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Features several communications industries which have introduced innovations in office equipment. Softboard from Microfield Graphics Inc.; Upright fax machines designed by Panasonic Co.; Newton Message Pad from Apple; More. INSET: Electronics bolster the communications revolution..

Reports on technological innovations in semiconductor switches. Arcless Switching Technology Inc.'s solid-state module called ArcQuelcher; Pneumatically-controlled switch called Quadpuck; Startless ignitions; Sold State Power Controllers' replacement of electromechanical circuit breakers and solid-state relays; Advantages over traditional switches.

Discusses future technical advances and their effects as seen by Motorola's top engineers and managers. Effect of a rapidly emerging digital standard and increased computer power; Personal Video Desktop Communicator features and usage; Emergence of the Personal Communicator; Use of SMARTMOS ICs to create environmentally friendly electronic cars; Effect of portable products on battery-life.

The article presents the smart ways to beat the heat with the products, in which designers packing more power into tighter spaces. The products include the new extruded aluminum fin design that allows the engineer to work with different configurations for cooling electronic components on integrated circuits packages of Aavid Engineering Inc., the tab technology in which has multichip modules, the liquid cooling modules that make better cooling systems than air and the thermal analysis.

The article reports on the development of intelligent sensor devices that blend sensor and computing functions in an entirely new way. New chip designs, materials, and breakthroughs in design strategy are coming together in the form of intelligent sensors. Several companies are gearing up for commercial introductions, offering special chips designs that take advantage of new analog design techniques.

The article discusses the impact of new developments in electronics on design engineers. The use of polymers allows for lower temperature processing, providing improved reliability and lower costs. Engineers can take advantage of circuit flexibility to eliminate conventional hardware associated with rigid board designs.

Reports on the polyplanar optics display (POD) invented by a physicist at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York. POD's use of paper-thin layers of glass or transparent plastic waveguides to yield overall display thickness range for any screen application; Cost-effectiveness of the technology.

Reports on Atlanta, Georgia-based Georgia Institute of Technology researchers' development of more efficient solar cells made from cheaper materials. Background on the technique developed by the researchers; Technological innovation's impact on the solar power industry.

Reports on the development of an ion-beam deposition system at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in California that could boost ultraviolet lithography. Reduction of defects in the multilayer coated reflective masks used to transfer circuit patterns onto silicon chips; Design of an interferometer that measures the surface shapes of optical components with greater accuracy than conventional instruments.

Reports on the development of a new method for fabricating film-based high-temperature superconductor wires that support very high-current densities. Research at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory that produced a roll-textured, buffered metal superconducting tape with critical current density; Possible use of method to accelerate the adoption of novel materials in power and utility applications.

Reports on the development of the nano-imprint lithographic method at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, which offer integrated circuit (IC) manufacturers a less complex way to fabricate 25 nanometer structures. Significance for the IC industry; Background on the process; Step-by-step breakdown of the process; Implications for the lithography industry.

Reports that researchers at the IBM T.J. Watson Center and at the University of Illinois at Urbana are using silicon germanium (SiGe) heterostructures to build p-type transistors. Transistors' 500 percent higher hole mobility; Use of the process to fabricate 0.1-micron gate-length silicon p-type MOSFETs.

Features the innovative information display technology developed by Micro Vision Inc. and the University of Washington. Comparison with current display technology; Imaging capabilities.

Reports on the exploration of capacity benefits from dynamically programmable gate arrays at researchers from the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Generation of a tempral circuit-design method; Ability for a complete circuit reconfiguration; Comments from researchers.

Reports that International Business Machines Corporation have designed an optical microscope that can see objects 500 times smaller than conventional optical microscopes. Comments from IBM's Kumar Wickramasinghe; Features.

Discusses temperature-programmed sensing technique that can simplify the design of gas sensors. Development of microsensor system by National Institute of Standards and Technology; Microsensor's detection of specific gases; More on technological innovation.

Reports on the development of a simple recipe for creating electrically insulating oxides in gallium arsenide (GaAs), pioneered at the University of Illinois by Nick Holnyak Jr. Impetus for a product revolution; Vertical-cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs); Potential behind the oxide process; Catalyst for the commercialization of integrated-circuit (IC) technology; Application of the oxide process; Impact of the process.

