As nations around the world confront all of that household refuse and unused industrial material, new technologies are turning this liability into an energy asset. Power is being generated from semisolid waste discharged from urban incinerators or industrial plants, liquid waste such as domestic sewage and excess gas produced in refineries.

 

Solar, wind and hydro power may grab the headlines as clean energy solutions, but steadily, waste is a source of renewable, low-carbon energy. With 6% annual growth, the global waste-to-energy (WTE) market is expected to exceed $35.5 billion by 2024, led by the Asia-Pacific region where adoption of these novel technologies is projected to expand rapidly.

 

Asia’s leading role

 

Today, incineration is the most widely used technology in waste management to prevent the costly transport of refuse to landfill sites. But throughout Asia, governments are extremely adopting greener and more innovative approaches.

 

Japan was a very early adopter of WTE technologies and proceeds to lead the way; it processes about 70 percent of its municipal solid waste in WTE facilities. But China is making big strides as its economy and population continue to develop and its government transitions to cleaner energy. The power demands of the world’s most populous country are increasing rapidly, along with mounting domestic and commercial waste. Heavy investment in renewable energy technologies, buoyed by government policies that encourage sustainable development, is driving China’s WTE sector.

 

In 2020, the southern city of Shenzhen is scheduled to start operating the world’s largest waste-to-energy plant, with an expected daily incinerating capacity of 5,000 tons of the city’s trash. The incinerator’s residual heat, once captured, is used to drive a turbine, generating electricity. According to the project’s architects, the process should halve the amount of carbon dioxide typically released from landfill sites.

 

The Shenzhen facility is just the opening for China, currently the fourth largest WTE user after Japan, Europe and the United States. China’s growing awareness of its waste’s environmental impact is spurring policies that promote efficient, cost-effective solutions. By 2022, the Chinese government plans to build 300 dedicated WTE plants throughout the country — double the number of current facilities.

 

Converting a variety of waste

 

While the U.S. continues to lag in WTE, the European market is growing. Producers in Europe are adopting initiatives to process different types of waste, including solid or semisolid, excess gas and heat. In Turkey, for example, the country’s largest egg producer has installed an Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) system from Turboden, a company within Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Group. The system converts chicken manure into electricity and hot water, creating clean energy out of unwanted waste.

 

A similar system is in operation in Russia but with a different source. Rather than solid or semisolid waste, international oil and gas company Lukoil uses a Turboden ORC system to process residual heat from flare gas to provide electricity and hot water for the oil refinery. This is usually burnt off at the top of a torch. During each hour of operation, the system prevents 720 kilograms of CO2 emissions from reaching the atmosphere.

 

And at ORI Martin’s steel plant in northern Italy, ORC turbines capture residual heat from the manufacturing processes, producing enough energy to power and heat part of the industrial city of Brescia. Such innovative projects represent a continuing shift in attitudes toward cleaner, more sustainable production. As more governments and private operators acknowledge the need for alternative waste management, creative solutions like these might become the norm around the world, combining the future of waste and the future of energy.

 

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Others could not resist the opportunity. For the coming few months, dozens of her colleagues - including the engineers who made up the 'Magic Lab,' HTC's most important research and development team - took up offers from recruiters to join Huawei. Some were offered as high as twice their existing salaries to make the switch, as the company, at that time just a producer of low-end smartphones, snapped up the talent it needed to challenge market leaders Samsung Electronics and Apple.

 

'Huawei was the most aggressive company when it came to attracting us to work for them,' Emily told the Nikkei Asian Review. 'Three out of five people I knew leaving HTC at the time were going to Huawei, and they were all the crucial talents that knew how to build premium phones.'

 

Huawei's drive to become the world's largest smartphone maker has been fueled by an aggressive global hunt for science and engineering talent. The company made its first smartphone, running on the Android operating system, a decade ago. In 2016, the year after it tempted dozens of staff from HTC, Huawei shipped 30% more smartphones than it did in 2015. In 2017, it sold more than 150 million handsets; in 2018, it shipped more than 200 million.

 

The company states that it now has 800 physicists, more than 700 mathematicians and 120 chemists working for it. Among those hires are high-profile people like the award-winning engineer Tong Wen, and the Italian microwave technology expert Renato Lombardi, who runs a global research facility for Huawei in Milan. Eighty-five thousand of Huawei's employees - 44% of its total headcount - work in R&D, Huawei spokesperson Joe Kelly told Nikkei, including 20,000 working on fifth-generation technology alone.

 

Huawei also sponsors universities to the tune of more than $300 million per year, and maintains a specialist research unit, called the '2012 Laboratories,' which focuses on developing technologies that will give it an edge decades in the future - from DNA data storage to atomic-scale manufacturing and optical computing. The company said that it invested $1.5 billion in developing artificial intelligence last year. Some in the industry say that Huawei poaches more than talent from its competitors. The company has been engaged in lawsuits with the U.S. telecom carrier T-Mobile, telecom equipment makers Cisco Systems and Motorola, and semiconductor startup Cnex Labs, all of which allege that their Chinese rival stole technology. Huawei declines all allegations of wrongdoing.

 

Even some of Huawei's own suppliers are suspicious. 'To be honest, although Huawei is an important client for us, we have to stay vigilant when their people visit our facilities,' one executive at a company in Huawei's supply chain told Nikkei. 'Their staff are often quite eager to know the parameters of our equipment, the materials we use and details of our processes.'

 

Fears of corporate espionage, combined with Huawei's close links to the Chinese government, contributed to the U.S. government's increasing crackdown on the company. In May, the U.S. Department of Commerce put Huawei on its 'Entity List,' a trade blacklist that restrains American companies from selling technology to Huawei. In August, the U.S. government added 11 Huawei research institutes, including the Milan research institute that employs Lombardi, to the Entity List.

 

Huawei has hit back, launching an even more ambitious talent hunt with even greater incentives for R&D talent, including 2.01 million yuan (around $282,000) starting salaries for newly graduated young employees with doctorates. Its average salary of $300,000 for AI specialists is now higher than some senior engineer positions at companies such as Apple and Google, according to job recruiting platform Glassdoor.

 

Those large sums is likely to be tempting, but further crackdowns could still limit the company's ability to bring in researchers. Alex Capri, senior fellow in the Business School at the National University of Singapore, said that Huawei's aggressive expansion into R&D has made it a magnet for talent, but 'this is all coming under increasing scrutiny and will likely be the subject of further technology licensing and controls.'

 

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Yu, however, avoided any mention of politics in his speech. He concentrated rather on Huawei's technological achievements, revealing the Kirin 990 5G smartphone system-on-a-chip that will power the Huawei Mate 30 smartphone slated for release later this month. The Kirin 990 5G is the first SoC that supports 5G - rival offerings from Qualcomm and Samsung Electronics use a 4G SoC with a 5G modem. Yu said the Kirin 990 5G is the fastest and the most power-efficient SoC on the market.

