A Multinode Quantum Network explained

 

5G can be rolled out, but more research is necessary, says health council

DutchNews, September 2, 2020 

Photo: Depositphotos.com

The roll-out of 5G telecoms services in the Netherlands is safe, but some aspects remain unclear and require further research, the Dutch health council Gezondheidsraad said on Wednesday. 

‘It has not been proven and it is not likely that exposure to 5G systems can damage health, even though the science cannot rule this out entirely,’ the council said on its website. ‘The health council is advising that exposure be monitored and that more research is done.’ 

The council had been asked to look into the health aspects of 5G telecommunications by MPs following a spate of arson attacks on telecom masts. 

The report focuses on the theoretical impact on health because 5G is so new there is little concrete information. And this means that actual exposure to 5G needs to be monitored as more networks come online. ‘The commission cannot answer the question if exposure to 5G will actually lead to risks to health,’ the report said. ‘Therefore the focus has been on the potential to cause damage.’ 

Recommendations 

The commission makes two main recommendations. Firstly, officials should set up an epidemiological research project into the relationship between exposure to the 5G frequencies being used and cancer, reduced fertility in men, risks to pregnancy and birth defects. 

The Netherlands is already taking part in an international research project into 5G and health, and these results can be a part of the Dutch study, the researchers said. 

At the same time, the council recommends officials postpone the use of the higher end of the frequency spectrum, namely 26GHz, because relatively little research has been done on the impact of this frequency range on health. 

There are currently no concrete plans in the Netherlands to use this frequency. 

Reactions 

Telecoms company KPN said it welcomed the report which reconfirmed that the current frequencies for mobile communications via 3G, 4G and 5G can be used. 

However, the anti 5G campaign group Stichting Stop5GNL, which tried earlier to have the roll-out stopped in court, said that the recommendations are contradictory. 

‘You cannot put something in the market which has not been properly researched,’ spokeswoman Martine Vriens told broadcaster NOS.

Amsterdam universities signed deal with controversial tech giant Huawei

DutchNews, August 25, 2020

Photo: Depositphotos.com 

Amsterdam universities UvA and VU have entered into a close collaboration with controversial Chinese tech company Huawei despite government warnings, the Financieele Dagblad reported on Tuesday. 

The tech giant, which is widely suspected of spying for the Chinese state, is increasingly unwelcome in most European countries and the universities’ move has divided opinion, the paper said. 

The deal, signed on May 15, comprises a €3.5m payment to both universities which will reportedly be used to finance a lab for the development of artificial intelligence, employing around 100 people. 

Researchers at the lab will be specifically tasked with developing technology for a search machine for Huawei, which has been banned from using Google on its mobile phones. 

The agreement comes despite Dutch government warnings about universities working with Chinese partners because it could result in an ‘unwanted exchange of knowledge’, potentially causing national security issues and damage to economic interests. 

Surprisingly, however, intelligence and security services AIVD and NCTV, which met with university representatives on January 30 to discuss the move, did not register any objections to the deal. In addition, both the education ministry and the economic affairs ministry signalled support, the FD said, albeit among warnings of ‘great potential risks’. 

The education ministry even confirmed to the paper it had ‘facilitated’ the meeting between the security services and university representatives on its premises. 

The AIVD told the paper the meeting was an ‘awareness presentation’ but did not want to comment any further. 

Independent 

The boards of both universities have dismissed worries about possible Chinese state intervention, saying the work for Huawei ‘has nothing to do with the network equipment which is causing public discussion’. 

A spokesman for the two universities told the paper that a ‘thorough check’ had been carried out to ensure that scientists can publish their findings independently and that sensitive information will not be shared. The security services had been happy with the guarantees put in place to prevent potential knowledge theft, he said. 

However, the Rathenau Institute, an independent government tech advisory body, has said that in AI research the boundaries between military and civil technology have become blurred. 

