Chip Makers Adopt ASML`s Holistic Lithography to Continue Moore`s Law

July 14, 2010 By Leave a Comment

SAN FRANCISCO–(Business Wire)–
ASML Holding NV (ASML) (NASDAQ:ASML) (Amsterdam:ASML) today at SEMICON West
announces broad customer adoption of holistic lithography products which
optimize semiconductor scanner performance and provide a faster start to chip
production. 100% of ASML`s leading-edge scanners are now sold with one or more
holistic lithography components. Semiconductor manufacturers face increasingly
smaller margins of error as they shrink chip features. Holistic lithography
provides a way to shrink within these margins to continue Moore`s Law.

Introduced a year ago at SEMICON West 2009 ASML`s holistic lithography suite of
products enable continued shrink and provide customers with higher yield,
sooner. Holistic lithography integrates computational lithography, wafer
lithography and process control to optimize production tolerances and reduce
“time to money” for chip makers. All of our customers have adopted multiple
products from the holistic product portfolio into research & development (R&D)
as well as volume manufacturing. Products like Source Mask Optimization (SMO),
FlexRay, LithoTuner, Baseliner and YieldStar are in use worldwide.

ASML also offers holistic lithography as an integrated package called Eclipse,
which is tailored to a specific customer, node and application, and which
enables chip makers to squeeze every last bit of performance out of the chip
making process and to enter volume production at the earliest possible time. A
significant number of ASML`s advanced customers have adopted an integrated
Eclipse package.

“Most chip makers have found that for current and future process nodes,
independent optimization of process steps is insufficient. The entire litho
process must be integrated and co-optimized for the best performance. Eclipse
extends the capabilities of their hardware and helps them to produce chips with
smaller geometries, “said Bert Koek, senior vice president, applications product
group at ASML. “With detailed knowledge of our scanner characteristics and
interfaces we can work closely with our customers to integrate computational
lithography solutions during R&D, and implement customized improvement targets
during manufacturing.”

Customers who have adopted Eclipse are seeing the results. STMicroelectronics
for example will incorporate Eclipse in conjunction with a TWINSCAN NXT:1950i
scanner for their 28-nanometer (nm) node. The key deliverables of the package
are on-product specifications for both overlay and critical dimension uniformity
(CDU). The 28-nm Eclipse package for ST includes a full range of products from
ASML, including scanner tuning products, immersion scanner application,
stabilization and conditioning; and the ASML applications support to achieve the
specified targets. Preparations for Eclipse at the next node have started with a
feasibility study on 20-nm critical layer printing options.

“To optimize development cycle times and manufacturing solutions for 28-nm and
beyond, ST is working closely with ASML to define targets, processes and design
parameters,” said Joel Hartmann, Technology R&D Group VP and General Manager
Advanced CMOS, Derivatives and eNVM technology, STMicroelectronics, at Crolles,
France. “ASML`s Eclipse packages include application products, custom project
deliverables and application support that enable joint process optimization.”

About Holistic Lithography and Eclipse

The semiconductor industry is driven by shrink that reduces manufacturing cost
and improves device performance. However, as semiconductor feature sizes shrink,
so do process windows – the accuracy tolerances necessary to produce viable
chips – imposing extremely tight requirements on parameters such as overlay and
critical dimension uniformity (CDU). Independent optimization of separate
parameters is no longer sufficient and holistic lithography intelligently
integrates computational lithography, wafer lithography and process control.

During the chip design phase ASML’s holistic lithography uses actual scanner
profiles and tuning capabilities to create a design with the maximum process
window for a given node and application. Once in manufacturing, ASML holistic
lithography optimizes a scanner for a specific pattern or reticle, and monitors
and controls litho-cell overlay and CDU performance over time to continuously
maintain the system centered in the process window. Integrated into the Eclipse
suite of products are:

* FlexRay uses a programmable array of thousands of individually adjustable
micro-mirrors. It can create any pupil shape in a matter of minutes -
eliminating the long cycle time associated with diffractive optical element
(DOE) design and fabrication and thus accelerating ramp to yield for low k1
designs.
* Tachyon SMO co-optimizes and analyzes scanner source and mask design
simultaneously, ensuring an optimized process window from R&D through production
while minimizing pitch and number of exposures per layer.
* BaseLiner enables optimized process windows and higher yields by keeping
scanner performance to a pre-defined baseline condition.
* YieldStar offers a single sensor solution for CD, overlay and sidewall angle
metrology resulting in high-speed, high precision and high-accuracy measurement.