 

'We are leading the mobile AI in the world with the 10.3 billion transistors on our Kirin 990 5G,' Yu said. 'Since we launched the Kirin 980 here at IFA last year, the number of mobile APPs using AI, including related to photography, online shopping and education, has been rising, and today 5G is coming.'

 

Smartphone makers are competing to win over users with 5G and foldable devices, betting that cutting-edge features will rekindle excitement in a market that has struggled with slowing growth recently. Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, both of South Korea, also showcased their latest smartphones and prototypes at the IFA, while Chinese electronics maker TCL punctuated its push into smartphones by showing its first own-brand smartphone at the Berlin event.

 

The closest that Huawei's Yu came to touching on politics was when he presented two new color variants of the existing P30 Pro smartphone, which comes with Google's latest smartphone operating system, Android 10, pre-installed. The move was significant because Washington's ban on Huawei accessing U.S. technology means the company is going to be not able to launch new phones running the latest Google-certified Android systems.

 

The U.S. Commerce Department imposed the trade embargo on Huawei in May, though it granted a 90-day grace period for certain companies, including Google, to cover the interests of American consumers. Google was not included in the latest 90-day extension, which runs to late November, however, and Huawei plans to launch the Mate X without popular Google apps such as Google Maps and Gmail. While Huawei highlighted its 5G progress, foldable and dual-screen smartphones also grabbed attention at the IFA.

 

Samsung lastly relaunched the Galaxy Fold after a recall and subsequent five-month delay over reliability issues following its initial debut in April, and the device went on sale in South Korea last Friday. Huawei presented a prototype of its first foldable handset, the Mate X, scheduled for release in October.

 

Fellow Chinese player TCL presented its own foldable prototype, to go on sale in the second half of 2020, and also introduced the TCL Plex, a milestone in its attempt to expand beyond its traditional focus on TV-making. 'In the previous decade, we globalized by moves such as acquiring Alcatel, Thomson and BlackBerry, and in this decade, we have been investing heavily in verticalization,' said Bill Jiang, TCL's general manager for Europe.

 

'The current focus is the strengthening of the TCL brand, as well-reflected in this year's IFA with the releases of TCL Plex, as well as the showcasing of the 8K TVs under the TCL 8K QLED X-Series,' he added. Jiang described 8K resolution as an irreversible trend in TVs, as it provides an increasingly immersive experience by allowing viewers to sit much closer to the screen without being able to pick out individual pixels.

 

LG Electronics, on the other hand, presented the G8X ThinQ, a dual-screen smartphone in which the two screens are connected via hinges, at the event. I.P. Park, LG's chief technology officer, explained that the first screen can be used to watch a baseball game, for example, while the second screen can display the game's stats. According to Park, an LG 5G dual-screen smartphone will be out in the fourth quarter of this year.

 

Like TCL, LG has also been focusing on 8K televisions. Park said the company plans to rollout the LG Signature OLED 8K beginning this month in global markets, with the rollable LG Signature OLED R to be launched later this year. The OLED panels are paper thin and resilient enough to be rolled and unrolled thousands of times, Park said.

 

'Consumers clearly prefer ever-bigger TVs, but the size of one's apartment doors, windows and staircases will always be the limit unless it's a rollable screen,' Park said. 'And also the beginning of the 5G era will push demand for bigger and flexible screens, as the wider bandwidth and faster transmission speed will lead to the emergence of new content forms that allow for a much great immersion experience.'

 

But while smartphone makers are betting on foldable and dual-screen smartphones to revive sales, Anshul Gupta, senior director at Gartner, said the popularity of these handsets will depend upon the creation of content created to maximize these features, something he does not see happening yet. 'The operating systems and applications need to be optimized, so that when the phone is folded and unfolded, the application scales up and down accordingly and support multiple display and multiple window form factors,' Gupta said.

 

'It will probably take a second generation of these phones to overcome any teething problems, but once that one is there, the affiliated ecosystems are going to grow fast,' he added.

 

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'The speed of the new smartphone charging system is the fastest among wireless charging worldwide,' Vice President Cui Baoqiu told a news conference Monday. 'It does not fall short when compared to wired charging.' Beijing-based Xiaomi retains the distinction of being the first major Chinese phone maker to announce a wireless charging system, in March of last year. That feat was followed by the addition of a 20-watt system this past February. The new system announced Monday has a maximum capacity of 30 watts.

 

The company is testing a more powerful 40-watt charging system with the aim of commercializing it at an early date. 'Wireless charging will enter the age where it will become superior to wired charging,' said Cui. Xiaomi also announced plans for a corporate alliance that will permit smartphone users to charge devices wirelessly in automobiles, hotels and restaurants.

 

Xiaomi is the world's fourth-largest smartphone maker by volume after Samsung Electronics, Apple and compatriot Huawei Technologies, data from IDC shows. As well as growth in China and other Asian markets, Xiaomi's sales are also on the rise in Europe.

 

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The analysts added: 'Given the otherwise widely stagnating revenues of telecom operators both in the region and around the world, this is an astonishing opportunity that operators must make all efforts to capture.' However, even though the biggest shares of 5G-added revenues will most likely go to bigger countries such as for example Indonesia, the AT Kearney analysts still expect Singapore to lead its peers in 5G adoption in South-east Asia.

 

Among Asean markets, Singapore is estimated to capture the biggest share of potential value from 5G. By 2025, the Republic is projected to achieve Asean's most positive 'win-win' scenario, where enterprise businesses are transformed with 5G-enabled technologies and consumers fork out for faster mobile services. In Malaysia and Indonesia, only leading telcos will be successful in snagging enterprise and consumer value, amid fierce price competition, the report's authors have suggested. The other Asean economies are not estimated to progress beyond business as usual if they adopt a selective network rollout, with users put off by the expected 5G price premium.

 

'You cannot expect that enterprise will just pay for enhanced quality,' said report lead author Nikolai Dobberstein, who heads AT Kearney's Asia-Pacific communications, media and technology practice. 'You have to combine it with solutioning around the use cases... so you monetise the benefits - not the connectivity.' In addition to telecom operators, Asean businesses in other sectors, just like manufacturing, services and agriculture could grow revenues by US$147 billion by 2025 as 5G is used to support Industry 4.0 and digitalisation efforts, the report's authors estimated.

 

Naveen Menon, regional president for Nasdaq-listed technology provider Cisco, which commissioned the report, added that, in the enterprise space, 'the overall package price will look very different to, say, a pure consumer offer' as operators bundle solutions with industry services like maintenance, and software subscriptions. 'These are avenues that operators don't typically have right now on the enterprise side,' he told reporters.

