Science and Enterprise

Tag: semiconductors

  • Mobile Tech Developer Raises $15M in Expansion Round

    The Cambridge, U.K. mobile technology developer ip.access says it has closed a new $15 million round of funding from its current investors in the U.S. and Europe. The company makes small and low-power cellular base stations that boost signal coverage for mobile Internet devices. The collection of ip.access’s current investors all participated, including Amadeus Capital…

  • Prototype Molybdenite Microchip Developed

    Researchers at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland have developed the first microchip on a molybdenite platform. The chip, with capabilities that exceed the limits of silicon, is described in a recent online issue of the journal ACS Nano (paid subscription required). Physicist Andras Kis and colleagues from EPFL’s Laboratory of Nanoscale Electronics and…

  • University Develops, Licenses Autonomous Robotics Technology

    Engineers and computer scientists at Harvard University have developed small, inexpensive robots with algorithms that enable the devices to work on their own or together in groups. The technology for Kilobots, as they are called, has been licensed to a Swiss company for manufacture and marketing. The tiny robots, about the size of a quarter…

  • Intel Corp. to Fund 3D Computer Processing Unit Development

    Computer engineers at North Carolina State University in Raleigh are developing a three-dimensional central processing unit (CPU) that aims to increase energy efficiency by 15 percent. The project, funded by a $1.5 million grant from the Intel Corporation, is led by Paul Franzon, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC State. A 3D…

  • Electronic Film Implant Designed to Monitor Brain Functions

    Medical and engineering researchers from the U.S., Korea, and China have developed a thin, flexible electronic film that can monitor brain activity without the use of penetrating electrodes. The team’s findings appear online in the journal Nature Neuroscience (paid subscription required). The film (illustrated left), about one-quarter the thickness of a human hair, contains 720…

  • Canadian Corporate R&D Spending Drops for 5th Straight Year

    Industry market research company Research Infosource in Toronto, Ontario says total corporate R&D spending in Canada dropped for the fifth year in a row in the 2010 fiscal year, despite an increase in revenues for these companies. The top R&D spenders among Canadian companies in 2010 were found in the information technology, engineering, and aerospace…

  • U.S. Venture Investments Up in Q3, Science Companies Mixed

    Dow Jones VentureSource reports that venture capital (VC) investment in the U.S. rose in the third quarter of 2011 compared to 2010, including the number and size of deals and investment volume. Among science-based companies, medical device and energy companies gained in investment deals and volume. Among biotech and pharmaceutical companies, the number of deals…

  • Pharma, Technology Lead Worldwide Corporate R&D Rebound

    Research and development spending by the largest 1,400 corporate R&D spenders worldwide increased by more than 4 percent to €465 billion ($US 630 billion) in 2010, reversing a nearly 2 percent decline in 2009. The data are compiled in the European Commission’s EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard, released today. Pharmaceuticals/biotechnology, technology hardware, and automotive companies…

  • Roche to License University DNA Sequencing Technology

    The Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche has agreed to license DNA sequencing technology developed at Arizona State and Columbia universities to help build a new type of DNA sequencing system. One goal of the system will be to quickly decode a person’s complete genome for less than $1,000. The licensed technologies are based on research conducted…

  • Graphene Electronic Properties Configured for Computer Chips

    A team of physicists from the U.K., Russia, and Japan has proposed a method for using the light weight and conductivity of graphene in computer chips. The researchers, including Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov at University of Manchester in the U.K. who won the Nobel Prize in 2010 for their discovery of graphene, published their…