* LithoTuner optimizes the scanner in an application specific manner. By
combining device pattern information and scanner specific characteristics, the
optimum setting for maximum process window and flexibility will be determined.

About ASML

ASML is the world’s leading provider of lithography systems for the
semiconductor industry, manufacturing complex machines that are critical to the
production of integrated circuits or chips. Headquartered in Veldhoven, the
Netherlands, ASML is traded on Euronext Amsterdam and NASDAQ under the symbol
ASML. ASML has more than 6,600 employees (expressed in full time equivalents),
serving chip manufacturers in more than 60 locations in 15 countries. More
information about Eclipse, including a new video is available on our website:
www.asml.com

ASML Holding NV
Media Relations:
Lucas van Grinsven – Corporate Communications
+31 40 268 3949 – Veldhoven, the Netherlands
or
Ryan Young – Corporate Communications
+1-480-383-4733 – Tempe, Arizona, USA
or
Investor Relations:
Craig DeYoung – Investor Relations
+1-480-383-4005 – Tempe, Arizona, USA
or
Franki D`Hoore – Investor Relations
+31 40 268 6494 – Veldhoven, the Netherlands

Copyright Business Wire 2010

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Pay-per-loo: Ryanair to charge for toilet trips

April 9, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Low cost airlines are notorious for their add-ons; food and checked-in baggage cost extra on many Australian flights.

Now no-frills airlines overseas are going even further. Ireland’s Ryanair has confirmed it plans to charge customers to use the toilets and an American low-cost carrier wants to charge people to use overhead lockers if their bags do not fit under the seats in front of them.

It may seem outrageous to some but analysts say there is a good reason airlines might start to charge for using overhead lockers or toilets.

Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation chairman Peter Harbison says wafer thin margins are behind the moves.

“First of all they can get an extra half-a-dozen seats in, which is more than the profit usually for a whole aircraft operation,” he said.

“It saves them a lot of money in servicing two additional toilets. All those sorts of issues, they all add up quite considerably.”

Mr Harbison says it is quite possible that Australian carriers will also consider following suit at some point in the future.

“I’ve got no doubt that every airline is looking at how much space the toilets take up, and not just low cost carriers but all carriers,” he said.

“And bear in mind too that we’re not talking about six, seven, eight-hour flights here. We’re talking about 45 minutes to an hour, so it’s not something that’s likely to strain the ability of most people for that length of time.”

Ellis Taylor, a reporter for Australian Aviation Magazine and former Jetstar employee, says Ryanair’s move is a bold one and Australian airlines are likely to be cautious about doing the same.

“At this stage I think they’d be very bold. I think a lot of people are going to wait and see how it goes down with Ryanair first,” he said.

“I’m not aware of the airlines in this part of the world looking at that option and I think a lot would argue that it actually probably goes a little bit too far.

“But you know in this day and age you never know what will happen.”

Mr Taylor says the process of separating charges is likely to continue as airlines attempt to improve their profit margins.

But he says there are a number of potential complications, including the role of flight attendants.

“Essentially they’re going from people who are concerned with safety and service into, for lack of a better word, checkout chicks; just looking to collect revenues be that through credit cards or cash and so forth,” Mr Taylor said.

“And I think there’s going to be some resistance from flight attendants because to some of them it might be cheapening their role.”

Virgin Blue says it currently has no plans to charge for either toilets or overhead lockers.

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Anti-Catholic Leaflet Stirs Holy War in Tennessee Town

March 6, 2010 By Leave a Comment

A Baptist pastor in Tennessee says he now regrets that his church distributed an anti-Catholic leaflet that a local Catholic priest decried as “hate material.”