 

All in all, Singapore telecom operators could pick up as much as 40 per cent of the enterprise revenue up for grabs, against 30 per cent in Indonesia or 25 per cent in the Philippines. Singapore is also pegged to get to 5G penetration of 56.9 per cent by 2025, beating out Malaysia's 39.8 per cent, and Thailand's 33 per cent. The Republic could see telco revenues up by between US$370 million and US$510 million a year by then, on the back of enterprise business.

 

Of that, as much as US$220 million may be from enterprise users, with another US$50 million from over-the-top firms that use the connectivity as a platform for other consumer or enterprise services. Consumer mobile will make up the rest of the projected turnover in Singapore. Singapore regulators have already identified six strategic clusters for 5G development: maritime operations, urban mobility, smart estates, Industry 4.0, and consumer and government applications. They plan to start rolling out the 5G network next year, with fuller coverage from 2023 onwards. Industry 5G projects now under way include Singtel's advanced manufacturing tie-up with the Agency for Science, Technology and Research; M1's robotics research with the Singapore University of Technology and Design; and both operators' smart port trials with state-owned PSA.

 

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Mercedes showcased the Vision EQS Tuesday at the Frankfurt Motor Show. It is a dramatically styled sedan with an equally dramatic driving-range claim: Up to 700 kilometers (435 miles), based on lab testing under Europe’s new WLPT test cycle, which is designed to generate more-realistic estimates of real-world EV efficiency.

 

If Mercedes can boost a production version of the EQS to market, that 700 km would make it the marathon champ of current EV’s, topping the 595 km of the Tesla Model S and Model X Long Range versions. It would also be a considerable, 250-km range advantage over the 2020 Porsche Taycan, which has posted a 450-km WLPT estimate. The EQS’s range would put it more than 350 km beyond the demands of stricter U.S. EPA measures. 

 

A 350 kilowatt ultra-fast charging system, just like the Porsche’s, allows an 80-percent charge in 20 minutes or less. With close to 100 kilowatt-hours of batteries packaged underfloor, and electric motors at both axles, the EQS can vary all-wheel-drive power between front or rear wheels. Mercedes pegs output at about 350 kW (469 horsepower), with 759 Newton-meters (560 pound-feet) of torque — good for a 0 to 100 km/h (0-60 mph) surge in less than 4.5 seconds. 

 

The earliest all-electric Mercedes, the EQC crossover SUV, is already on sale in Europe, and comes in America next year as a 2021 model. This Vision EQS, being an auto-show concept, is developed as both a showstopper and as an intriguing teaser for Mercedes’ latest designs and technology. The body previews the brand’s streamlined “One Bow” design language that will influence numerous upcoming models. Inside, a series of projection displays form an unbroken, floating sculpture for the dashboard that recalls the cockpit of a luxury yacht. Maple wood trim combines with sustainable materials, including microfiber made from recycled PET bottles; and a roof liner whose textile includes recycled plastic from ocean waste.

 

Mercedes claims a world’s first for the Digital Grille, a black-panel light matrix whose 188 individual LED’s create a 3D effect of free-floating stars and pixels. At the rear, 229 individual, illuminated stars nod to the Mercedes’ logo, part of a 360-degree “Lightbelt” that surrounds the car, giving a wealth of possibilities for future Mercedes lighting designs. Mercedes says the Vision EQS is capable of Level 3 semi-autonomous driving — letting generous periods hands-off driving — with a modular sensor system that could deliver completely autonomous ability in the future. 

 

That sensor suite of radar and cameras is networked with what Mercedes is pitching as a revolution in vehicle lighting. Its Digital Light system combines software algorithms with holographic HD lenses. Each lens contains more than 1 million micromirrors, which allows individual control over each point of light. The result is exact control over the brightness and direction of beams, and the ability to “mask” oncoming traffic from light to avoid dazzling other drivers. Onboard cameras and radar detect vehicles, people, or objects on the road, and combine that data with digital navigation maps.

 

The most interesting bit? The system can project symbols, letters and other graphical information onto the pavement in HD quality. The headlamps can “fill in” missing lane markers, project a guideline of the car’s width — great for squeezing through tiny spaces — or beam arrows to point out pedestrians or animals near the roadway. Navigation data, such as directional arrows, can be displayed on the pavement alternatively, so drivers do not have to take eyes off the road even for an instant. Other prospective warnings include lane-keeping, blind-spot and speed limit data, and signs for slippery road surfaces, upcoming construction sites, and impending rear-end collisions.

 

The Benz concept opens up other possibilities, such as the ability to communicate with other drivers or pedestrians. (But no flipping the digital bird, thank you). The lights can flash familiar “zebra stripes” on the street to cue pedestrians that it is safe to cross, or a stop sign to warn them when it’s not. All told, the Vision EQS seemingly have the design, luxury, and driving range to match anything in the electric space — along with the coolest light show since Pink Floyd and its lasers.

 

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“We’re working with a lot of drone manufacturers on this standard—DJI, for instance,” says Philip Kenul, chairman of ASTM International’s Committee F38 on Unmanned Aircraft Systems, which helped develop the newly proposed standard. “Many other companies are working with us as well, such as Google Wing and Amazon, and will comply with the standard.” The standard’s developers envision drones continually broadcasting ID data via WiFi or Bluetooth as part of the messages such technologies normally transmit to allow for other devices to learn and link with the broadcasting device. These ID signals are understandable from a distance of 350 to 450 meters.

 

“Intel has done studies showing that when Bluetooth 5 comes out, we could expect a range of up to a kilometer,” Kenul says. Apps on smartphones or other devices can then connect to the Internet to look up data on the drone. The public likely will only be able to read the drone's ID number, which might be the drone's serial number, or a registration number from the FAA or other civil aviation authorities. Law enforcement can get more information about the drone from its ID data, such as its latitude, longitude, altitude, speed, direction, and takeoff point, plus its owner and operator data, and the stated purpose of the flight.

 

“You can just take a phone, point it up at a drone and get its electronic ID if you see it doing something dangerous. [And you can report it] just like reporting a car’s license plate number,” Kenul says. The drone can also be recognised if it is connected to the Internet — say, over a cellular link through its operator. This option can prove helpful if an observer doesn't have the remote ID app, if the drone is out of range or moving too rapidly for the app to acquire its Bluetooth or WiFi signals, or if high humidity in the air is degrading the Bluetooth or WiFi signals.

 

New drones can come automatically outfitted with such electronic license plates. Old drones can be retrofitted with ID chips that would plug into their USB ports and might cost $7 to $12, Kenul says. Regarding radio-controlled model aircraft, the remote pilots of these vehicles can use a smartphone app to report the ID of the aircraft and the location and time of operation to remote ID authorities. Remote ID systems are key to the development of a UAS traffic management (UTM) system, Kenul says. “Everyone knows UTM is important for drone applications, from package delivery to medical delivery, to urban area inspections, to operations after a hurricane,” he notes. “Remote ID is the first building block for UTM.”

