In the study of innovation institutions, it is important to consider how different institutional models can affect a research organization in conducting or funding successful work. As an industry collaborative, Semiconductor Research Corporation provides an example of a privately funded institution that leverages the inputs of several member companies, along with federal funding, to accomplish innovation in its mission area. SRC has several component programs, all attempting to find innovative solutions to semiconductor problems, but on different time scales, and in (...) different technology areas. But how does SRC use its resources to ensure these goals? Through data gathered from semi-structured qualitative interviews and SRC documentation, this paper addresses that question. SRC has found a way to leverage industry money to motivate and develop a robust field of university research for over 30 years. SRC uses several mechanisms for maintaining an application focused, member-centered decision process, institutional flexibility, and strong ties between industry contributors and university researchers. SRC has continued to keep its members satisfied by training thousands of graduate students for employment in their member companies, by focusing on precompetitive research that addresses industry requirements, and doing so in a manner that operates leanly, with low overhead to its funders. Given these successes, we identify aspects of SRC operations, such as a focus on its member company needs, frequent interactions between funders and researchers, flexible funding mechanisms, and focus on workforce development, that may be diffusible to innovation institutions, including federal research efforts. (shrink)

In 2021 global sales in semiconductors reached $556 billion, with the US accounting for 46% of the global market, yet as Zhi Su (2022) reports: ‘The share of modern semiconductor manufacturing capa...

The results of artistic experimentation with data sets from the natural sciences differ considerably with respect to quality and consistency. The British artist duo Semiconductor (Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt) counts among those setting the standard. In its animations and videos, it explores, in an equally multifaceted and concise manner, how scientists affect our world-view with their respective pictorial languages and visualization strategies. Especially in domains that elude our natural sense of space and time, the researchers’ representations are inevitably creative. (...) Semiconductor combines everyday experiences and complex imaging techniques in manifold ways. Thus, they offer unseen and sometimes unorthodox interpretations of a world in constant flux while retaining a high degree of complexity in their subtly crafted works. Semiconductor’s works provide opportunities for reflection on the extensive procedures in the sciences on various levels and in doing so they create poetic pieces that shift and recombine in various ways. With these means, sensualized data – like sounds and images – take on a strong role in their time-based works. As operative entities they not only represent but they seem to act. (shrink)

Summary A pattern can be found in the history of semiconductor electronics, which largely appears to coincide with that of scientific revolutions as described by Thomas Kuhn1. However, the history of semiconductor electronics has some characteristics which suggest that Kuhn's model requires correction in important respects.

Multicarrier systems, such as car batteries and semiconductors, have surprisingly complex transport properties. Even for steady-state transport, one can find counterexamples to standard assumptions about local electroneutrality, constancy in space of the electric field, linearity in space of the voltage, and the relationship between dissipation, voltage, and current. Moreover, unless recombination processes occur, boundaries impose conditions that can disturb the response far into the bulk to remove memory of the boundaries. Because the demands of the chemical reactions at the (...) electrodes cannot be satisfied by diffusion alone, car batteries are electrically active even when they are neither charging nor discharging. We offer practical advice on battery care for bike-riders, say, who only occasionally use their cars. For semiconductors, recombination does occur, which in transport enables partial currents to adjust from their surface to their bulk values. For mixed ionic electronic conductors, bulk recombination may be essential to an understanding of “blocking electrodes.” The voltage associated with both current-producing and non-current-producing surface reactions provides a natural explanation for the bioelectric fields observed during root and other growth processes. (shrink)

Quantum dots (3–4 nm) of Zn1− x Cd x S (both free of Mn2+ and with Mn2+ incorporated) were synthesized through a novel solvothermal-microwave irradiation technique. Detailed structural analysis of the Zn1− x Cd x S and Zn1− x Cd x S:Mn2+ (x = 0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 1) materials was carried out using powder X-ray diffraction technique. For all the compositions, the crystallite size was controlled to less than 1.5 nm. The optical energy gap for Zn1− x Cd (...) x S was found to vary from 3.878 to 2.519 eV and for Zn1−x Cd x S:Mn2+ it varies from 3.830 to 2.442 eV when x is increased from 0 to 1. Overall, the optical energy gap could be tuned from a minimum of 2.442 eV to a maximum of 3.878 eV. DC conductivity analysis (from 40°C to 150°C) and electrical energy gap analysis for all the compositions were also performed. The dc conductivity for Zn1− x Cd x S solid solutions varies from 0.3840 × 10−10 to 8.7782 × 10−10 mho/m at 150°C and for Zn1− x Cd x S:Mn2+ it varies from 0.5751 × 10−10 to 9.8078 × 10−10 mho /m at 150°C (for x = 0 to x = 1). The method of synthesis and the results observed in this investigation may assist in the fabrication of optical devices when the required operational performance falls under the range observed in the study. (shrink)

The effect of germanium addition on the physical properties, i.e. density, molar volume, compactness, number of lone-pair electrons, average coordination number, heat of atomization, mean bond energy, cohesive energy and glass-transition temperature, of (Se80Te20)100− x Ge x (x = 0, 2, 4, 6) bulk glassy alloys was investigated. The density of the glassy alloys is found to decrease with increasing Ge content. The molar volume and compactness of the structure of the glass were determined from the measured density. The mean (...) bond energy is proportional to the glass-transition temperature. The cohesive energy of the samples has been calculated using a chemical bond approach and is correlated with an increase in the optical energy gap with increase in the Ge content. The heat of atomization was also calculated and correlated with the optical energy gap. The glass-transition temperature has been estimated using different methods and is found to increase with an increase of Ge content. (shrink)