Amelia Dalton

Directing DSA

April 29, 2013

DSA – Directed Self Assembly – is 2/3 natural and 1/3 artificial. The “self assembly” part (two of the three words, to make the scoring clear) is a natural phenomenon governing how mutually immiscible materials will resolve their differences in staking out territory.

It’s the “directed” part that makes it a useful tool. We’ve looked before at some basics for controlling how to create lines, for instance. But actual circuit patterns will be more complex, and several SPIE … Read More → "Directing DSA"

Close Enough?

by Amelia Dalton

March 27, 2013

Not long ago, in our coverage of 3D vision, we discussed time-of-flight as one of the approaches to gauging distance. Even though it and the other 3D vision technologies are gunning for low-cost applications, it’s easy, at this point, to view them as exotic works in progress.

Well, time of flight is now being put to use for the most prosaic of duties: making sure your cheek doesn’t accidentally hang up on you.

Of course, our phones … Read More → "Close Enough?"

Dry Etch Edges Wet

by Amelia Dalton

March 20, 2013

Two announcements have come out recently regarding dry etch systems. Now… dry etch is nothing new. Although it is newer than wet etch, which is still being used. And, as they say, therein lies the rub.

The first announcement came late January regarding a new system shipping from Memsstar. Their focus was on MEMS, and, in particular, on reducing yield failures due to stiction. There are two pieces to this move.

First, they note that wet etch processes must be followed by a wash to clean out all of the etchant and resulting groddy … Read More → "Dry Etch Edges Wet"

I think it’s probably safe to as

by Amelia Dalton

February 22, 2013

I think it’s probably safe to assume that the request for “MORE Lawyers” probably means “MORE of the better kind.”

Dick, I have to say that I don’t agree that lawyers’ self-selection, education, and training “conspire” to ensure we get bad lawyers. I decided to be a lawyer because I wanted to “fight the man” and practice public interest and social justice law. While in law school, I met many incredibly motivated, interesting people who wanted to be forces for good and benefit society as part of their work (even the ones who wanted to … Read More → "I think it’s probably safe to as"

MORE Lawyers, Please!

by Amelia Dalton

February 21, 2013

In response to Dick Selwood’s recent article “Lawyers, Bankers, and Engineers”, I want to take a different (and perhaps controversial) stand: We need MORE lawyers. (The torch mob can form on the left, now. Please stand by, and take a number.) That’s right, I said it. The world doesn’t have nearly enough well-trained legal experts to keep pace with the incredible demands being created… mostly by our community of engineers.

Algorithms or Methodologies?

by Amelia Dalton

February 7, 2013

You see it two to four times a year from each EDA player: “x% Productivity Gains with y Tool!” Cadence recently had such an announcement with their Incisive tool; Synopsys has just had a similar story with FineSim.

As I was talking with the Cadence folks about this, I wondered: How much of this productivity gain comes as a result of engine/algorithm improvements, and how much as a … Read More → "Algorithms or Methodologies?"

More Analog

by Amelia Dalton

February 6, 2013

There’s been a clear trend over the last decade or so: analog is succumbing to digital. More and more, the modus operandi has been, “Sample the analog world and convert it to digital as soon as possible, doing all of the signal processing in the digital domain.” So it’s natural to expect that, as we do more and more digitally, we will see less and less analog content in our systems.

Imagine my surprise, then, talking to Maxim at CES and learning that, in phones, despite all of the increased digital … Read More → "More Analog"

Sensing the Squish

by Amelia Dalton

January 31, 2013

We’re used to touch being about locating one or more fingers or items on a surface. This is inherently a 2D process. Although much more richness is being explored for the long-term, one third dimension that seems closer in is pressure: how hard are we pushing down, and can we use that to, for instance, grab an object for dragging?

At the 2011 Touch Gesture Motion conference, one company that got a fair bit of attention was Read More → "Sensing the Squish"

Body Motion Tracking: What’s Old is New

by Amelia Dalton

January 11, 2013

Health and fitness were one of the major categories of new gadgets at this year’s CES. One of the products being demonstrated was actually announced back in November, but in fact, isn’t really a new product. But there is something new about it.

Xsens started a project back in the 2004-5 timeframe to create a wireless wearable body suit with multiple sensors that could be used to model the motion of the body. They released their first product in 2008; it was used primarily as a tool for graphic animation. I have then also been using < … Read More → "Body Motion Tracking: What’s Old is New"

What Makes LEDs Different?

by Amelia Dalton

December 26, 2012

Earlier this month, KLA-Tencor released their ICOS WI-2280 inspection tool for LEDs. Reading through all the things it does and the improvements in provides – things like enhanced recipe qualification and reduced setup time – well, for someone like me who doesn’t spend all his time in this world, you start to think… This sounds like a lot of other inspection tools. And there do seem to be a lot of different tools.

It makes you wonder, why can’t one … Read More → "What Makes LEDs Different?"