 

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Why the dramatic change in this particular sector? Manufacturing already has a substantial value chain more complex than other sectors. In the coming decade, it is going to get even more complicated, with countless products and processes integrating AI to create smart factories, integrate supply chains and develop more customer-friendly distribution and sales chains. Manufacturers already deploy AI in industrial robotics and cobots, and new adaptations such as machine vision, intelligent products and machine learning are being introduced at an accelerating pace. In the coming years, industry leaders also expect significant growth in their use of AI in predictive systems in their equipment and the management of intelligent supply chains, as well as a notably increased use of robotic process automation (RPA).

 

Such an evolution will necessitate the creation of a variety of new AI-related jobs, filled by workers with AI-related skills. Some of these jobs are already in the labor pool. Based on the report, well over a third of manufacturers already have created the positions of “data scientists” and “data quality analysts” in their workforces, with another third expecting to do so in the near future. Considering the level of data delivered through AI-enabled sensors and machine learning, one can imagine this job title one day becoming as ubiquitous in the workforce as mechanical engineers. There has also been an escalation in the number of “machine learning engineers” and “machine learning specialists,” with two-thirds of manufacturers expecting to add this role in the next five years.

 

And this is exclusively the tip of the iceberg.  As manufacturing shop floors, supply chains, and aftermarket services grow in complexity, management will divvy up the workload for humans and machines based on the relative qualifications of each. In some roles, such as those requiring creativity and judgment, humans will reign supreme. In other areas, such as the role of predicting and iterating (i.e., repeating processes), machines will be in charge.  

 

But perhaps most important in the coming years will be an improvement in hybrid roles, which will require “fusion skills” that build on the combination of human and machine talents to create better outcomes to either working independently. Such skills will be needed in manufacturing facilities when humans have to train, explain and sustain activities to permit machines to move forward. Fusion skills will also be needed to extend employees’ capabilities, such as when machines enable humans to make major decisions. Lastly, such skills will be needed for tasks in which humans and machines work and excel together, such as iterative processes in which each learns from the other as they repeat tasks.

 

That’s where the talent gap rears its ugly head. In terms of developing an AI-savvy workforce that can develop new AI solutions, lead new AI business strategies, and supervise AI implementations, the report notes that a sizable percent of manufacturers require more technically trained applicants than are available — all competing with each other for the talent. Manufacturers see the biggest barrier arising from educational institutions failing to generate an enough number of graduates with the needed knowledge and skills. In essence, we’re not churning out workers who are readily prepared for the modern workplace. 

 

This is not new: the STEM gap is well documented over the past decade. But the more digitalized manufacturing becomes, the bigger this gap will grow — unless companies and educational institutions work together to close it. Some are. More than half of those surveyed expect over the next five years to pursue a combination of retraining and hiring employees with the needed AI/data science skills. Another third are building relationships with local educational institutions such as high schools, community colleges, and trade schools. Finally, 20% are starting to offer online training (through, for example, Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCS) and internal training courses for AI skills.

 

These are critical strategies for manufacturers. Because AI is disruptive, but it’s not destroying jobs. It’s creating new ones.

 

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CloudPick uses sensors and monitors to track shop customers, controlling payments via QR codes used in smartphone apps. The startup has installed its technology in 30 stores in cities including Shanghai and Beijing. NTT Data's new system will combine technology from CloudPick with its own Cafis cashless payment system, and market it to convenience stores, pharmacies and other retailers in Japan. Customers will scan a QR code via a smartphone app to enter the store, choose their goods and then leave, with payments immediately recorded when they exit the premises.

 

The tie-up represents NTT Data's entry into cashier-free store management. NTT Data chose CloudPick after close examination of the startup's technology and achievements, said Naoyuki Uchiyama of NTT Data's service and payment business unit. Inspite of being a relative latecomer to the field - behind Amazon.com of the U.S. and China's JD.com - NTT Data hopes to have the system installed in about 1,000 stores by fiscal 2022.

 

CloudPick is among many of Chinese companies already running cashier-free stores, such as the BingoBox unmanned convenience store chain. Cashier-free stores normally employ QR codes, facial recognition or biometric authentication. Amazon and many other companies employ QR-code systems due to their low costs. Seven-Eleven Japan is trying out a facial recognition system developed by NEC, while Fujitsu has developed a biometric system. Lotte is using Fujitsu's system at some of its 7-Eleven stores in South Korea.

 

Retailers are still not entirely sold on the idea of unstaffed shops due to the need to stock and display merchandise, as well as concerns about shoplifting. Similarly, Chinese consumers are staying away from such shops due to the dearth of goods for sale and issues with store cleanliness. In addition, according to one retailer in China, unstaffed stores cannot turn large profits owing to the large initial investment required to set them up.

 

Yet, China is still growing toward cashier-free retail outlets, with convenience store operator Bian Li Feng restricting most of its shops to one-person operations. In Japan it is almost a foregone conclusion that stores like this and other relatively cashier-free models will catch on due to the country's acute labor shortage. It is simply a question of waiting for the right technology solution to come along.

 

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Group - NTT Data's parent and one of Japan's tech leaders - invests more than 200 billion yen ($1.88 billion) annually on research and development. But the speed at which new technologies are appearing has forced it to look overseas to China and other countries for help in keeping up. The group barely relies on Chinese companies, but NTT Data decided on CloudPick due to its track record and low cost.

 

Other Japanese entities are following the same paths. SoftBank Vision Fund has invested in Paytm, India's biggest e-commerce payment platform, while parent SoftBank Group has entered the QR code-based payment field with Yahoo Japan using technology from India's PayPay - a joint venture between the group and Yahoo. SoftBank Group is also operating hotels together with Oyo Rooms, an Indian website for booking budget lodgings.

 

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This loss is expected to contribute to a drop of more than 10 million units in Huawei's smartphone sales this year, analysts say. The U.S. shows no clues of softening its stance on China's top telecommunications equipment maker. President Donald Trump reiterated on Wednesday that Huawei poses concerns for national security.

 

'We are not doing business with Huawei. It'll stop almost completely in a very short period of time,' he said. Trump does not plan to discuss sanctions on the company in trade talks with China expected to resume in October.

 

While Huawei has been preparing for the prospective loss of access to Google's Android mobile operating system, news of Google's stance on withholding preinstalled apps from upcoming phones came as a shock to the company in late August. The U.S. Commerce Department in May required a trade embargo on Huawei, banning exports of American software and chips to the company. But it granted a 90-day grace period for certain companies like Google in order to protect the interests of American consumers.