Pastor Jonathan Hatcher, who leads Conner Heights Baptist Church in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., has removed the inflammatory leaflet, “The Death Cookie,” from his congregation. He says he will no longer distribute it.

“Looking back, I don’t think it was the right tract to give out,” Hatcher told FoxNews.com. “I have some others that wouldn’t have been as offensive. But I will continue to spread the gospel — that’s what I’m called by Christ to do. I’m still going to hand out tracts, but not ‘The Death Cookie.’”

The illustrated leaflet, distributed since 1988 by California-based Chick Publications, features an ominous character with a snake around his neck who advises a man that he can control the world by establishing a false religion based upon worshipping a cookie. Upon taking the control of the cookie, the man becomes the “papa” — a reference to the pope.

“The creation of the wafer god was the greatest religious con job in world history,” the leaflet reads. “ … This religious weapon is one of the most powerful idols ever created by man.”

“It says the devil has made a pact with the pope to take over the world through a false god,” Father Jay Flaherty, who heads nearby Holy Cross Catholic Church, told FoxNews.com.

Flaherty said the leaflet attacks the Catholic tradition of the Eucharist, or communion, and he’s afraid the document could lead to violence in Pigeon Forge, a small town of 5,000.

“Basically, what they’re saying is our Eucharist is of the devil, that Catholicism is not of the Christian church,” Flaherty said.

Hatcher said the leaflet is an “attractive comic book,” but he acknowledged that its message is perhaps a “little too blunt” in its critique of Catholicism.

“I don’t believe in attacking somebody’s church,” he said. “I believe they have a right to practice what they want, just as I have the right to practice what I want.”

Flaherty said he’s concerned that the leaflet could incite a troubled neighbor to harm one of his worshippers.

“It’s a very dangerous world we live in,” the priest said. “But you can’t argue with ignorance, it’s not worth it.”

Flaherty learned that the material was being circulated when a young parishioner brought it into his church last week, after she said she received it in high school.

‘She was very upset,” he said. “But I don’t understand the [pamphlet’s] reasoning — it has nothing to do with scripture. It’s anti-Catholic; it’s just hate material. It has nothing to do with theological discussion. ‘You better get out and get saved’ is basically what it says.”

Pigeon Forge High School Principal Perry Schrandt, who could not be reached for comment, told The Mountain Press that school officials do not condone the pamphlet.

Flaherty said he had considered contacting authorities about the publication and distribution of “The Death Cookie,” but he has reconsidered.

“I pray for him,” Flaherty said of Hatcher. “That’s all you can do.”

Jack Chick, publisher of Chick Publications, was not available for comment early Friday. According to a biography on the company’s Web site, Chick has written and published hundreds of illustrated gospel tracts that have been read by “hundreds of millions” worldwide.

According to the Web site, Jack Chick first realized in the mid-1970s that Roman Catholicism was unscriptural.

“After much prayer,” the site reads, “he made the decision that, no matter what it cost him personally, he would publish the truth that Roman Catholicism is not Christian. He did it because he loves Catholics and wants them to be saved through faith in Jesus, not trusting in religious liturgy and sacraments.”

Other tracts produced by Chick includes materials on Islam, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Masonry and “Creation/Evolution.” The site claims it’s not being “intolerant,” but rather compassionate with its critical literature.

“We are unwilling to lie to them and say that all gods are real, when we know this is not true,” the site reads. ” … To do anything else would be dishonest.”

For his part, Hatcher said the leaflet has become a distraction to his 40 or so active members. Distributing the pamphlet was intended to “share the differences” between Baptists and Catholics, he said.

“Obviously we don’t believe alike, or else we’d be going to the same church,” he said. “But people try to make it out like we’re crusaders. I thank God for America, because we can all practice what we believe. We don’t spread the gospel out of hate; we spread it because we love people.”

Hatcher reiterated that “The Death Cookie” will no longer be available at his church. He simply wants the small town controversy to go away.

“It’s like a sore,” he said. “The more you pick at it, the longer it’s going to take to heal.”

