Short updates from the semiconductor industry, with context and links to the relevant chapters. RSS
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September 1, 2026 Research
Recent work reports a GaN transistor architecture that blocks nearly 4 kV on silicon while keeping resistance low, a magnesium-based method for low-resistance p-GaN contacts, and a diamond interposer that spreads heat in GaN power devices.
September 1, 2026 Devices & Products
Lithium-ion batteries with multiple voltage levels can be recharged during short work breaks, offering an alternative to battery swapping without reducing cycle life.
September 1, 2026 Devices & Products
Lithium-ion batteries with multiple voltage levels can be recharged during work breaks through short charging cycles, avoiding the need for battery swaps while preserving cycle life.
September 1, 2026 Design & EDA
Hardware-assisted verification is moving beyond expensive emulator setups as FPGA-based prototyping gives teams a faster way to validate complex SoC hardware and software together before silicon is available.
September 1, 2026 Design & EDA
Hardware-assisted verification is moving from a premium option to a practical tool for more SoC projects. FPGA-based prototyping helps teams run software stacks on realistic hardware models and catch hardware-software issues before silicon arrives.
September 1, 2026 Research
imec reports two process advances for CFET devices: a backside-contact module that improves bottom pFET performance, and a gate-stack scheme for multi-Vt tuning with lower thermal budget. The work targets manufacturable integration paths beyond GAA nanosheet transistors.
September 1, 2026 Research
imec reports two process modules that push CFET devices closer to manufacturable logic scaling: an improved backside-contact scheme for better bottom-device current and a new dipole-middle gate-stack integration method for multi-Vt tuning in nanosheet- and CFET-based transistors.
September 1, 2026 Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is no longer only a tool for chip design and manufacturing. It is also becoming a core target of strategic patent filings, with the competitive map shifting in clear geopolitical ways.
August 31, 2026 Artificial intelligence
Semiconductor Engineering argues that AI-generated design and verification outputs cannot be taken at face value. The central issue is not only whether the result looks plausible, but whether its provenance, assumptions, and properties have been checked well enough to catch errors, omissions, and even deliberate cheating.
August 31, 2026 Research
Huawei, ETH Zürich and HUST present FLINT, a workload-driven HBF substrate that treats High Bandwidth Flash as a capacity tier for LLM inference when accelerator memory is the bottleneck.
August 31, 2026 Circuit Design & Applications
A single-stage boost converter is often considered practical only up to about 8:1 to 9:1, but the limits depend strongly on topology, switching mode, device parasitics, and controller duty-cycle capability. Texas Instruments shows a 3 V to 42 V GaN reference design reaching a 14:1 ratio at more than 84% efficiency.
August 31, 2026 Supply Chain & Sites
The European Union is pouring funds into AI factories and data centers, but domestic chip supply is not keeping pace. A planned Chips Act 2.0 is meant to address the mismatch between stronger AI demand and Europe’s dependence on US chip design and Asian manufacturing.
August 31, 2026 Supply Chain & Sites
The European Union is expanding investment in AI factories and data centers, but the chip supply behind that buildout remains heavily tied to US design and Asian manufacturing. A planned Chips Act 2.0 is meant to address the mismatch.
August 29, 2026 Companies & Market
TSMC’s latest 238-page sustainability report goes beyond emissions inventories and climate targets. It also documents small but revealing operational details, from shoe-sole rules to a fish living in a fab and a lizard evacuation in Germany.
August 29, 2026 Devices & Products
Qualcomm is bringing High Bandwidth Cache (HBC) into the AI infrastructure debate, positioning the concept as a potential challenge to the current HBM-centered memory stack. The idea could force Samsung and SK hynix to rethink how memory bandwidth is delivered for future accelerators.