 

That expired on Aug. 19. But while the Commerce Department extended the reprieve in selected areas by another 90 days, Google was not one of them. The Commerce Department's move will not affect Huawei smartphones sold in China, which are already banned from carrying Google software by the Chinese government. But it threatens to stunt Huawei's growth in overseas markets, where customers are used to having Gmail and Google Maps on their phones.

 

'Unit sales overseas will probably plunge by 30% or more,' said one Chinese analyst. Huawei is predicted to have shipped about 100 million smartphones in China and another 100 million abroad last year. British research company IHS Markit predicts Huawei's overseas sales will fall by 13 million phones to a total of 88 million in 2019. 'The company will have a harder time boosting sales of the budget models that it had been planning to increase in Europe,' another analyst said.

 

Google's Android operating system itself is open source and thus is not targeted by the U.S. export ban. But Huawei nevertheless is preparing its own alternative - Harmony, or Hongmeng in Chinese - in case it becomes unable to use Android because of a loss of access to licensed Google products and services. Still, 'it will take two to three years for Huawei to develop its own software' to a level comparable to Google's, an analyst said.

 

'We will work on our own software,' a Huawei executive said. 'But we would prefer to keep using Google software if we can.'

 

With the Trump administration taking a hard line on Huawei, the company's crisis appears far from over. Huawei faces a 'live-or-die moment,' founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei said in a company memo on Aug. 20.

 

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The Taycan (“TIE-con”) is Porsche’s first electric car, revealed Wednesday in three simultaneous events in North America, Europe (at a photovoltaic solar power site in Berlin), and China (a wind farm in Fuzhou). It is the long-awaited production version of the all-electric Mission E concept shown four years ago at the Frankfurt Motor Show.

 

Pricey. Very pricey.

 

The new electric car is fast, sleek, and very, very luxurious. Starting at more than $150,000 in the U.S., the two versions Porsche launched first — called Turbo and Turbo S, in spite of having no turbos — are priced well above the cost of any current Tesla. Other versions will follow, including a “base” Porsche Taycan that may have a battery pack smaller than the 93-kilowatt-hour capacity of the Turbo models.

 

Just like virtually every other long-range electric car, the Taycan uses a low, flat battery pack under the cabin floor. It stretches from axle to axle for the full width of the car, though the pack contains depressions for the feet of two rear seat passengers. In what may be a literal translation from the German, Porsche calls them “foot garages.”

 

As explained in Porsche Claims It Can Double Tesla’s Fast-Charging Rate, the German maker’s innovation for the Taycan battery was to wire pairs of LG Chem lithium-ion pouch cells in series, allowing the pack to discharge and charge at 800 volts. This permits DC fast charging at up to 270 kilowatts at launch, and in future perhaps as high as 400 or 500 kW. Stations that can charge at up to 350 kW are now open or under construction from US charging network Electrify America, and both EVgo and ChargePoint have said they plan to follow suit. In Europe, the Ionity network is doing the same.

 

However a pioneering voltage demands new engineering, and most vehicles use carryover components from the big supply base that provides electrical equipment like LED headlights and ambient cabin lighting. Which is why parts of the Taycan use four different voltages: 800 V for the main battery pack and traction motors; 400 V for certain other drivetrain electronics; 48 V for the optional Porsche Dynamic Chassis Control (PDCC) system adapted from that of the Panamera; and 12 V for dozens of conventional electric ancillaries.

 

Four wheels, two motors

 

All four wheels of the Taycan are powered, using a motor for each pair. The rear motor drives the wheels through a two-speed gearbox that uses a lower ratio for faster acceleration, and a higher gear for more energy-efficient high-speed cruising. The faster Turbo S differs from the Turbo in several ways. For one, the inverter through which current flows to its front motor is rated at 600 amps rather than the 300 amps of the Turbo. For another, it has a “Launch Control” function that provides even faster acceleration by using an “overboost” function that draws additional power from the battery for 2.5 sections from a standing start.

 

The rear motor is rated at 335 kW and 550 Nm of torque, and the temporary “overboost” in Launch Control mode increases that to 610 Nm. The front motor of the Turbo model is limited to 175 kW by its inverter, while the Turbo S front motor produces 190 kW and 400 Nm, rising temporarily to 440 Nm in overboost mode. The outcomes are phenomenal: acceleration from 0 to 60 mph in 3.0 seconds for the Turbo, and 2.6 seconds for the Turbo S. The latter is gradually slower than the top-spec Tesla Model S (at 2.4 seconds) when operating in “Ludicrous” mode, but Porsche highlights a major difference between the two (without ever mentioning the Silicon Valley electric-car startup): Porsche can deliver that acceleration multiple times in a row without its control software dialing down performance as the battery and motors heat up. Tesla cannot say the same.

 

Ignoring its electric core

 

To cover the Taycan’s full suite of technologies would definitely require thousands of words, many of them already published in the hundreds of articles that went live as a pair of embargoes expired on Wednesday. But the most fascinating thing about Taycan to someone who’s covered battery-electric vehicles for many years is how far Porsche has gone to ignore the fact it’s electric. In addition to blue-tinted transparent plastic letters spelling out “P O R S C H E” at the tail (blue is becoming the global auto industry’s symbol of electrification used by BMW, Hyundia-Kia and others), there’s no visual indication the car has a battery rather than a fuel tank.

 

Its design could easily be that of the next Panamera large sedan: a lower, wider, sleeker version of a known sport sedan shape. The Turbo and Turbo S model nomenclature follows Porsche tradition. And the pricing happily disregards whatever any theoretical competitors (Tesla, cough) may do this month or this week. We suspect, in fact, that Porsche has priced the Taycan to break even or even deliver a profit on each unit sold.

 

That stands in bold contrast to mass-market EV makers, who these days claim to see profitability on long-range electric cars sometime in the middle of the current decade. It even contrasts with Tesla, which faces the challenge of making enough profit on its growing volume of Model 3s priced at USD 35,000 to 50,000 to cover the costs of expanding its future model lineup.

 

Reactions

 

The Taycan had several surprising aspects, among them requiring use of the brake pedal to produce regenerative braking (or as German executives invariably call it, recuperation). It’s not possible to get “one-pedal driving” on a Taycan, as you can on vehicles as diverse as the Nissan Leaf and Tesla Model 3. Again, it stems from Porsche’s desire to keep the Taycan perfectly aligned with the rest of its product line, using names and controls that will be familiar and reassuring to its current buyers.

 

The unexpectedly high pricing of the first two Taycan models led Tesla’s most partisan fans to jeer at the new entry as irrelevant, uninteresting, and clearly no threat to the Silicon Valley company working to become a mass automaker. Scores of sloppy “Porsche vs Tesla” articles only reinforced that comparison.