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Semiconductor Research Corporation and Researchers from Arizona Universities Develop Sensor to Drastically Cut Water Usage During Chip Making Process

March 5, 2010 By Leave a Comment

One-of-a-Kind Sensor Shown to Conserve Water Up to 50 Percent
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C.–(Business Wire)–
Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC), the world’s leading
university-research consortium for semiconductors and related technologies,
University of Arizona and Arizona State University researchers have shown a new,
exclusive way to dramatically conserve the amount of water needed to manufacture
semiconductors. Using a unique device called Electro-Chemical Residue Sensor
(ECRS), it allows for clean, rinse and dry process optimization that helps make
semiconductor facilities more efficient, sustainable and cost-effective.

Water conservation in semiconductor facilities is becoming a major concern for
integrated device manufacturers (IDM), as the costs, availability, and
sustainability of water resources can greatly affect manufacturing facilities.
Approximately 80 percent1 of water consumed by semiconductor sites is used in
the rinsing of the wafer during various stages of device fabrication.
Additionally, a wafer going through a modern semiconductor process is rinsed
roughly 400 times, according to industry experts.

“The use of water resources are getting increasingly more critical especially as
the industry moves to smaller features and approaches nano-scale manufacturing
technologies,” said Dr. Bert Vermeire, associate professor of research at
Arizona State University. “A main reason for high water usage is inadequate
process monitoring, which can be attributed to the lack of appropriate
monitoring tools. One cannot optimize what one cannot measure.”

ECRS addresses this measurement challenge by dynamically assessing a wafer`s
cleanliness during the clean, rinse and dry cycles. A comprehensive simulation
model estimates residual impurity concentrations from the measured results. No
other sensor of this type is available today.

“Tests performed in collaboration with an IDM`s large integrated circuit
manufacturing facility demonstrated this sensor`s capability to detect chemicals
inside features, showing annual water savings of up to 50 percent could be
realized by optimizing the rinse process using the ECRS,” said Dan Herr, SRC
director of Nanomanufacturing Sciences.

The fundamental science for the ECRS was developed at the University of
Arizona’s Engineering Research Center for Environmentally Benign Semiconductor
Manufacturing with support and mentoring from SRC. Environmental Metrology
Corporation was spun off from this center in 2003 to commercialize the sensor. A
prototype was designed, built and tested under the National Science Foundation`s
Small Business Innovation Research program. Environmental Metrology Corporation
was also awarded a 2009 Editors` Choice Best Product Award from Semiconductor
International for the ECRS.

A wireless version of the sensor is being jointly developed by Environmental
Metrology Corporation and the ConnectionOne Industry-University Research Center
located at Arizona State University.

About SRC

Celebrating 27 years of collaborative research for the semiconductor industry,
SRC defines industry needs, invests in and manages the research that gives its
members a competitive advantage in the dynamic global marketplace. Awarded the
National Medal of Technology, America`s highest recognition for contributions to
technology, SRC expands the industry knowledge base and attracts premier
students to help innovate and transfer semiconductor technology to the
commercial industry. For more information, visit www.src.org.

1Kempka, Steven N., “Evaluating the Efficiency of Overflow Wet Rinsing,” Micro,
41-46, May 1995

The Francisco Group for SRC
Dan Francisco, 916-293-9030
dan@franciscogrp.com

Copyright Business Wire 2010

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More than half Britons get injured while eating biscuits!

September 8, 2009 By Leave a Comment

London, September 8 (ANI): Britons have an amusing way of getting injured – eating biscuits on coffee or tea breaks.

According to a survey conducted by Mindlab International, on commission by Rocky, a chocolate biscuit bar, more than half of Britons have been injured while eating biscuits during a tea or coffee break.

Moreover, 500 people have landed themselves in hospital, the Telegraph reports.

Flying fragments or dunking in scalding tea hurt maximum people.

Some even poked themselves in the eye with a biscuit, while few fell off a chair reaching for the tin.

One man even ended up stuck in wet concrete after wading in to pick up a stray biscuit.

