current plug design but with improved bandwidth. The current HDMI 2.1b specification, introduced in 2017, supports resolutions up to 10K at 120 frames per second. The upcoming update is expected to surpass these already amazing specs.
The HDMI Forum states this new technology will help content creators in many industries. The group said in a press email that this new technology allows content producers, such as TV and movie studios and game developers, to create higher-quality options now and in the future. It also supports different ways to distribute their content.
As CES 2025 gets closer, more information about this new HDMI specification is likely to come out.
Every second, terabytes of data—the equivalent of downloading thousands upon thousands of movies at once—travel around the world as light in fiber-optic cables, like so many cars packed onto a super-fast highway. When that information reaches data centers, it needs a switching system, just as cars need traffic lights, to exit the highway in an orderly fashion.
Until now, the photonic switches used for routing optical signals have been hindered by a fundamental tradeoff between size and speed: Larger switches can handle higher speeds and more data but also consume more energy, occupy more physical space and drive up costs.
In a new paper in Nature Photonics, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science (Penn Engineering) describe the creation of a novel photonic switch that overcomes this size–speed tradeoff. And at just 85 by 85 micrometers, the new switch's units are smaller than a grain of salt.
By manipulating light at the nanoscale with unprecedented efficiency, the new switch speeds up the process of getting data on and off the literal information superhighway of fiber-optic cables that encircles the globe.
"This has the potential to accelerate everything from streaming movies to training AI," says Liang Feng, Professor in Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) and in Electrical and Systems Engineering (ESE) and the paper's senior author.
A research team, led by Professor Jimin Kwon from the Department of Electrical Engineering at UNIST, in collaboration with Professor Yong-Young Noh and his research team from the Department of Chemical Engineering at POSTECH, reports a new technology to eliminate defects in molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), a promising candidate for the next generation of semiconductor materials, at a temperature of 200°C.
Modern semiconductor chips, roughly the size of a fingernail, can contain billions of components. MoS2 is emerging as a promising semiconductor material due to its potential for increasing chip density and minimizing leakage current, which ultimately could lead to heat-free, low-power semiconductor chips—drawing significant attention from industry.
Two-dimensional (2D) semiconductor materials could enable the development of smaller yet highly performing electronic components, thus contributing to the advancement of a variety of devices. While significant strides have been made in the synthesis of 2D semiconductors with advanced electronic properties, their clean transfer onto substrates and reliable integration in real devices has so far proved challenging.
Researchers at Peking University, the Beijing Graphene Institute and other institutes in China have recently developed a new method to integrate 2D semiconductors with dielectric materials, which are insulating materials that help control the flow of electric charge in devices. Their approach, outlined in a paper published in Nature Electronics, entails the epitaxial growth of an ultra-thin dielectric film on a graphene-covered copper surface, which subsequently enables its transfer onto various substrates with minimal defects.
"The paper emerged from recognizing persistent challenges in integrating two-dimensional materials—such as graphene—into microelectronic devices," Zhongfan Liu, Li Lin, and Yanfeng Zhang, corresponding authors of the paper, told Tech Xplore.
Chinese Researchers Say They Have a Fast, Silicon-Free Transistor
Is it industry-changing?
By Josh Gulick May 15, 2025
A team of researchers from Peking University claims to have developed a non-silicon transistor that is faster and more power-efficient than the latest tech in the industry. If the claim, which is published in the journal Nature Materials (out of London), is accurate, it would mean that China has bleeding-edge tech that could rival chips from Intel and TSMC, among others. Still, it’s a long way from publishing a research paper to turning the tech industry on its head.
The team developed a two-dimensional transistor using bismuth oxyselenide. The team’s transistor has Gate-all-around technology, the latest field-effect transistor technology. It replaces FinFET. Because GAAFET means less current leakage and helps chip makers create ever-smaller transistors, the inclusion of GAA in the research team’s silicon-alternative efforts is crucial.
Silicon is king in the semiconductor technology that underpins smartphones, computers, electric vehicles and more, but its crown may be slipping, according to a team led by researchers at Penn State.
In a world first, they used two-dimensional (2D) materials, which are only an atom thick and retain their properties at that scale, unlike silicon, to develop a computer capable of simple operations.
The development, published in Nature, represents a major leap toward the realization of thinner, faster and more energy-efficient electronics, the researchers said.
They created a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) computer—technology at the heart of nearly every modern electronic device—without relying on silicon.
Instead, they used two different 2D materials to develop both types of transistors needed to control the electric current flow in CMOS computers: molybdenum disulfide for n-type transistors and tungsten diselenide for p-type transistors.
Artificial intelligence systems like ChatGPT are notorious for being power-hungry. To tackle this challenge, a team from the Center for Optics, Photonics and Lasers (COPL) has come up with an optical chip that can transfer massive amounts of data at ultra-high speed. As thin as a strand of hair, this technology offers unrivaled energy efficiency.
Published in Nature Photonics, the innovation harnesses the power of light to transmit information. Unlike traditional systems that rely solely on light intensity, this chip also uses the phase of light, in other words, its shift.
By adding a new dimension to the signal, the system reaches unprecedented performance levels, all while maintaining a tiny size. "We're jumping from 56 gigabits per second to 1,000 gigabits per second," says Ph.D. student Alireza Geravand, the first author of the study.
New OnePlus Cable Can Charge Your Watch and Phone Simultaneously
It's a convenient little accessory, if you can deal with the USB-A end.