 

Eventually, the Taycan is a first step from a very profitable carmaker. Note that Porsche provides almost half of VW Group’s overall profit while selling just 3 percent of its global volume of 10 million vehicles a year. And it will certainly not be the last. As well as more Taycan variants, there will be a Taycan Cross Turismo wagon, and an Audi e-tron GT that’s spun off the same underpinnings. Porsche has already said the next Macan small utility vehicle will also be fully electric. If it makes money on that vehicle too, it will enter the ranks of the world’s important electric brands.

 

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The hydrogen fluoride is imported from China and processed by a domestic company, the source said, though Samsung has not exposed the particular companies involved. The chemical is used by chipmakers in applications including etching silicon wafers. 'We have conducted tests of [hydrogen fluoride] from non-Japanese sources for some production as part of our effort to diversify our supply sources,' a Samsung insider said Wednesday.

 

The company initiated testing hydrogen fluoride from suppliers outside Japan after Tokyo tightened export controls on semiconductor manufacturing materials in July. While China is the most extensive supplier of hydrogen fluoride to South Korea, Japan holds a near-monopoly on the ultrapure gas needed for chipmaking, with Stella Chemifa and Morita Chemical Industries controlling nearly 90% of the market between them. Japanese players import lower-quality hydrogen fluoride from China and process it domestically before exporting it to markets such as South Korea.

 

Samsung compatriot SK Hynix is also examining alternatives to Japanese etching gas. Yet regardless of the curbs, chipmakers are reluctant to switch more fully to hydrogen fluoride from other sources. And in a positive sign for the supply outlook, the Japanese government approved a shipment of the chemical to South Korea in late August.

 

'If there's a stable supply of Japanese-made [hydrogen fluoride], we'll keep using it,' a source in the semiconductor manufacturing industry said. 'The steps underway now are preparations in case we can't source it from Japan.'

 

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At TE Connectivity, a manufacturer of sensors and connectors, we have made important progress toward digital transformation. Being technology-driven, we realized the value and virtuous cycle being well-positioned for the new realities Industry 4.0  could create by permitting increased efficiencies through a more connected factory environment. Nevertheless, TE swiftly learned that there’s no “magic bullet” to utilize in the journey toward going digital. Put simply, what might work in one area, might not work for the next. Often, the processes and regulations are different between geographies and sometimes even from line to line in the same plant, requiring a bespoke approach and custom proof of concepts for each different project.

 

TE’s initial focus has been on creating new connections between manufacturing and IT, and empowering value throughout its business — primarily by gaining access to, and then operationalizing, data that was not earlier available. A vital part of TE’s transformation journey was developing the digital transformation skills, leadership, and overall mindset required to move its strategy forward. There was a degree of uncertainness connected with doing something new, mainly around the lack of clarity related to the economic benefits of going digital, so a new approach was needed to help build confidence.

 

Beginning with pilots, to help get this clarity before rolling out greater efforts on a crucial scale helped gain traction in developing a digital culture at TE, building tolerance regarding potential failures and establishing measures to make certain any missteps served as learning opportunities. With 8,000 engineers on our team, TE knows that encountering a few bumps on the road is par for the course with innovation, learning, and culture transformation. As a result of our own experiences, TE has identified a number of best practices for manufacturers looking to embark on their own digital transformation journey.

 

1. Create use cases that clearly demonstrate opportunities to drive business impact

 

As a first step, having solid use cases in place can help demonstrate opportunities to save money, gain flexibility through reduced changeover time, and improve overall performance through predictive maintenance, among other advantages. As TE started its rollout of improvements internally, it put forth various such pilots. Many of these resulted in use cases demonstrating enough added value to gain the internal support needed to make larger changes all over the business. The pilots tested proof of concepts to comprehend whether implementing a digital solution would bring about the anticipated value, whether it’s cost savings or a boost in efficiency.

 

With various digital factory tools available, the choice of which to implement and in what order will depend on each site’s specific requirements. Each site will have different challenges and priorities, which need to be addressed with different tools. A solution that worked in one area won’t fundamentally yield the same results in another. In some cases, the money and effort to connect a machine may even outweigh the anticipated benefits. The bottom line is that using small-scale pilots as a foundation is useful for determining particular inefficiencies and challenges when implementing customized solutions.

 

2. Start with existing offerings and add connectivity to what’s already there

 

Right after the use cases were determined, the next key step was to identify opportunities for improvement and establish what was needed to enable near real-time data-driven decision-making in the product environment. Whether adding sensors, or processes for aggregating, this can help prevent unnecessary costs as well as efforts to reinvent the wheel. In addition, manufacturers at the beginning of their digital transformation journey should focus on identifying the high-value-add products and processes that will provide the greatest efficiencies and highest return on investment.

 

3. Ensure you have a data architecture that can support your IoT vision

 

Another fundamental factor for manufacturers to consider is ensuring they have the data architecture to support their IoT vision, customized according to latency, safety and security requirements. For TE, it was a combination of edge, fog and cloud computing solutions, enabling data to be suddenly processed at the edge, or be sent to an MES (Manufacturing Execution System) or central server system, or which could pipe the data directly to the cloud for storage and processing to enable updates over time.

 

4. Build an ecosystem of partners

 

Implementing new connected technologies and processes requires complicated integrations and an ecosystem of partners. No single company can supply all the equipment needed for a complete digital transformation solution. There are just just too many specialties involved. The easiest way to overcome this is to identify partners and then work with them to define, enable, and support any remaining pieces. By working closely with the right partner, companies can optimize internal costs related to digital production, and leverage the unique knowledge the partner has gained, developed, and advanced from previous digital transformation initiatives.

 

5. Be flexible, but focused

 

Connecting machines and visualizing and analyzing the data can be like reducing the water level in a river and exposing proverbial rocks and obstacles. As awareness of what was once hidden increases, navigation becomes fundamental; action and course corrections become imperative. Large, unavoidable 'rocks' – like machine utilization, run time, wait times, and repair times – are no longer hidden by the 'water' (i.e. manually calculated efficiency metrics, or older standards). Remaining flexible enough to course correct when needed while staying focused on your overall digital transformation goals will subsequently pay off. Because of its early transformation efforts, TE is already reaping the benefits, including shorter lead times, lower production costs and a reduction in the amount of scrap.

 

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It's easy to get caught up in painting a negative picture of technology’s potential impact on our future. But regardless of these fears, technology is not necessarily a job-killing machine. It is the catalyst to solving some of the biggest troubles facing our workforce today.

 

Start thinking about how much time we spend each workday on administrative tasks. Studies published over the past various years have continuously shown anywhere between 10% and 40% of our time at the office is lost to tasks outside of our core job functions: paperwork, scheduling meetings, responding to emails, etc. Imagine what you could do with those 10 extra hours each week. What can technology do to change this?

