News Briefs (March 24, 2006)

University of Texas at Austin (UT) microelectronics researcher and computer and electrical engineering professor Sanjay Banerjee has received $500,000 from the Department of Defense to research ways to use nanotechnology to speed the silicon-based integrated circuit's (IC) replacement of current CMOS technology, which is reaching its limits at a billion transistors per circuit. The money will pay for new equipment, provide research assistantships and help fund a semiconductor training program. Banerjee said he and his team will work on integrating CMOS chips with compatible nanoelectronic devices and create new materials that will reduce power loss in ICs, increase speed and achieve higher packing densities. . . . Optical component manufacturer CVI of Albuquerque, N.M., has promoted Quality Director Jim Phelps to vice president of quality. Phelps worked for Coherent Inc. for 18 years prior to joining CVI. He has also been an optical systems production engineer at Lawrence Livermore National Labs and at the National Ignition Facility. . . . Universal Display Corp. of Ewing, N.J., a developer of OLED (organic light-emitting diode) technologies and materials for flat panel display, lighting and other opto-electronic markets, has been awarded a $500,000 extension to a completed Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II contract from the US Army Communication Electronics Research and Development Engineering Center. The extension is for continued development of full-color flexible active-matrix OLED (AMOLED) displays on metal foil. The additional funds will be used to put a laminated protective layer on the AMOLED display, develop additional communications functions and integrate it into a wrist-mountable housing. At contract's end, the company will deliver two prototypes to the Army.