It calls for clear government guidelines for universities to establish if a cooperation with ‘a company such as Huawei’ is acceptable or not. Last year Oxford university severed its ties with Huawei following a public outcry about the cooperation. 

The Dutch government has also come under considerable pressure, particularly from the US, to keep Huawei out of the Netherlands 5G network development plans.

Beyond batteries: Scientists build methanol-powered beetle bot

France24 – AFP, 19 August 2020

A team at the University of Southern California has built an 88-milligram "RoBeetle"
that runs on methanol and uses an artificial muscle system to crawl, climb, and carry
loads on its back for up to two hours Xiufeng YANG Xiufeng Yang, University of
Southern California/AFP

Washington (AFP) - Scientists have long envisioned building tiny robots capable of navigating environments that are inaccessible or too dangerous for humans -- but finding ways to keep them powered and moving has been impossible to achieve.

A team at the University of Southern California has now made a breakthrough, building an 88-milligram (one three hundredth of an ounce) "RoBeetle" that runs on methanol and uses an artificial muscle system to crawl, climb and carry loads on its back for up to two hours.

It is just 15 millimeters (.6 inches) in length, making it "one of the lightest and smallest autonomous robots ever created," its inventor Xiufeng Yang told AFP.

"We wanted to create a robot that has a weight and size comparable to real insects," added Yang, who was lead author of a paper describing the work in Science Robotics on Wednesday.

The problem is that most robots need motors that are themselves bulky and require electricity, which in turn makes batteries necessary.

The smallest batteries available weigh 10-20 times more than a tiger beetle, a 50 milligram insect the team used as their reference point.

To overcome this, Yang and his colleagues engineered an artificial muscle system based on liquid fuel -- in this case methanol, which stores about 10 times more energy than a battery of the same mass.

The "muscles" are made from nickel-titanium alloy wires -- also known as Nitinol -- which contracts in length when heated, unlike most metals that expand.

The wire was coated in a platinum powder that acts as a catalyst for the combustion of methanol vapor.

As the vapor from RoBeetle's fuel tank burns on the platinum powder, the wire contracts, and an array of microvalves shut to stop more combustion.

The wire then cools and expands, which once more opens the valves, and the process repeats itself until all the fuel is spent.

The expanding and contracting artificial muscles are connected to the RoBeetles' front legs through a transmission mechanism, which allows it to crawl.

The team tested their robot on a variety of flat and inclined surfaces made from materials that were both smooth, like glass, and rough, like mattress pads.

RoBeetle could carry a load of up to 2.6 times its own weight on its back and run for two hours on a full tank, said Yang.

By contrast, "the smallest battery-powered crawling robot weighs one gram and operates about 12 minutes."

In the future, microbots may be used for a variety of applications like infrastructure inspection or search-and-rescue missions after natural disasters.

They might also assist in tasks like artificial pollination or environmental monitoring.

Roboticists Ryan Truby and Shuguang Li, of MIT and Harvard respectively, wrote in an accompanying commentary that RoBeetle was "an exciting microrobotics milestone," but added there were also opportunities for improvement.

For example, the robot is limited to continuous forward motion, and taking electronics out of the equation reduces its capacity to carry out sophisticated tasks.

Dutch government invests €20m in Eindhoven photonic chip maker

DutchNews, June 30, 2020

Inside a Smart Photonics lab. Photo: Bart van Overbeeke / Hollandse Hoogte

The Dutch government has invested €20m into Eindhoven company Smart Photonics to make sure the technology stays in the Netherlands, junior economic affairs minister Mona Keijzer has confirmed to MPs. 

The company produces chips which work on the basis of light rather than electricity, which means they can process data more quickly and use less energy. The investment will allow the company to scale up production, the company said in a statement. 

Smart Photonics had been looking for investment since last year and that there was interest from Asia, the Financieele Dagblad reported earlier. 

Keijzer told MPs she had been made aware of the foreign interest at the end of last year and decided to invest directly in the company to make sure it, and its suppliers, remain in the Netherlands. 