By Devesh Beri July 16, 2025 https://www.extremetech.com/electronics ... ltaneously
OnePlus has released something refreshingly new, at least as far as charging cables go. Its new accessory, the 2-in-1 SuperVOOC Cable, can charge a smartwatch and a smartphone simultaneously. It's now available on the company's website for $29.99—the same price as a standard OnePlus Watch charger— and is made to work with both OnePlus smartphones and a few OnePlus Watch models: Watch 2, Watch 2R, Watch 3, and Watch 3 (43mm).
The 1.2-meter cable uses a USB-A to USB-C connection for the phone and includes a built-in magnetic charger for a OnePlus Watch. When both devices are charged at the same time, the phone receives 67W, and the watch charges at 10W. If the phone is charged alone, it can reach up to 80W, as reported by 9to5Google.
Qi2.2 Wireless Charging Standard Boosts Speed to 25W, Products Near Launch
Phone support for Qi2.2 is still developing.
By Devesh Beri July 17, 2025
The Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) certified eight Qi2.2 products on Tuesday, including power banks, car mounts, and 3-in-1 stands from a range of manufacturers. Qi2.2, which was introduced in April 2025, builds on the magnetic alignment features from Qi2, which included input from Apple based on its MagSafe charging design. The main upgrade in Qi2.2 is an increase in charging speeds, jumping from Qi2's 15W to 25W.
Although no Qi2.2 products have gone on sale yet, official announcements have started to roll in (via The Verge):
Ugreen's 10,000mAh MagFlow power bank has Qi2.2, though the price has not been announced.
Baseus received approval for one Qi2.2 power bank and says more products, including a 3-in-1 charging stand, are coming soon.
SemiQon Cryogenic Transistor Breakthrough for 1,000X Less Heat and Uses 99.9% Less Power
August 26, 2025 by Brian Wang
Finnish company Semiqon has developed a transistor that operates with virtually zero heat dissipation. They have made silicon-based quantum processors to make future quantum computers more affordable, scalable, and sustainable. SemiQon has achieved new milestones in addressing the core challenges with scalability of quantum computers. Using its ultra-low-power cryogenic CMOS, SemiQon has now been able to demonstrate large-scale characterization of quantum dot qubits.
Cryo-CMOS transistors will reduce the amount of expensive control electronics infrastructure required for quantum computers, making these machines significantly less cumbersome to build and more efficient to operate.
Researchers have developed a thin optical touch sensor that can simultaneously detect the strength and location of pressure with high sensitivity and stability. The sensor is based on PDMS and is highly flexible. Credit: Takaaki Ishigure, Keio University
Researchers have developed a flexible optical touch sensor that can simultaneously detect the strength and location of pressure with high sensitivity and stability. The advance in tactile sensing paves the way for next-generation robotic touch interfaces, advanced medical diagnostics and highly responsive wearable electronics.
"Unlike conventional optical tactile sensors, which tend to have a single input-output path, our sensor design achieves multiple optical channels by embedding polymer optical waveguides in silicone rubber," said research team leader Takaaki Ishigure from Keio University in Japan. "This makes it possible to detect pressure in more than one spot with a design that is scalable and adaptable to various applications."
In the journal Optics Express, the researchers detail the fabrication of a four-channel optical tactile sensor measuring 5 x 1.5 centimeters and just 500 microns thick. They show that it can accurately detect pressure positions with a spatial resolution of about 1.5 mm.
For the first time, scientists have created a fully functional memory chip only a few atoms thick and integrated it into conventional chips. This advance could pave the way for more powerful and energy-efficient electronic devices.
Decades of innovation have shrunk the circuits on a computer chip so that, nowadays, engineers can pack billions of tiny components onto a single thumbnail-sized silicon wafer. But silicon chips are now reaching the physical limits of how small they can go while still performing reliably. The solution is two-dimensional (2D) materials, which are materials that are just a single layer of atoms thick that can be scaled down even further and have superior electronic properties.
However, the problem with 2D materials like graphene up until now has been that only simple chips could be constructed with them, and it wasn't easy to connect them to traditional processors. Now, in research published in the journal Nature, Chunsen Liu at Fudan University in Shanghai and his colleagues have overcome these hurdles. They successfully combined atomically thin 2D memory cells directly onto a conventional silicon chip, creating the world's first two-dimensional silicon-based hybrid architecture chip.
Light bulbs come in many shapes and styles: globes, twists, flame-like candle tips and long tubes. But there aren't many thin options. Now, researchers report in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces that they have created a paper-thin LED that gives off a warm, sun-like glow. The LEDs could light up the next generation of phone and computer screens and other light sources while helping users avoid disruptions to their sleep patterns.
"This work demonstrates the feasibility of ultra-thin, large-area quantum dot LEDs that closely match the solar spectrum," says Xianghua Wang, a corresponding author of the study. "These devices could enable next-generation eye-friendly displays, adaptive indoor lighting, and even wavelength-tunable sources for horticulture or well-being applications."
People want indoor lighting that looks natural and creates a comfortable atmosphere. Previous researchers accomplished this with flexible LEDs containing red and yellow phosphorescent dyes that produced a candle-like glow. Alternatives to light-emitting dyes are quantum dots that convert electric energy into colored light. Other teams have used quantum dots to create white LEDs, but they have struggled to match the full spectrum of colors that comprise the sun's white light, especially in the yellow and green wavelengths where it shines most strongly.