 

The end result, a lot. Some employers are moving to digital tools to automate many day-to-day operations. When technology takes the tedium out of everyday tasks, more time is available for employees and managers to collaborate, think creatively and align employee roles and interests with company goals. Employees are able to spend more time engaging with work that inspires and interests them, which then heightens productivity and overall employee happiness.

 

Technology can make it simpler and easier to connect as well — a pretty important benefit when many of us work remotely. Video conferences and meetings still allow for face-to-face conversations and can foster the all-important manager-employee relationship and other team interactions. Incorporating the tools at our disposal into the office environment will do the work of facilitating connections, leaving employees space in their schedules to focus on what actually matters. This “built into the daily routine” style of engagement offers more opportunities for human connection and development.

 

Technology transforms how we work and can be a huge benefit. It is incumbent on all of us to evolve and update our skills to match this advance.  With the right preparation for this challenge, we are able to not only avoid much of the disruption, but actually use technology to get back to building relationships and strengthening the human connection that’s so important in positive workplace environments.

 

With any luck, we can get some assistance from willing employees. As research from PricewaterhouseCoopers makes clear, a little over half of all employees now express a preference for either fully digital solutions or a mix of digital and face-to-face solutions when it comes to HR and professional development functions like ongoing performance feedback, real-time job training and receiving and providing regular coaching and development.

 

These tools ought to be implemented correctly, with great attention given to employee input and concerns, but it is motivating that the appetite for effectively integrated technological support is already here. By using new instruments to support employees’ needs, we are creating more time to focus on the good stuff: meaningful work around creativity, collaboration, motivation, communication and engagement. Putting employees first in this way is crucial for creating a more human workplace.

 

This shift can’t come fast enough. It's true that employees are any company’s most precious asset, and yet we have lots of evidence to suggest that most firms are failing to live up to that message. The workplace of the future will certainly look very different than it does today, likely in many ways we can’t predict. But the most successful businesses will be those that use technology as a tool to ensure they remain focused on what matters most: their people.

 

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“While global semiconductor sales in July were once again down on a year-to-year basis, month-to-month sales were up slightly,” replied John Neuffer, SIA president and CEO. “Month-to-month sales increased modestly across most regional markets in July, with Asia Pacific and the Americas posting the largest gains, although sales into the Americas remained down on a year-to-year basis.”

 

Regionally, sales improved on a month-to-month basis in Asia Pacific/All Other (3.1 percent), the Americas (2.5 percent), China (1.1 percent), and Japan (0.7 percent), but decreased in Europe (-0.5 percent). On a year-to-year basis, sales were downward throughout all regional markets: Europe (-8.6 percent), Asia Pacific/All Other (-11.0 percent), Japan (-12.0 percent), China (-14.1 percent), and the Americas (-27.8 percent).

 

For detailed monthly semiconductor sales data and detailed WSTS Forecasts, consider purchasing the WSTS Subscription Package. For detailed data on the global and U.S. semiconductor industry and market, consider purchasing the 2019 SIA Databook.

 

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The mammoth device also features up to 1.5 Tbps of DDR4 memory bandwidth and up to 4.5 Tbps of transceiver bandwidth. Is there a market need for bigger and bigger FPGAs like this one? “Yes, most definitely there is a need, especially for emulation and prototyping of next-gen ASICs and SoCs,” said Mike Thompson, Xilinx’ Senior Product Line Manager for the new series. “An increasing number of ASIC and SoC design starts, as well as test and measurement equipment for emerging standards, are driving the needs for very large FPGAs like the VU19P.”

 

As stated by Thompson, the development of wireless-focused SoCs is the main application for these huge programmable logic devices; hardware prototyping of such devices enables system software integration to start many months before silicon is available. A growing number of ASIC and SoC design starts is being driven by verticals like AI, 5G, automotive and hyperscale SoCs. These types of devices are being shaped by evolving architectures, increasing software content and a general rise in complexity.

 

The VU19P is 1.6X larger than its predecessor, the Virtex Ultrascale 440, built on the previous 20nm process node, that was the industry’s largest FPGA when it was produced in 2015. That device had 5.5 million system logic cells. Thompson credits the big jump in size to a combination of the company’s modular architecture, which helps scalability, and a new third generation of its stacked silicon interconnect technology, which enables smaller dice to be assembled together to create larger and larger parts without detrimentally affecting yield.

 

One of the biggest challenges of building such large devices is powerful cooling. “The VU19P has a lidless, flip-chip package that allows customers’ heatsinks to make direct contact with silicon,” Thompson said. “This significantly increases the cooling system’s ability to dissipate heat.” The VU19P will be generally available in the fall of 2020.

 

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The transaction, believed to be a purchase of shares in an all-cash deal and performed by April 2020 (subject to relevant approvals), involves the transfer of Lite-On SSD's business operations and assets, including inventories, equipment, personnel, intellectual properties, technologies and client and supplier relationships.

 

Toshiba Memory sees the purchase as a means to significantly reinforce its SSD business. Speaking about the deal, Nobuo Hayasaka, acting president and CEO of Toshiba Memory, said, “Lite-On’s solid-state drive business is a natural and strategic fit with Toshiba Memory and expands our focus in the SSD industry. This is an exciting acquisition for us, as it positions us to meet the projected growth in demand for SSDs in PCs and data centers being driven by the increased use of cloud services.”

 

Lite-On is a Taiwan-based supplier of optoelectronics, storage and various electronic components. The SSD business commenced as a business unit under Lite-On in 1995. Its PC SSD business began in 2008 and cloud data center SSD development in 2014; it now provides exceedingly customized ready-to-use SSD for both enterprise and client PC applications with a customer base throughout America, Europe and Asia.

 

In its last every three months financial report, Lite-On stated sales for its storage devices was down from $15.4 million for the six-month period ending on 30 June 2018, to just $11.6 million during the same period in 2019. Its total sales for the period were $85.6 million, of which its information technologies (IT) segment – which covers notebooks, desktops, tablets, servers, networking devices and peripherals – recorded the highest proportion, at $56 million; optoelectronics, which covers LEDs, camera modules, and automotive electronics, was also down to $13.6 million in the first six months of 2019 compared to $28.1 million for the same period in 2018.

 

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This new feature will reportedly use Bluetooth to pair the devices, creating a peer-to-peer Wi-Fi network just like AirDrop does, and transfer files at speeds up to 20Mbps. Xiaomi says that other smartphone manufacturers are welcome to sign up the trio. By the end of this month, a beta version of the new file-sharing protocol is expected to be rolled out. According to Counterpoint Research, Vivo, Oppo, and Xiaomi made up 49% of the domestic phone market during the first quarter. Placing some extra manufacturers, specifically Huawei, would allow a large proportion of handsets in the country to share files without the use of internet connectivity. There's no indication whether Huawei or other Chinese companies are or are not interested in joining the original trio.

