Science

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Curiosity Rover Nearing Yellowknife Bay

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The NASA Mars rover Curiosity used its Mast Camera (Mastcam) during the mission's 120th Martian day to record this view of a rock outcrop informally named "Shaler".

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Imec Shows Path Toward Non-Si Devices at IEDM 2012

At this week's IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM 2012), imec addressed key challenges of scaling beyond silicon-channel finFETs. Imec showed that channel mobility can be boosted by growing non-Si channels on a strain relaxed buffer (SRB), and demonstrated excellent scalability potential of the technology. Moreover, imec revealed insight on the unique influence oxide trapping has on the gate stack mobility in High-Mobility Ge and III-V channels.

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Comparison of mobility in unstrained and strained Si and Ge p-FinFETs. Unstrained Ge shows degraded mobility w.r.t. strained Si. Strained Ge can improve pFET mobility by 59%.

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Imec paves the way for intelligent item-level RFID tagging to replace bar codes: World-first UHF IGZO Schottky diode is breakthrough achievement towards low-cost passive thin-film RFID tags

At this week's IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM 2012), imec presented the world-first ultra-high frequency Schottky diode based on amorphous IGZO (Indium-Gallium-Zinc Oxide) as semiconductor. This breakthrough achievement will enable the development of thin-film passive UHF (ultra-high frequency) RFID (radiofrequency ID) tags to replace item-level bar codes.

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Imec’s world-first ultrahigh frequency IGZO Schottky diode

http://www.nanotech-now.com/news.cgi?story_id=46572

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NASA's GRAIL Creates Most Accurate Moon Gravity Map

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The variations in the lunar gravity field as measured by NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) during the primary mapping mission from March to May 2012. Very precise microwave measurements between two spacecraft, named Ebb and Flow, were used to map gravity with high precision and high spatial resolution.

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NASA to Host Dec. 13 Telecon on Twin Probes' Mission-Ending Moon Impact

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Artist concept of GRAIL mission. Grail will fly twin spacecraft in tandem orbits around the moon to measure its gravity field in unprecedented detail.

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Tiny compound semiconductor transistor could challenge silicon’s dominance --MIT researchers develop the smallest indium gallium arsenide transistor ever built

Silicon's crown is under threat: The semiconductor's days as the king of microchips for computers and smart devices could be numbered, thanks to the development of the smallest transistor ever to be built from a rival material, indium gallium arsenide.

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A cross-section transmission electron micrograph of the fabricated transistor. The central inverted V is the gate. The two molybdenum contacts on either side are the source and drain of the transistor. The channel is the indium gallium arsenide light color layer under the source, drain and gate.

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Carbon Nanotubes Determine Morphine, Diclofenac in Drug Samples

Iranian researchers succeeded in the production of electrodes to concurrently determine the morphine and diclofenac in drug and biological samples.

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What is Creating Gullies on Vesta?

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This image shows examples of long, narrow, sinuous gullies that scientists on NASA's Dawn mission have found on the giant asteroid Vesta.

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Hubble's Glitter galaxy: The ESO 318-13 galaxy

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Seeing the Light? Making Sense of Disorder in Polymer Opals

The iridescent colours of natural opals have fascinated people for thousands of years. It is interesting, however, that the colours we see are generated only by diffraction of light between the ordered planes of atoms which make up the structures. In order to reproduce this effect in artificial systems and to allow such opal characteristics to be applied to, for example, flexible materials such as clothing or packaging, research into synthetic opals has gained momentum in the last decades.

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