We talked with Samsung about their various memory product lines. The constant drivers for changes are the demands for higher performance, higher capacity, and in of growing importance, lower power. The specific product lines we discussed were DDR three, SSD, and mobile memories. At the high performance and of the spectrum, DDR-3 memories are used [...]

March 29, 2012, Sensors in Design, San Jose, CA—Karen Lightman from the MEMS Industry Group described the organization’s functions and organization. MIG functions include standards development, reliability studies, and sharing of information among its 140 members. The semiconductor industry has had its leaders change many times over the decades. Now the top 30 suppliers are [...]

March 29, 2012, Sensors in Design, San Jose, CA—Karen Lightman, executive director of the MEMS Industry Group moderated a panel looking at the requirements for MEMS in sports. The panel consisted of Romain Lazerand from Syride, Per Slycke from Xsens, and Rob O’Reilly from Analog Devices. What do you get by applying MEMS to sports? [...]

April 11, 2012, FlexTech Workshop, San Jose, CA– Jeffrey Stuart from Lockheed-Martin presented a view on sensors from a systems integrator perspective. They are looking into physiological monitoring across a broad spectrum of parameters to determine the most suitable personnel for war fighter missions. One issue for monitoring our military personnel is understanding the differences [...]

April 11, 2012, Flextech Alliance Workshop, San Jose, CA—Joshua Hagen from the US Air Force Research Lab at Wright-Patterson AFB described the programs and changing needs in their work. They need to instrument people as well as they do airplanes to match and track performance capabilities. Their facility tests prototypes and has an analysis testbed [...]