Category: Electronic Components

Categories
Electronic Components Technology Transistors

The multimodal transistor (MMT) is a new design philosophy for electronics

passive

Researchers from the University of Surrey and University of Rennes have developed a technology called the multimodal transistor (MMT), which could revolutionise electronics by simplifying circuits and increasing design freedom.

The multimodal transistor is a thin-film transistor that performs the same job as more complex circuits. The MMT sandwiches metals, insulators and semiconductors together in a package that’s considerably thinner than a normal circuit.

However, the key breakthrough with the MMT is its immunity to parasitic effects (unwanted oscillations). The MMT allows consistent, repeatable signals, increasing a transistor’s performance. This is necessary for precision circuits to function as intended and is especially useful for next-gen tech like AI and robotics.

How it works

In the image below, we can see the design of the MMT. CG1 provides the means to control the quantity of charge, while CG2 is the channel control gate. CG1 controls the current level and CG2 controls the on/off state.

This is a massive shift in transistor design because it enables far greater engineering freedom. It is a simple and elegant design, yet it is so useful. It has numerous applications in analogue computation and hardware learning.

Digital-to-analogue conversion

MOSFET transistors are one of the building blocks of modern electronics, but they are non-linear and inefficient.

In a conventional circuit, gate electrodes are used to control a transistor’s ability to pass current. The MMT works differently. Instead of using gate electrodes, it controls on/off switching independently from the amount of current that passes through. This allows the MMT to operate at a higher speed with a linear dependence between input and output. This is useful for digital-to-analogue conversion.

The breakthrough in all its glory

The MMT transforms the humble transistor into a linear device that delivers a linear dependence between input and output. It separates charge injection from conduction, a new design that achieves independent current on/off switching.

There is a profound increase in switching speed as a result of this technology, enabling engineers to develop faster electronics. Researchers estimate that the switching speed is as much as 10 times faster. Also, fewer transistors are needed, increasing the yield rate and reducing the cost to manufacture the circuit.  

Just how revolutionary the MMT will be remains to be seen. After all, this is a technology without commercialisation. It could find its way into the electronics we use on a daily basis, like our phones. The potential is for the MMT to be printable, allowing for mass production and integration into billions of electrical devices.

With devices getting smarter and digital transformation advancing at a rapid rate, the electronics industry is booming. Semiconductor foundries are at peek capacity and more electrical devices are being sold than ever. The MMT is a unique solution to a problem, and it could make manufacturing electronics cheaper.   

With this, comes a great opportunity for the MMT to replace MOSFET transistors. We can think of few other design philosophies with such wicked potential.

Categories
Electronic Components Technology

How “Chiplets” May Help the Future of Semiconductor Technology

How 'Chiplets' may help the future of Semiconductor Technology

The global demand for semiconductors is accelerating faster than a speeding bullet, with integrated device manufacturers, systems companies, and foundries like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company making a killing.

This accelerating demand is largely fuelled by the rollout of 5G infrastructure and the increasingly connected devices we use on a daily basis. From semi-autonomous driving aids to the connected home, semiconductors power our digital lives. They are the brains of every smart electronics operation.

In the semiconductor industry, advancements come fast. Some companies have been painfully slow to react to change. Intel is a good example – they have fluffed the development of their 7nm chips and are stuck at 12nm, while AMD already has 7nm chips and is on course to deliver a 5nm chip. Nvidia is even further ahead.  

Chiplets

Chiplets are a proven (but niche) way for semiconductor developers to make semiconductors more efficient and easier to produce.

As semiconductors get more advanced, they get smaller. At a sub 10nm scale, foundries have to be spotlessly clean. This brings with it manufacturing complexities. Also, the smaller transistors get, the more likely they are to fail.

You can increase the yield of dies with small transistors by reducing overall size. But as you reduce the size of the die, you have less space for the transistors.

So, one solution is Chiplets. Chiplets are smaller functional dies that integrate multiple chiplets into a single semiconductor. By giving functions their own circuits (sub-circuits) we can remove design complexity and focus on efficiency.

Maximising yield reduces cost

Using chiplets maximises the yield of dies and reduces design complexity, which in turn reduces manufacturing cost. To give you an idea of by how much, AMD says chiplet designs can cut costs by more than half. 50%! That’s an astonishing saving and worth the effort if it also means keeping up with technological change.