In a list of biscuits linked with potential dangers, the custard cream biccy beat the cookie to be ranked the top.

The safest of all was Jaffa cakes with a risk rating of 1.16 compared to custard cream with 5.63, as calculated by The Biscuit Injury Threat Evaluation.

The research also found that 28 per cent of people had choked on crumbs while one in 10 had broken a tooth or filling biting a biscuit.

In more funny ways of getting injured, seven percent had been bitten by a pet or “other wild animal” when trying to get their biscuit.

Mindlab International director Dr David Lewis said: “We tested the physical properties of 15 popular types of biscuits, along with aspects of their consumption such as ‘dunkability’ and crumb dispersal.”

Mike Driver, Marketing Director for Rocky added: “We commissioned this study after learning how many biscuit related injuries are treated by doctors each year.”

The full list of riskiest biscuits: Custard Cream 5.64, Cookie 4.34, Choc Biscuit Bar (eg: Rocky) 4.12, Wafer 3.74, Rich Tea 3.45, Bourbon 3.44, Oat Biscuit 3.31, Digestive 3.14, Ginger Nut 2.99, Shortbread 2.90, Caramel Shortcake 2.76, Nice Biscuit 2.27, Iced Biscuits/Party Rings 2.16, Chocolate Finger 1.38, Jaffa Cakes 1.16. (ANI)

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Coming soon: video ads in US magazine

August 21, 2009 By Leave a Comment

London, Aug 21 (ANI): A US magazine has come up with a novel way of portraying adverts-featuring video clippings.

Entertainment Weekly, one of the highest circulation magazines in the country, has come up with a gadget that will feature wafer-thin video displays, about the size of a mobile phone screen, playing up to 40 minutes of video.

The “maga-screens” will feature adverts for CBS television shows, including ‘The Big Bang Theory’ and ‘Two and a Half Men’.

Soft drink makers Pepsi will also advertise in the first edition, out on September 18.

The application has in-built buttons which will allow readers to select the clips they want to watch.

The magazine, which has 1.8 million subscribers, will have only a limited number of editions in major US cities such as New York and Los Angeles featuring the video displays due to the massive cost of the software and of embedding the screen and sound chip in the page.

Experts say that advertisers would need to pay about 10 dollars per copy for a 90-second advert, about 100 times as much as a traditional printed advert.

However, advertisers are likely to be willing to pay the premium, particularly while the new media carries a novelty factor.

“As a rule, 90 per cent of people will say they heard about new programming on television,” the Independent quoted George Schweitzer, president of CBS’s marketing group, as saying.

“This is the first way we can get video samples into the hands of entertainment enthusiasts off the television screen,” he added. (ANI)

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Flexible high-resolution home theatre displays come closer to reality

August 21, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, August 21 (ANI): You may soon get to enjoy facilities like flexible high-resolution home theatre displays, wearable health monitors, and biomedical imaging devices because scientists are working on a novel process for creating new classes of lighting and display systems.

John Rogers, the Flory-Founder Chair Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois, has revealed that the new process is all about creating and assembling ultrathin, ultrasmall inorganic light-emitting diodes (LEDs) into large arrays offers new classes of lighting and display systems with interesting properties, such as see-through construction and mechanical flexibility.

He said that such properties would be impossible to achieve with existing technologies.

“Our goal is to marry some of the advantages of inorganic LED technology with the scalability, ease of processing and resolution of organic LEDs,” said Rogers.

Compared to their organic counterparts, inorganic LEDs are brighter, more robust and longer-lived.

Organic LEDs, however, are attractive because they can be formed on flexible substrates, in dense, interconnected arrays.

Rogers and his colleagues-including collaborators from Northwestern University, the Institute of High Performance Computing in Singapore, and Tsinghua University in Beijing-say that the new technology combines features of both.

“By printing large arrays of ultrathin, ultrasmall inorganic LEDs and interconnecting them using thin-film processing, we can create general lighting and high-resolution display systems that otherwise could not be built with the conventional ways that inorganic LEDs are made, manipulated and assembled,” Rogers said.