The action also fits in with European Commission call on member states to act against ‘undesirable developments’ in certain markets. Phototonic chips are considered a strategic key industry by Brussels. 

In total, Smart Photonic has raised €35m to €40m, some of which has also come from KPN. 

‘There is a need for a new generation of photonic integrated circuits that can transport data faster, be cost-effective and more sustainable, in order to keep up with the immense amount of data generated at a very high speed by advancing technologies like IoT, AI, augmented reality and autonomous driving,’ said Samir Ahmad, head of investment at KPN Ventures.

5G radiation ‘within EU limits’ but more research needed: report

DutchNews, January 21, 2020 

Photo: Depositphotos.com

Telecoms supervisory body Agenschap Telecom and health watchdog RIVM have said radiation from 5G mobile networks testing sites in the Netherlands is within European limits but needs to monitored as telecoms providers prepare to activate the new mobile core networks.

Some 15 licences for testing sites have been granted in the Netherlands and random testing of five sites has not produced worrying levels of radiation, a report published by both organisations said.  It is important, however, to ‘keep a finger on the pulse’. 

The arrival of 5G networks has caused unrest because of uncertainties about the possible harmful effects of radiation on health and in September hundreds of people took to the streets of The Hague in protest. Experts said at the time that no connection has been established between radiation from phones and effects on health. 

The RIVM and the Agentschap Telecom said it is important to continue monitoring and that although there is no proof this type of radiation is dangerous there are no research data in place pertaining to ‘complex, realistic exposure situations’. 

‘Whether or not insights into the effects on health will change will have to become clear with time,’ the report said.The Netherlands does not have a national guideline where radiation limits are concerned although the government is contemplating putting a legal exposure norm in place, the report said. 

Providers KPN, T-Mobile and Vodafone are all planning to roll out their 5G networks in the next few years which, the organisations say, necessitates more research. 

The measures that were done are seen as a starting point and will be the first of many, the RIVM said. In total radiation emitted by 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G is measured  70 times a year.

US ambassador confirms pressure to refuse ASML export licence for China

DutchNews, January 17, 2020 

An ASML cleanroom where a euv machine is being assembled. Photo: ASML

The US ambassador to the Netherlands has confirmed earlier reports that the United States wants to discourage the export of chip technology to China, the Financieele Dagblad said on Friday. 

Sources had told the paper earlier that the US was putting pressure on the Dutch government to refuse an export licence to chip machinery maker ASML.

‘We have made it very clear to the Dutch,’ the paper quotes Pete Hoestra as saying. ‘We believe that this is extremely sensitive technology which does not belong in certain places.’ 

ASML has been waiting since June 2019 for an export licence to send a next-generation chip maker to China, which uses technology based on extreme ultraviolet (euv) wavelengths. 

The request is still being dealt with by the foreign affairs ministry. However, behind the scenes, the FD says, the US has been subjecting the Netherlands to ‘heavy political pressure’ to refuse the licence. 

Earlier this week, China’s ambassador to the Netherlands said in an interview with the FD that China did not want The Hague to bow to US pressure.

‘We are concerned that the Netherlands is allowing our trading relationship to become politicised,’ Xu Hong is quoted as saying. ‘If this continues, it will ultimately have a negative influence on our bilateral relationship.’ 

And Reuters said that White House officials shared a classified intelligence report with the Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte which highlighted the potential repercussions of China acquiring ASML’s technology. 

The paper said the stakes are high because ASML is counting on realising billions of euros worth of sales in China through the use of euv technology. 

The technology falls under an international treaty, the Wassenaar Arrangement, which was signed by both countries and which stipulates that a licence is necessary because euv technology can also be used for military purposes.

Virtual reality: Dutch firm wins prize for gaming pain away

DutchNews, December 19, 2019

Photo: Depositphotos.com

 A Frisian company which has developed a virtual reality headset to combat chronic pain has won the prestigious UN World SummitAward. 