Provides information on the development of a theoretical model of noise in short-channel field effect-transistors (FETs), a model to improve radio frequency (RF) design methodology. Group responsible for designing and fabricating the model; Major cause of noise; How the group started identifying the noise in FETs.

Focuses on the development of trilayer thin-film-transistor (TFT) process to build higher performance liquid crystal displays (LCD) devised by Penn State University researchers. Key advantage of the Penn State process; Two process used to achieve hydrogenated amorphous silicon TFT; Method used in the process.

Focuses on an approach to high-frequency interconnects devised at the University of California Santa Barbara which offers substantial system power savings. Function of current-mode scheme; Comparison between typical shuntterminated ECL and current mode on current swing; Demonstration of ECL and current-mode interface on the same chip; Design of transimpedance amplifier; Issues that need to be evaluated before the possibilities of commercial use.

Discusses the development of a different approach to the mask-manufacturing envelope in X-ray lithography from International Business Machines (IBM) Microelectronics Division. Material and processing improvements of IBM and other manufacturers; Developments on the channel length of complimentary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS); Goal of the X-ray-mask innovations using a single lithographic process.

Reports on a noise-estimation method that combines finite-element full-wave electromagnetic tool and circuit simulator HSpice for modeling the switching noise in integrated circuits. Balance between accuracy and efficiency in the result; Use of the `divide and conquer' approach in the system; Effect of switching noise problems in circuit design.

States that engineers at United Solar Systems Corporation have boosted the stable efficiency of triple-junction amorphous-silicon solar cell by improving the cell design. Importance of stabilized efficiency in conversion of sunlight to electricity; Three different areas of improvement in the device structure.

Presents an experimental optoelectronic device which integrates a phototransistor with an optical waveguide. Features for eliminating optical coupling problems; Use of long traveling-wave heterostructure phototransistors (TW-HPT) in the device; Applicability of the technology on short-range communication systems.

Focus on atom lithography, a technique that uses neutral atoms instead of light to write patterns on surfaces, and its increasing popularity in global research efforts. Potentials of the technology; Forecast of applications; Techniques used to enhance the potentials of lithography.

Reports on a light-coupling scheme based on reflective optics which could lead to more efficient, less costly, infrared photodetectors. Four-time boost in detector sensitivity across a broad spectrum of infrared wavelengths; Use of internal-reflection techniques.

Reports on the development of a hybrid smart-pixel array (SPA) technology at the University of Colorado-Boulder that combines laser arrays with silicon chips. Successful bonding of a gallium-arsenide-based vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser array and a complementary metal oxide semiconductor chip to a glass substrate; Benefits of the technology to system designers.

Reports on University of New Orleans researchers' development of the depixelization technique, a phase-scrambling method that removes pixel artifacts from liquid crystal display (LCD) projection screens. Use of a transparent mask with different thicknesses at locations that relate to various diffraction orders; Importance of thickness difference.

Reports that scientists at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois have developed a method for growing semiconductors that replicates the exact geometrical nanoscale features of molecular assemblies. Atomic dimensions; Double-scale lithography.

Reports that East Lansing, Michigan-based Michigan State University researchers have developed a new form of the silicon compound, SiO2, with potential applications for thin-film technology. Features of new vesicles; Details of the experimental method.

Features the `dual-material gate field effect transistor (DMFET)' designed to attack a growing problem with small devices, the short-channel effect while bumping up carrier efficiency in the channel. Comments of Ken Chin about the DMFET device; Information on how the device was developed.

Reports on the development of a trench lateral power metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFET) (T-LPM) device with an extremely low on-resistance by researchers at the University of Toronto. Description of the device; Applications of the device; Key in minimizing the pitch; Possible complications.

Discusses the smart antennas developed by Astron Corp. and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and funded by Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Materials used in the smart antenna technology; Advantages of the miniaturized antennas; Other features of smart antennas; Application of the antennas for low-orbiting-satellite applications.

Discusses that a diode laser that uses human blood cells as part of its light-generation may offer a faster, more-accurate way to detect diseases. Purpose for the development of the approach by researchers at Sandia National Laboratory; Role of the cells in light-generation; Features of the design of the laser which is based on vertical-cavity surface-emitting-laser (VC-SEL) technology.