To overcome requirements on device size and thickness associated with conventional wafer dicing, packaging and wire bonding methods, the researchers have developed epitaxial growth techniques for creating LEDs with sizes up to 100 times smaller than usual.

They have also developed printing processes for assembling these devices into arrays on stiff, flexible, and stretchable substrates.

To create an array, a rubber stamp contacts the wafer surface at selected points, lifts off the LEDs at those points, and transfers them to the desired substrate.

“The stamping process provides a much faster alternative to the standard robotic ‘pick and place’ process that manipulates inorganic LEDs one at a time. The new approach can lift large numbers of small, thin LEDs from the wafer in one step, and then print them onto a substrate in another step,” Rogers said.

The researcher says that shifting position and repeating the stamping process can transfer LEDs to other locations on the same substrate, and, in this fashion, large light panels and displays can be crafted from small LEDs made in dense arrays on a single, comparatively small wafer.

Given that the LEDs can be placed far apart and still provide sufficient light output, Rogers says that the panels and displays can be nearly transparent.

He even envisions the creation of flexible and even stretchable sheets of printed LEDs, which can have potential use in the health-care industry.

“Wrapping a stretchable sheet of tiny LEDs around the human body offers interesting opportunities in biomedicine and biotechnology, including applications in health monitoring, diagnostics and imaging,” Rogers said.

A research article describing the researchers’ work has been published in the journal Science. (ANI)

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NASA’s Cassini spacecraft captures never-before-seen images of Saturn

June 23, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, June 23 (ANI): The imaging science team on NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has released never-before-seen images and movies from the planet Saturn, which have captured scenes possible only once every 15 years.his bounty of sights, that includes time-lapse sequences in which Saturnian moons eclipse each other and cast long shadows onto the planet’s famous rings, represents only some of the fruits expected for the extended “Equinox Mission” for Cassini, the robotic explorer that has been orbiting Saturn since July 1, 2004.

Saturn’s spin axis is tilted relative to its motion around the Sun, and its year is equal to 29.5 Earth years.

Equinox, the twice-yearly period when the Sun passes through the plane containing the planet’s rings, will happen for the first time in almost 15 Earth years on Aug.11, 2009.

The novel illumination geometry created by the approaching equinox lowers the Sun’s angle to the ring plane and causes some of Saturn’s moons, as well as out-of-plane structures in the rings, to cast long shadows across the rings, creating vistas never before seen by any Saturn-bound spacecraft.

In fact, only recently, Cassini’s high-resolution camera spotted for the first time, enormous mile-high vertical waves on the edges of a gap in Saturn’s outer ring, whose presence was unknown until betrayed by the waves’ shadows.

According to Carolyn Porco, leader of the Cassini Imaging Team, “It has been a scientist’s delight to watch this almost wafer-thin collection of icy debris, that we have come to know so well, change in character and spring into the third dimension. Five years into this mission and we find there are still new tales to be told.”

The release of the new images coincides with the opening of a week-long celebration of the Cassini mission and all that it has discovered in the last 5 years. (ANI)

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Itsy-Bitsy bikinis selling like hot cakes at 99p only

April 7, 2009 By Leave a Comment

London, Apr 7 (ANI): Itsy-Bitsy bikinis made from skimpier materials are being sold in the market for just 99p only.

The sexy two-piece swimwear has been created after taking into consideration girls who are affected by the credit crunch.

The beachwear has been launched by cut-price chain 99p Stores.

It comes in eight colours but just three sizes, small, medium and large.

“We’re on wafer-thin margins,” the Sun quoted founder Hussein Lalani as saying.

“We’re making them a bit more skimpy so less material is used – meaning they’re a bit cheaper to make. We mostly get our stock from companies, like Woolworths, that have gone bust,” he added. (ANI)

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Rare consensus as new Maltese president is voted in

April 1, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Rare consensus as new Maltese president is voted in Valletta – A 60-year-old lawyer was voted in as Malta’s next president Wednesday, amid rare consensus in the politically-divided island.

George Abela was unanimously voted in by parliament as Malta’s eighth president, and the first ever from an opposition party.