(For what it’s worth, AMD uses chiplet design in its Zen 2 and Ryzen chips. The idea being that taking smaller dies and putting them together improves yield).

Intel is also a fan of chiplet design, and they have a vision for advancing it further, where instead of multiple dies, each IP has its own building block. This creates a more modular and flexible configuration. Here’s an illustration:

chiplet internal image

This is an exciting technology because the chiplets with IP/SOC are considerably smaller than the chiplets used in multiple dies. The benefit of this is you can configure the chiplets in more ways and maintain a common architecture.

Chiplets – the future, or not?

Chiplet design is already being used by AMD, and Nvidia has said they will go chiplet when it’s economically viable to do so. This means two of the three biggest CPU and GPU companies on the planet are on the chiplet train. As for Intel, they are too – but it looks like they will go their own way to build the chiplet model they want.

Clearly, chiplets are here to stay. Scaling chips with monolithic dies will always be a thing, but it gets expensive with advanced nodes. Chiplets are necessary to break up the cost and deliver the massive number of chips our connected world needs.

Categories
Electronic Components Technology

Amazon One: An easier way for you to pay using your palm

Electronic component

Pay with your palm through Amazon One

Contactless payments are the most convenient way to pay for things. Whipping out a contactless payment card and paying without entering a pin number saves time, and the ability to save cards to Google Pay or Apple Pay on your smartphone and use NFC to make contactless payments makes life easier too.

It’s all very slick and useful, but there’s a limitation to the current technology: you need to have your card or your smartphone in your hand.

If you have ever forgotten your wallet when you pop to the shops or left your phone in the car when you go shopping, the problem is clear to see: your reliance on a device (be it a card or phone) to make payments is a hindrance.

So, wouldn’t it be great if you could just use your hand? That’s what Amazon One aims to do, and it offers a glimpse into an exciting future.

Payments in the palm of your hand (literally)

Amazon One is a new contactless payment technology that uses your palm as a form of biometric signature. All you do is scan your palm over an Amazon One payment module and payment is authorised if your palm print checks out.

Forget about your card and phone. All you need is your palm.

The technology is ingeniously simple in use, and it is so useful, and so convenient, that it could replace cash and cards in the future.         

To set up Amazon One, you insert a payment card into the module and hover your palm over the sensor when prompted. Amazon One then scans and saves your unique palm signature to that payment card. You can enroll with one palm or both your palms. Once you are enrolled, you needn’t do anything else.

Security concerns and rollout

The obvious security concern with Amazon One is customer data, and the question you probably have is: where is my palm print stored?

The Amazon One device is protected by multiple security controls. For example, the technology driving the imaging sensor uses depth sensors to differentiate between artificial models and images. Palm images are also stored in a secure data environment, encrypted so that the data is useless if it ever falls into the wrong hands.

You can delete your biometric data via the Amazon website. You can manage palm images and add new ones using a module. You can even add loyalty and discount cards, so you have the opportunity to break free from your whole wallet.

With such exciting possibilities, Amazon One is in the best hands in terms of development and rollout (excuse the pun). Amazon has a rich history of bringing top products to market. There’s a reason they are one of the most valuable companies in the world.

You can find Amazon One in Amazon Go stores in Seattle, where a trial is being performed to evaluate the technology. It has worked brilliantly so far, and Amazon’s vision is for it to be rolled out to third-party retailers in the near future.

Soon, you’ll have the whole wide retail world in your hands.

Categories
Charity/Global Electronic Components

How the electronic supply chain has been divided by COVID-19

Electronic component supply chain efficiency. Will we see another increase in supply and demand due to COVID-19 this year?

How the electronic supply chain has been divided by Covid-19

 

Amidst doom and gloom predictions of global economic fallout from COVID-19 and further human and social ramifications, the electronics industry is quietly confident that demand for products will not stall this year or shortly.

This makes for a morale-boosting headline, but underneath the battle lines, there is a trade war raging as a result of a divided supply chain.

Equipment manufacturers are struggling to get a hold of components and component manufacturers are struggling to make enough new components. This, the result of a virus that has thrown the world into unchartered territory and forced elected leaders into making profound decisions that have affected our way of life.