 

Google itself has had a feature since 2011’s Ice Cream Sandwich called Android Beam that uses NFC to share “photos, videos, contact information, links to webpages, navigation directions, YouTube URLs, and more” by tapping two devices together. But Android Beam is being phased out in Android Q, replaced by a Google Play Services feature called Fast Share.

 

This will be similar to Apple’s AirDrop thanks to the use of Bluetooth. Android Q users will be able to share files, images, URLs and small parts of text messages even without an internet connection. The Files by Google app, available in the Google Play Store, uses Bluetooth to allow Android devices with the app installed to share files at speeds as fast as 480Mbps. Encryption is employed to protect the privacy of those using the app.

 

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Contrary to silicon transistors, nanotube devices can effortlessly be made in multiple layers with dense 3D interconnections. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is expecting this 3D aspect will lead to commercial carbon nanotube (CNT) chips with the performance of today’s cutting-edge silicon but without the high design and manufacturing cost.

 

Several same researchers created a modest one-bit, 178-transistor processor back in 2013. In comparison, the new one, which is based on the open source RISC-V instruction set, is with the capacity of working with 16-bit data and 32-bit instructions. Naturally, the team, led by MIT assistant professor Max Shulaker, tested the chip by running a version of the obligatory “Hello, World!” program. They reported the achievement this week in Nature.

 

“Ten years ago, we hoped this was possible,” says Shulaker. “Now we know it is possible… and we know it can be done in commercial facilities.”

 

Shulaker’s team, together with engineers at Analog Devices and, later, Skywater Technology Foundry, created three commercially-viable techniques to create the RV16X-NANO. Two had to deal with stubborn issues of carbon nanotube purity and uniformity, and the third allowed for the creation of both n-type and p-type transistors to form complementary logic circuits.

 

1. When making CNT transistors, the nanotubes are first put into a solution and spread across a silicon wafer. Most of the nanotubes lie uniformly on the silicon, but every once in a while, they ball up into bundles of a thousand or more. These bundles cannot form transistors. When building small-scale test circuits, this was no big deal, Shulaker explains, mainly because even if they killed one circuit, another would work. But for a large-scale integration like for the RV16X-NANO these nanotube-pile-ups would be common enough to mess up the whole processor.

 

RINSE, a solution one of Shulaker’s students, Christian Lau, arrived at, relies on the fact that individual nanotubes are stuck to the substrate by Van Der Waals forces more strongly than bundles are. By first coating the nanotube-covered substrate with a photo resist and then cautiously washing it away—under just the right conditions—the process selectively removes the bundles but leaves the individual CNTs.

 

2. While RINSE dealt with one carbon-nanotube impurity, another purity problem almost crashed the whole project. CNTs have always come in two basic flavors, metallic and semiconducting. Having some metallic nanotubes in a CNT-based logic gate means the circuit will waste power and produce a noisy signal. But how many metallic nanotubes is too many when you are trying to build a full-scale processor?

 

“It’s a very basic question,” says Shulaker. And to his surprise, it hadn't been answered. The answer his team came up with was “pretty depressing.” The best today’s commercial processes could produce is 99.99 percent semiconducting nanotubes and 0.01 percent metallic. But what’s needed is 99.999999 percent purity—impossibly far out of reach.

 

“We thought, if we can’t process our way out of this… then somehow we had to design our way around it,” says Shulaker. The team found that, by far, the main driver for the needed purity was not the power issue but the noise. Amongst the many logic circuits they’d made, they found a pattern that suggested some combinations were much more susceptible to the noise problem than others. “So the solution at that point was simple: We’ll just design circuits with the good combinations of logic gates and avoid using the bad combinations.”

 

DREAM, the set of design rules post-doctoral researcher Gage Hill came up with, allows large-scale integration using carbon nanotubes you can purchase off-the-shelf.

 

3. The third big advancement, called MIXED, allowed for the creation of the two types of transistors needed for CMOS logic, the kind in use in all-kinds of processors for decades. For that you need both electron-conducting (NMOS) and hole conducting (PMOS) transistors. Previous attempts at nanotube processors, such as the one-bit system Shulaker built as a graduate student, used only PMOS.

 

In silicon, the distinction is achieved by doping the transistor’s channel region with different atoms to effectively add electrons to the silicon crystal lattice or steal some. But such “substitutional doping” doesn’t work for carbon nanotubes. “It’s difficult to swap out an atom without destroying the properties of the nanotube,” says Shulaker.

 

So alternatively they turned to “electrostatic doping.” Here, a dielectric oxide is engineered to add or subtract electrons from the nanotube. Using a common semiconductor manufacturing technology called atomic layer deposition, the team was able to deposit dielectrics, such as halfnium dioxide, one atomic layer at a time. By manipulating the exact composition of the layer, say to have a bit fewer oxygens or a bit more, the oxide “wants to either donate electrons to the nanotube or steal from the nanotube,” explains Shulaker.

 

Between careful selection of the metal electrodes involved and the ALD process, the researchers were able to reliably build PMOS and NMOS devices together.

 

Crucially, MIXED is a low-temperature process, so the transistors can be built on top of other layers of circuitry without damaging them. In point of fact, the transistors in RV16X-NANO were built in between a layer of interconnects that provide power to the transistors and another layer that connects the transistors into logic gates and larger systems. Engineers are interested in such “buried power line” schemes in order to free up space that would allow for better-performing or smaller systems. But they are more difficult to achieve in silicon, in part simply because of high processing temperatures.

 

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This was a fitting result, given this year’s theme, ‘Retail Morphosis’, which is centred on how retailers adapt to change in order to succeed. “Although the retail landscape will continue to be disrupted by emerging technology and international competitors, it is truly gratifying to see the industry filled with hardworking retailers who continue to power retail through innovation and adaption,” Russell Zimmerman, executive director of the ARA, said.

 

Retailers including Petstock, Bakers Delight, Birdsnest, Coles Group and Biome were recognised for their achievements in innovation, marketing, customer experience and more. The winners in all 12 categories are listed below. The awards was held at Myer Mural Hall on Thursday morning, and consisted of fashion parade capturing the history of Australian retail from the 1920s to the 1990s, with outfits curated by Myer and hair and make-up created by Chiseled Hair.

 

Consumer futurist Amanda Stevens delivered a keynote speech on what the latest consumer research insights reveal about the opportunities for growth in the sector, and host Steve Plarre, CEO of Ferguson Plarre Bakehouses, entertained the audience with a rendition of ‘Uptown Funk’.

 

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