San Francisco, Calif., – February 22, 2012 – Imec, Holst Centre and their partners in the EU FP7 project ORICLA have fabricated the world’s first RFID (radio frequency identification) circuit made in low-temperature thin-film technology that allows reader-talks-first communication. The technology behind this prototype is indispensable to create RFID tags that are cheap enough and have enough performance to be used as intelligent item-level tags on the packaging of retail consumer goods. Such tags can be used to provide buyers with information on e.g. price, characteristics, or freshness, or to allow vendors to implement automated billing and … Read More → "European project reaches milestone bidirectional communication for thin-film RFIDs, enabling item-level RFID tags"

Leuven, Belgium and Tokyo, Japan, February 22, 2012 – At this week’s International Solid-State Circuit Conference (ISSCC2012), imec and Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723) report an innovative SAR (successive-approximation register) ADC (analog to digital converter) with a spectacular improvement in power efficiency and speed, targeting wireless receivers for next-generation high-bandwidth standards such as LTE-advanced and the emerging generation of Wi-Fi (IEEE802.11ac).

SAR ADCs provide high power efficiencies as well as a small form factor, making this architecture attractive for a wide variety of wireless applications. SAR ADCs are frequently the preferred architecture for applications … Read More → "Imec and Renesas Electronics report record ADC for next-generation high-bandwidth wireless receivers"