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Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
A circuit and method for transmitting and receiving on-off-keyed (OOK) signals with fractional signal-to-noise ratios uses available high-temperature silicon-on-insulator (SOI) components...
Who's Who: Semiconductors & ICs
The Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate at NASA's Glenn Research Center has developed a new silicon carbide differential amplifier integrated circuit...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
A method of fabricating flexible assemblies comprising flexible integrated circuits bonded onto or into flexible membranes has been developed. The method provides for bonding of thinned...
Blog: Semiconductors & ICs
Pushing Measurement to the Edge
Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), IBM, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have pushed the measurement of thin films to the edge to produce the first data on how the edges of metallic thin films contribute to their magnetic properties. The results may impact the...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
The figure shows two monolithic microwave integrated-circuit (MMIC) amplifier chips optimized to function in the frequency range of 90 to 130 GHz, covering nearly all of F-band (90 – 140 GHz). These...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A microrectenna that would operate at a frequency of 2.5 THz has been designed and partially fabricated. The circuit is intended to be a prototype of an extremely compact device that...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
It has been proposed to equip future microprocessors with electronic cumulative timers, for essentially the same reasons for which land vehicles are equipped with odometers (total-distance-traveled meters)...
Briefs: Energy
Making Single-Source Precursors of Ternary Semiconductors
&A synthesis route has been developed for the commercial manufacture of single- source precursors of chalcopyrite semiconductor absorber layers of thin-film solar photovoltaic cells. The semiconductors in question are denoted by the general formula CuInxGa1–xSySe2–y, where 0 ≤ x...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
An analysis of a patented generic silicon-on-insulator (SOI) electronic device called a G4-FET has revealed that the device could be designed to function as a universal and programmable logic...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
An improved design has been devised for on-chip-circuitry for measuring the delay through a chain of combinational logic elements in a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) or...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
The first solid-state amplifier capable of producing gain at a frequency >215 GHz has been demonstrated. This amplifier is an intermediate product of a continuing effort to develop amplifiers...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
A radial probe transition between a monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) and a waveguide has been designed for operation at frequency of 340 GHz and to be fabricated as part of...
Briefs: Energy
Circuit for Full Charging of Series Lithium-Ion Cells
An advanced charger has been proposed for a battery that comprises several lithium-ion cells in series. The proposal is directed toward charging the cells in as nearly an optimum manner as possible despite unit-to-unit differences among the nominally identical cells.
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Analog Nonvolatile Computer Memory Circuits
In nonvolatile random-access memory (RAM) circuits of a proposed type, digital data would be stored in analog form in ferroelectric field-effect transistors (FFETs). This type of memory circuit would offer advantages over prior volatile and nonvolatile types:
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
A proposed visible-light imaging spectrometer on a chip would be based on the concept of a heterostructure comprising multiple layers of silicon-based photodetectors interspersed with long-wavelength-pass optical...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
SiC Multi-Chip Power Modules as Power-System Building Blocks
The term “SiC MCPMs” (wherein “MCPM” signifies “multi-chip power module”) denotes electronic power-supply modules containing multiple silicon carbide power devices and silicon-on-insulator (SOI) control integrated-circuit chips. SiC MCPMs are being developed as building blocks...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
A research and development effort now underway is directed toward satisfying requirements for a new type of relatively inexpensive, lightweight, microwave antenna array and associated...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Theoretical analysis and some experiments have shown that the silicon-on-insulator (SOI) 4-gate transistors known as G4-FETs can be used as building blocks of four-quadrant analog voltage...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Two modern cryogenic variants of the Pound circuit have been devised to increase the frequency stability of microwave oscillators that include cryogenic sapphire-filled cavity...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Semiconductor Bolometers Give Background-Limited Performance
Semiconductor bolometers that are capable of detecting electromagnetic radiation over most or all of the infrared spectrum and that give background-limited performance at operating temperatures from 20 to 300 K have been invented. The term "background-limited performance" as applied to a...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A multichannel dielectric-resonator oscillator (DRO), built as a prototype of a local oscillator for an X-band transmitter or receiver, is capable of being electrically tuned among and within...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
According to a proposal, a silicon dioxide layer in a high speed, low power, silicon-based electro-optical modulator would be replaced by a layer of lead zirconate titanate or other...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Multiplexing and differential transducers based on tunnel-diode oscillators (TDOs) would be developed, according to a proposal, for operation at very low and/or widely varying...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
A three-stage monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) W-band amplifier has been constructed and tested in a continuing effort to develop amplifiers as well as oscillators, frequency...
Techs for License: Semiconductors & ICs
Developed for quality control and wafer metrology in the semiconductor manufacturing market, this non-destructive technology may be highly adaptable to measuring material properties such as a coating’s...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
A proposed improved method of externally controlled time multiplexing of the readouts of focal plane arrays of pairs of stacked quantum well infrared photodetectors (QWIPs) that...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Carbon-Nanotube Schottky Diodes
Schottky diodes based on semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes are being developed as essential components of the next generation of submillimeter-wave sensors and sources. Initial performance predictions have shown that the performance characteristics of these devices can exceed those of the state-of-the-art...
Articles: Semiconductors & ICs
30 Years of Electronics & Semiconductors
In celebration of the 30th Anniversary of NASA Tech Briefs, our features in 2006 highlight a different technology category each month, tracing the past 30 years of the technology, and continuing with a glimpse into the future of where the technology is headed. Along the way, we include insights from industry...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
A family of experimental highly miniaturized field-effect transistors (FETs) is based on exploitation of the electrical properties of nanofibers of polyaniline/ polyethylene oxide...
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Upcoming Webinars: RF & Microwave Electronics
Choosing the Right N-Port Strategy: Multiport VNAs vs. Switch...