The electronics sector is healthy for now, but keeping it going has required change and intelligent thinking. This is how the electronic supply chain has been divided by COVID-19:

The battle for stock

With the production capacity for electronic components down as a result of COVID-19, it is no surprise that the components’ supply chain has been impacted. Fewer components are being made, creating a shortage of stock.

As a result of this, we are now seeing a shift in behavior from manufacturers, who are component hoarding and paying over-the-odds for stock to meet demand. This has reduced the number of components available on the open market, creating a shortage, and the issue is compounded by a lack of new production.

Supply moving away from China

As a result of the coronavirus in China, which has devastated the workforce and adversely impacted the country’s social reputation, manufacturers are beginning to seek alternatives to meet the demand for electronic components.

Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, the United States, Japan, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Germany are all rich manufacturers of electronic components. We are now seeing greater diversification in supply chains. This is good news for the global economy, but not so much for China and Hong Kong.

Changes in supply chain planning

COVID-19 has forced manufacturers to pivot their supply chains to boost efficiency. From being more flexible with transportation to estimating capacity and accelerating production, manufacturers are doubling up on decision-making processes.

The optimization of production and distribution capacity are key areas, so that production can continue to meet demand while managing health. Available inventory has now become a more important factor than ever too – no longer can manufacturers rely on a steady supply of components. Orders must be planned.

Closer partnerships with electronic component distributors

Pre COVID, manufacturers typically kept the procurement of electronic components in-house with a slick and efficient operation. Inventory would be automatically updated with component orders placed electronically between supplier and manufacturer.

If COVID has taught manufacturers one thing, however, it is that you can never rely on one single supplier to deliver. One failure breaks the system.

This has led manufacturers to partner with component distributors who can deliver the stock they need. The sourcing of components is being increasingly outsourced, which brings some inefficiencies, but is necessary to keep things ticking over. 

Categories
Electronic Components

What the future holds for passive and interconnecting electronic components

Electronic components

What the future holds for passive and interconnecting electronic components

While the world economy is in freefall with the COVID-19 pandemic, with mass unemployment and trade plummeting, the global passive and interconnecting electronic components market is expected to continue growing thanks to demand from the developing world and the rise of 5G infrastructure.

Grand View Research has released forecasts for the passive and interconnecting electronic components market, predicting a compound annual growth rate of 5.3% from 2020 to 2027 with a slowdown from 2020 to 2021 due to COVID-19.

The future is by no means certain and we do not know exactly how badly the world economy will be impacted by the coronavirus outbreak. We do however have models that tell us demand will increase for electronics over time. This spells good news for components manufacturers and the wider electronics industry.

Changes in market demand

As the world economy is adversely impacted by the coronavirus outbreak, demand for electronic components in many verticals will slow. This can be traced back to the reality that in times of uncertainty, consumers are warier of spending money. Less demand for products means a slowdown in production and demand.

However, regardless of the world economy, some regions do have stimulus. The United Kingdom, Japan, China, South Korea and the US are rolling out 5G network infrastructure and this will stimulate the electronics market. Smartphones, tablets, drones and other devices that rely on networking will be key beneficiaries.

So, it isn’t by any means doom and gloom for the global passive and interconnecting electronic components market. Growth is predicted from 2020 to 2027 and the COVID-19 outbreak will only slow down this growth temporarily.

How component sourcing has changed

In response to a fall in demand for products, passive and interconnecting electronic component production has slowed. In addition, a lot of stock hasn’t been used and is sitting in storage until such a time it is needed.

Prior to COVID-19, it was easy to think of component production as being in a state of perpetual motion for it was always present. Demand has fallen but that doesn’t mean it has ceased. Passive and interconnecting electronic components are still being sourced, albeit in smaller batches and more carefully than ever.

Another behaviour we have witnessed is component hoarding. OEMs are unsure of their partner’s manufacturing capabilities in the face of COVID-19. So, they are hoarding components to ensure they can scale up demand when the time is right. This is considered normal behaviour without a global pandemic, but we are seeing more extreme examples as a means to protect manufacturing output. Ultimately, this means there are less components to go around, which drives up the cost of certain components.

How we can help you with sourcing

The future may be uncertain but good preparation will help you through it. As your electronic component distribution partner, we can source components for you with access to all major manufacturers. We can source legacy, obsolete, state-of-the-art and short production run components at prices that suit your margin. Visit our website or click here  to use access our component search and enquire with us. We are here to help you with your electronic component needs.