IEEE Spectrum: Semiconductors

Metamaterials Arrive in Cellphones

LG Chocolate BL40 is first cellphone to use a metamaterials antenna

Better Computing Through CPU Cooling

Heat can be a CPU's worst enemy, but new chip designs and materials can keep them cool

Hybrid Chips of Gallium Nitride and Silicon

MIT engineers integrate two semiconductors that don't ordinarily mix

Graphene Makes Transistors Tunable

But even the "wonder material" has its limits

Semicondutor Manufacturing Plants can use as much water as a small city.

As the Industry Grows, Finding New Ways to Recycle and Conserve Water

Fantasy Sports Prep: Semiconductor Edition

David Kanter reviews and analyzes the 32nm process technologies presented at IEDM 2008 and VLSI 2009.

Is More Being Spent on its Toxicology than on Nanotech Itself?

Government dollars go easily into nanotech research, but nary a cent finds its way into supporting entrepreneurs trying to commercialize nanotechnology

Slideshow: The Art of Failure 2009

A microscopic menagerie from damaged devices

Nanotechnology's Evolving Role in Semiconductors

Will incremental improvements in electronics from nanotech keep the skeptics at bay?

Lasers, Great and Small

Back story

Graphene versus Carbon Nanotubes for Electronics: A Short Update

Research for graphene in electronics applications is accelerating so fast carbon nanotubes seem nearly forgotten

Never Look Down the Barrell of a Loaded Laser

Just kidding. But eye safety is important for laser weapons too.

Ray Guns Get Real

Cheap rockets fired by insurgents are taking a deadly toll in the Middle East. Can a new generation of solid-state lasers blow them out of the sky?

Uganda and Nanotechnology

Uganda seems to have misplaced priorities when it comes to nanotech, but it's not the kind we thought.

Solar Impulse Concept Plane Unveiled

First Glimpse of New Design's Highlights Include 11,000 Solar Cells

Semicon Industry Group Sees Hope After 2009

Semiconductor Industry Association predicts better times nearing

One-Billion-Year Carbon Nanotube Memory

A new approach to really long-lived electronic storage

Designing a Nanotech Material: It Takes a Long Time

Material by Design is a long way off if this video is any indication

Slideshow: The Many Facets of Microchips

NOW WE’RE TALKING

The Speak & Spell was a learning toy that Texas Instruments created using its TMC0281, the first single-chip speech synthesizer. One of the hits of Christmas 1978, the toy was the brainchild of four TI engineers [from left]: Gene Frantz, Richard Wiggins, Paul Breedlove, and Larry Brantingham.

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A hand-drawn diagram, a long-forgotten memo, a photo of a Ferrari--intriguing images of chips and their creators

The Runners-up: More Earthshaking Chips

These 13 great little chips didn't make our list--mainly because we ran out of space in print. And, well, one isn't even a chip