What's New @ IEEE in Circuits

May 2006 Volume 7, Number 5

IN THIS ISSUE:
1. Bogus Electronics: "IEEE Spectrum" Reports
2. Chip Industry Debates 450-Millimeter Wafer Technology
3. Water Cooled Chips the Wave of the Future?
4. Call for Papers: Symbolic Methods and Applications
5. Discovery May Lead To Cell-Phones Powered By GaAS Circuits
6. Circuits for Communication Conference Coming to Romania
7. New Online Tutorial Service Previewed for IEEE Members
8. Brain Power: "IEEE Spectrum" Reports
9. Submit Questions to IEEE President-Elect Candidates
10. 45-nm Chip Could Lead to Broad Digital Changes

DID YOU KNOW?
IEEE members can access "IEEE Potentials" magazine online:
ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=45

1. BOGUS ELECTRONICS: "IEEE SPECTRUM" REPORTS
That the world is awash in counterfeit goods comes as no surprise to anyone who's ever strolled the streets of a major city. But in recent years a less visible but no less insidious component of the illicit global trade has taken off: the counterfeiting of electronics components and systems, from tiny resistors to entire routers. In the May 2006 of "IEEE Spectrum," Michael Pecht, a professor at the University of Maryland, discusses the scope and the implications of the problem. Read more: www.spectrum.ieee.org/may06/3423

2. CHIP INDUSTRY DEBATES 450-MILLIMETER WAFER TECHNOLOGY
Silicon chip manufacturers are engaged in a furious debate over whether to scale up from 300-millimeter wafers to 450-millimeter wafers, according to experts, with some manufacturers already making tentative investments in the new technology. On the one side are manufacturers who believe that investment in the new technology is necessary to keep pace with the market, while others believe the benefits of larger chips do not outweigh the enormous expense of retooling, and that the industry will face significant production problems as it did when it shifted from 200-millimeter to 300-millimeter wafers, experts say. Proponents of the 450-millimeter wafers insist that the shift from 300-millimeters will be much easier than the migration from 200-millimeter wafers, according to analysts, because 450-millimeter technology is a step function in the wafer size. Read more: www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=187001870

3. WATER COOLED CHIPS THE WAVE OF THE FUTURE?
A prototype silicon chip cooled by numerous water-filled micro-channels, grooves about 100 microns wide, has been developed by researchers at Purdue University, who say the technology is the first step in advanced cooling systems that are self-contained on chips and are capable of handling the more extreme heating. The channels in the centimeter-square chip are covered with a series of hundreds of electrodes that create a traveling electric field, according to researchers, causing the water to flow and inducing a cooling action. The researchers say they have boosted the force of the pumping action with a thin sheet of piezoelectric material, which expands and contracts in response to an electric current, acting as a pump. Read more: www.powermanagementdesignline.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=187001477

4. CALL FOR PAPERS: SYMBOLIC METHODS AND APPLICATIONS
The 2006 Symbolic Methods and Applications to Circuit Design conference is currently seeking paper submissions. Authors are encouraged to submit papers on all aspects of symbolic and hybrid symbolic/numeric techniques, related to analysis and design of electronic circuits and systems, are welcome. The conference will take place from 12 to 13 October in Florence, Italy. For more information: www.smacd06.unifi.it/

QUOTE OF THE MONTH:
"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." ~ Leonardo da Vinci

5. DISCOVERY MAY LEAD TO CELL-PHONES POWERED BY GaAS CIRCUITS
Chip makers and researchers who study exotic semiconductor transistors are excited about the possibility of developing transistors that can power circuits for cell-phones and provide immediate analog to digital conversion with gallium arsenide and a unique gate dielectric. Sparked by the recent work of a group of Freescale researchers who created metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors, researchers are now looking toward ways to develop gallium arsenide digital transistors and put them to use in commercial-grade microprocessors or memory circuits. According to an article from IEEE Spectrum Magazine, the development would allow chip makers to provide better performance and processor speed of transistors than they can with silicon chips, since gallium arsenide conducts electrons up to 20 times as fast as silicon does. To read more, go to: www.spectrum.ieee.org/may06/3429

6. CIRCUITS FOR COMMUNICATION CONFERENCE COMING TO ROMANIA
2006 3rd IEEE InternationalConference on Circuits andSystems for Communications is coming to Bucharest, Romania in July. The conference focuses on a variety of topics including control and tuning systems, neural integrated circuits and systems, mobile communications and more. The conference takes place from 6 to 7 July. For more, or to register to attend: iccsc06.lce.pub.ro/

7. NEW ONLINE TUTORIAL SERVICE PREVIEWED FOR IEEE MEMBERS
A new service called "Expert Now IEEE" offers online learning courses based upon IEEE conference tutorials, short courses and workshops. For a limited time, IEEE members may take three of these one-hour courses as a benefit of their membership. The preview classes include "Real-Time Computer Systems", "Transition to Management" and "Introduction to Wireless Ad-hoc Networks." For more information, visit: www.ieee.org/web/education/secure/Expert_Now_IEEE/trials.html

8. BRAIN POWER: "IEEE SPECTRUM" REPORTSa
Your inner ear uses just 14 millionths of a watt and could run for 15 years on one AA battery. If engineers could borrow nature's tricks, maybe they could build faster, better and smaller devices that don't literally burn holes in our pockets, writes Rahul Sarpeshkar in the May 2006 issue of "IEEE Spectrum" magazine. The idea, called neuromorphic engineering, has been around for 20 years, and the likely first application is bionics. Read more: www.spectrum.ieee.org/may06/3433

AN ESSENTIAL MEMBER BENEFIT
Get the IEEE Personal Email Alias
www.ieee.org/alias

9. SUBMIT QUESTIONS TO IEEE PRESIDENT-ELECT CANDIDATES
With the annual IEEE elections pending this September, IEEE members are invited to submit questions to the candidates running for 2007 IEEE President-Elect. Responses from candidates Lewis M. Terman and John Vig will be broadcast over the IEEE web site during the election period. Questions may be emailed to corp-election@ieee.org

For more information about IEEE's annual election, visit: www.ieee.org/elections

10. 45-NM CHIP COULD LEAD TO BROAD DIGITAL CHANGES
Based on society's new dependence on digital and streaming media, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) told the Future Horizons Electronics Forum they are anticipating new system designs at the 45-nm mode and beyond. Such chips, they say, will become more necessary as computers and consumer electronics (such as phones and televisions) begin to merge designs into single digital products. But AMD's Robert Ober declared that at the 45-nm node and beyond silicon providers not only have to deliver software and the host hardware, but they need to develop it at a higher level of abstraction to create stable configurable platforms in regular arrays. Ober noted that today's processors have become standardized, and to combat this, companies need to work in software at yet higher levels of abstraction and increase power efficiency, through the use of different hardware engines and processing capabilities. Ober told the forum that the 45-nm chip will help set the stage for this change. Read more: www.eet.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=187200089

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WHAT'S NEW @ IEEE IN CIRCUITS
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Managing Editor: John Platt j.platt@ieee.org

Contributing Editors: Diana Fuksin, Robert J. Howe, Brian Pedersen, Ryan Thomas

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