Category: Global / Grand Challenges

Coupling & Crosstalk: First World Problems

hurdles-canstockphoto10553904 800x475Coupling & Crosstalk is my column in the MEPTEC Report. This column appears in the Winter 2014 edition on pages 10-11.

Electronic coupling is the transfer of energy from one circuit or medium to another. Sometimes it is intentional and sometimes not (crosstalk). I hope that this column, by mixing technology and general observations, is thought provoking and “couples” with your thinking. Most of the time I will stick to technology but occasional crosstalk diversions may deliver a message closer to home.

 

First World Problems

Returning home with a carload of food for our Thanksgiving feast, we discovered our garage refrigerator had died. The only appropriate response other than panic was to Continue reading “Coupling & Crosstalk: First World Problems”

Trillion Sensors – TApps: Ultra-High Volume Sensor Applications for Global Challenges

Click image to download presentation
Click image to download San Diego TSensors Summit presentation (update of Munich)

 
It was my pleasure to organize and present at two TSensors Summits: Munich and San Diego this fall. The enthusiasm and intellectual “horsepower” of the presenters and attendees was incredible!

My presentations explain Continue reading “Trillion Sensors – TApps: Ultra-High Volume Sensor Applications for Global Challenges”

Green on the Industrial Scale

Molecular Layer Deposition of Polymers – George, Yoon & Dameron [4]

Many exotic materials or materials with special properties are processed using extreme temperature and pressure often with toxic starting materials. In semiconductors, molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) to build single crystal structures and sputtering are common methods of physical deposition to deposit thin films. Both are done using a very high vacuum. MBE heats the atomic materials until they sublimate and land on the desired surface. Sputtering uses a gas plasma to knock a few atoms of material off a “target” and onto the desired surface. There are also different chemical deposition processes including electroplating which uses metal salts dissolved in a solution bath, chemical vapor deposition (CVD) which uses high vacuum, and atomic layer deposition (ALD) which is similar to CVD but uses two half-reactions of gas phase precursors. 

Limitations imposed by extreme temperature, extreme pressure, and toxic materials combined with a typically slow deposition rate make it is difficult to economically run these processes on an industrial scale for high volume manufacturing. But what if there was a process that  Continue reading “Green on the Industrial Scale”

IEEE Nanotechnology Symposium 2011 – Keynote

Dr. Narayan
The IEEE San Francisco Bay Area Nanotechnology Council held their 7th annual symposium this week. As in the past, the council presents an excellent program. This year’s program focused was “Nanotechnology – Consumer Applications.”

Here are my notes from the keynote presentation by Dr. Spike Narayan, Functional Manager IBM, “Nanotechnology: Leveraging Semiconductor Technologies to Address Global Challenges.”

He asks: can we leverage semiconductor technology to address global challenges of environment, energy, healthcare, and water? Others have made a compelling argument that Continue reading “IEEE Nanotechnology Symposium 2011 – Keynote”