A former deputy leader of the Labour Party, last year Abela contested the top post for a party trailing from three successive electoral defeats.

Pressure had been mounting on Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi to nominate to the presidency an individual from the opposition benches, in a bid to reflect the wafer-thin victory his Nationalist Party obtained in March 2008.

Renowned for his charm, Abela is lauded in Malta for his moderate style of politics and for indirectly working towards the island’s EU membership bid, despite his own Labour Party’s objections.

Abela will succeed Eddie Fenech Adami, one of Malta’s most respected politicians. He will be sworn in on Saturday. (dpa)

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Koenigsegg Quant – the all-electric super sports car

March 18, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Koenigsegg Quant - the all-electric super sports car Geneva – Swedish sports car maker Koenigsegg has joined forces with the Swiss NLV to build an all-electric, high performance super car with an output of 512 hp and a top speed of 275 kilometres an hour.

At the heart of the power package is the FAES battery system that can be charged from any electric plug in just 20 minutes with a range of 500 kilometres. The battery pack is positioned in the centre of the carbon-fibre monotube chassis.

Energy is supplied additionally by a recuperative braking system. An invisible, wafer-thin sheet of solar cells covers the entire bodywork, providing additional solar energy for the battery.

Despite its sporty character, the Quant provides space for four people and includes room for luggage. A three-zone air conditioning system provides the necessary comfort while three flat screen televisions offer entertainment.

The safety system includes six airbags, ABS (anti-lock brakes) and ESP (electronic stability programme). The car shown at the Geneva Motor Show is not a roll-out model, but works on prototypes and current serial production. However, Koenigsegg has yet to name a price saying it will be announced at a later date. (dpa)

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Slimmer nanorods may revolutionise 3-D computer chip technology

March 18, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Mar 18 (ANI): Scientists have developed a new technique for growing slimmer copper nanorods, a breakthrough that can pave the way for advanced integrated 3-D chip technology.

The researchers have found a new method to grow slimmer copper nanorods, which can be used as a low-temperature bonding agent for holding together the layers of next-generation 3-D integrated computer chips.

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have discovered that interrupting the nanorod growth process results in thinner copper rods that fuse together, or anneal, at about 300 degrees Celsius.

The relatively low annealing temperature could make the nanorods ideal for use in heat-sensitive nanoelectronics, particularly for “gluing” together the stacked components of 3-D computer chips.

“When fabricating and assembling 3-D chips, and when bonding the silicon wafers together, you want as low a temperature as possible,” said Pei-I Wang, research associate at Rensselaer’s Center for Integrated Electronics.

He added: “Slimmer nanorods, by virtue of their smaller diameters, require less heat to anneal. These lower temperatures won’t damage or degrade the delicate semiconductors. The end result is a less expensive, more reliable device.”

Experimental 3-D computer chips are comprised of several layers of stacked components.

The researchers claimed that such layers can be coated with thin nanorods, and then heated up to 300 degrees Celsius.

Around that temperature, the thin nanorods anneal, turn into a continuous thin film, and fuse the layers together.

According to Wang, the study was the first demonstration of slimmer nanorods enabling wafer bonding.

The study has been reported in the journal Nanotechnology. (ANI)

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World”s slimmest TV unveiled

January 8, 2009 By Leave a Comment

London, Jan 8 (ANI): Samsung Electronics has launched a new line of LCD televisions, which is being hailed as the world”s slimmest television ever created.

The wafer thin television includes a LCD (liquid crystal display) screen as well as an LED (light emitting diode) backlighting system.

In the face of global economic downturn, the South Korean company is hoping to capitalize on consumer interest with its ultra slim TVs, reports the Telegraph.

A prototype of the new flat-panel television is to be displayed during the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which opens on Thursday.

The Japanese company JVC will also show off what it claims is the world”s lightest 32-inch LCD TV, which is fractionally thicker than Samsung”s creation.

Electronics companies are expected to unveil even thinner televisions in the near future based on new screen technology known as organic light emitting diode (OLED). (ANI)

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