Researchers from Academia, Government, and Industry Come Together at the 2006 MRS Spring Meeting
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Researchers from Academia, Government, and Industry Come Together at the 2006 MRS Spring Meeting www.mrs.org/spring2006 From microelectronics device processing and fabrication, to complex and biological nanoscale materials and systems, to energy and the environment, the 2006 Materials Research Society Spring Meeting, held April 17–21 in San Francisco, brought together over 3,500 attendees from all sectors of the global materials science and engineering communities. Nearly 3,000 oral and poster presentations were featured (from 37 technical symposia) in a program put together by Meeting Chairs J. Charles Barbour (Sandia National Laboratories), Paul S. Drzaic (Alien Technology Corporation), Gregg S. Higashi (Intel Corporation), and Viola Vogel (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology). The symposia were organized within six clusters: energy, bio-organic/inorganic composites, nano-/microstructures, smart materials, mechanical behavior, and electronics/photonics. In addition, the meeting offered tutorials, an equipment exhibit, and various special events and activities. Craig Barrett, chair of the board for Intel Corporation, who gave the plenary address 13 years ago, returned as the plenary speaker to discuss the digital revolution and how both competition and opportunities will grow as more and more people engage in a digital economy. A lot has changed since he last spoke to this audience. Barrett said that the digital revolution has become an engine of change from a global perspective, and over the past 10 years has brought three billion people from emerging economies of the world into its fold. He demonstrated how Moore’s law regarding the doubling of the number of transistors on a microprocessor approximately every 18 months continues to hold true after 40 years and will likely do so over the next 15 years at least. However, newer technologies and paradigms are emerging, such as nanotechnology and molecular electronics, which will lead away from the traditional CMOS technologies used in silicon microelectronics. Industries that resist change will be in trouble, he said. Nothing is better than investing in good people and ideas to create successful organizations, he said. Barrett expressed how this formula has worked successfully for Intel.
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Craig Barrett, chair of the board for Intel Corporation, holds up a silicon wafer during his plenary address on April 19 at the 2006 Materials Research Society Spring Meeting in San Francisco.
Microelectronics Device Processing and Fabrication The symposia addressing microelectronics devices offered talks ranging from amorphous and polycrystalline silicon thin films to chalcogenide phase-change materials. Cree Inc. has come a long way in the development of silicon carbide single crystals. D. Malta from Cree described, in Symposium B, experiments to increase the lifetime of minority carriers (holes) in the bulk material for the fabrication of p-i-n diodes with high breakdown voltages. While he was careful not to give away too much information due to intellectual pr
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