Predicts the surge of continuous-speech recognition systems for the next-generation of computers. Efforts of Microsoft Corp. to accelerate next-generation voice recognition products; Primary application of voice-recognition products; ViaVoice vocabulary dictation program of International Business Machine Corp.

Discusses the fluxless bonding technique using an indium-silver multilayer composites developed by the University of California. How the method prevents oxidation during solder fabrication and the bonding process; Advantage of finding a way to cut out the flux problem; Applications for the method.

Reports that researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories have developed a robotic sensor that extract information from a single laser beam. Features and functions; Details of the device's technological innovations.

Reports on the development of an additional oxide-deposition step by researchers at Rockwell Semiconductor Systems and the University of California at Irvine for the fabrication of split-gate flash-memory cells. Possibility for higher speed and reliability of non-volatile storage technology; Two-step process involved in developing refined vapor deposition.

Reports on the development of non-hermetic 1.3-micron indium phosphide (InP) lasers by researchers at Lucent Technologies Bell Labs that offer the same reliability advantages as hermetically sealed devices. Use of common fabrication techniques to design the lasers; Potential benefits of the InP lasers to the semiconductor industry; Features and capabilities of the InP lasers.

Examines the technique used by Supertex Inc. researchers to fabricate 40-channel smart-power integrated circuits (ICs) using bonded silicon-on-insulator (BSOI) technology with trench isolation. Presentation of the work at the International Electron Devices Meeting in December 1996; Preproduction of the ICs; Obstacles overcome by the Supertex technique.

Reports on world developments in politics, health, trade, economics and sports. Amendments to the Maastricht Treaty; Possibility that the Greens would replace the Free Democrats as Germany's third major political party; Invention of the contraceptive Mirena, which is inserted to the body to release a contraceptive hormone into the womb.

Discusses the features of Sage syringe pump line developed by the ATI/Orion, Incorporated.

Features the Hydra Wireless Logger, a wireless, personal computer-based data-acquisition tool from John Fluke Manufacturing Co. Incorporated. Noise immunity offered by a spread spectrum; Measurement system for Chrysler's environmental-chamber and over-the-road design tests.

Features Motorola Inc.'s Ignition Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT). Environmental regulations' requirement for ignition designers to build efficient combustion systems; Ignition-voltage range; Inclusion of high-voltage ignition coil and integrally-clamped IGBT driven by a microcontroller unit; Polysilicon diode gate-to-emitter ESD protection; Benefits of adding or subtracting polysilicon diodes. INSET: Other applications..

Reports on innovations in screening procedures for Pap smear analysis in the detection of cervical cancer. Development of an ultra-high-resolution printing process for cervical Pap smear screening; Automating Pap-smear screening and other image-classification tasks; Use of the analog optical-memory chip in the computational mode; Pap Smear Micro Library as storing 11 million picture elements.

Focuses on the multi-Ghz-bandwidth converter, an analog-to-digital converter (ADC). Development of an eight-bit, super conducting flash ADC that runs at 10 Ghz; Features of ADC comparators; Highly sensitive interferometers; Conversion of incoming signals into a periodic threshold function; More.

The article focuses on the advantages of using solid state tube emulation. The Tube Emulator designed by Eric Pritchard provides several benefits when compared to transistors. The device's transfer function employs nonlinear differential equations. Its operating characteristics closely resemble those of a triode.

The article examines the potential of a silicon micropump in replacing the bulky pumping system. The micropump consists of three disk-shaped pieces of piezoelectric material attached to a glass plate and a silicon wafer. It has the capacity to cut down the volume required for the insulin dispensing system.

Features the Dual Dome Anti-Cycling HPS Street Lamp Control from F.H. Blake & Associates. Photoelectric sensing of lamp cycling using single PROM; Mounting of device on top of conventional street light; Extension of fiber-optic cable between anti-cycling controller and lamp.

The article reports on the 1992 WESCON trade show held at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California. Over 50,000 engineers were on hand to view exhibits promoting the need to redesign electronic components and subsystems for economic growth and global competition. Advanced Hardware Architecture, showed up with a high-speed loss-less image compression device. A compact chip emulator has been introduced by Aries Electronics Inc. OMROM Electronics Inc. stepped into the fan business with its line of AC and DC tube axial fans. Kikushi International Corp. has introduced a 100 MHz digital oscilloscope.