Japanese researcher Tadahiro Ohmi is developing three-dimensional systems-on-chip VLSI chips he claims have ten times better performance than today’s chips and squeeze design and production time to 1/40, clean room space to 1/5 and production cost to 1/10 of what’s now required.

“As one of the target systems-on-chip, Ohmi described a 3-D SoC that integrates everything but the kitchen sink: all of the silicon processors, silicon memories, polysilicon functional… read more

STMicroelectronics researchers have succeeded in increasing the efficiency of light-emitting silicon 100-fold, allowing for timing circuits to be built into silicon chips to reduce delays.

Tiny batteries that draw energy from nickel-63 radioactive isotopes could provide 50 years of power for micro-devices and electronics, says Amil Lal, who developed the system with colleagues at Cornell University.

“It might be possible to make really tiny microelectronic sensor systems that can be embedded in a building or even in the body,” he says.