Exactly how many people are suffering from chronic pain in the Netherlands is not known but their number runs into the thousands, medical experts say. Often the pain has no clear cause. The conventional treatment is painkillers but these are costly and don’t always work. 

The VR treatment tackles the pain by training the brain, psychologist Louis Zantema, who founded Reducept, told broadcaster NOS. 

‘People with chronic pain are oversensitive to the pain signal sent by the body to the brain. The therapy helps the nervous system because the brain believes healing is taking place,’ he said. 

Shooting down the pain 

‘When you put on the VR headset you travel into in your own nervous system. The painful spots show up as small red dots which you shoot at, as if you were playing a game,’ Zantema explained. 

After ‘shooting down’ the pain the next step is a mindfulness exercise focusing on the spinal cord. ‘There we are using a psychological trick which also works for people suffering from trauma. The patient does a complicated exercise which is alternated with an intensive focusing on the pain.’ 

Professor Harry van Goor tested the VR headset on 40 people all of whom experienced a reduction in pain symptoms. He says the treatment offers hope to many while saving money at the same time. 

‘Chronic pain is causing depression and is putting a lot of pressure on the health system. The medication either doesn’t help or is addictive and waiting lists for the specialist pain clinics are very long,’ he told NOS. 

The treatment is available at over 50 healthcare institutions but is not covered by health insurers. A session costs €15 apart from the cost of buying a VR headset.

Related Article:

Science & Spiritually Conference 2018, BC – Canada (4), June 16-17, 2018 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) (Text version “Predictions”)

“….Let me close with this: I'm going to give you the same concept that I gave those few on their way to the beautiful garden a few days ago [channelling on the way to Butchart Gardens in Vancouver Island]. There are things in your field for you that will save your life unless you look back and say, "Impossible!" Some of you have an old habit where you look at your life and say, "Well, for others, but not for me." Sometimes you pull on your old logic and further say, "Well, it's never happened before, so why should it happen now?" Dear ones, that exactly reflects the earlier teaching of the day. Don't let the past predict your future. If you do, then you are actually creating your own demise.

What is in the field for you? What is it you can see and imagine? Have you heard this question from the scientists this week - not a channeller, but the scientists? Did you hear that the visualization of your health from your consciousness goes inside and is seen by your own cellular structure? Does this science sound like Kryon? Did you hear that the field is there to push it forward? Do you believe in homeopathy? Do you see how it works? For example, you have a tincture that is too small to be recognized by any part of the body as a chemical change, yet the body sees the signal from the tincture and corrects the issue! Dear one, homeopathy is not something unknown on the planet. It's everywhere! So understand this: The principles of homeopathy are NOT homeopathic principles. They are Universal principles of the field.

So, how about consciousness homeopathy? What's the difference between putting a tincture together to create a signal for healing and life extension or putting strong consciousness together that does the same? This is here and already has been proven. It's just means changing the mechanics a little. With the new energy that I have told you is here, and the amount of love that is pouring to you that is greater than ever before because of what you're doing, old soul, this is doable for you. More than doable. It awaits manifestation. ..…”

Five Dutch companies club together to fund university AI researchers

DutchNews, October 10, 2019

Five of the Netherlands’ biggest companies have clubbed together to pay for new professors in Artificial Intelligence, following reports earlier this year that universities are going to limit the number of places because of staff shortages. 

Ahold Delhaize, Philips, KLM, ING and Dutch railway group NS will pay towards the salaries of at least 25 new academics as part of a project dubbed ‘Kickstart AI’. 

By placing the professors partly on corporate payrolls, their salaries can be increased to encourage more to come forward, the Financieele Dagblad said on Thursday. 

The tenures will run for at least five years, and possibly as much as 10, the paper said. Several universities have already begun recruitment drives. 

‘The Netherlands has always been a technology pioneer… but without a national AI strategy, the serious shortage of AI talent will remain one of the biggest obstacles to reach the technology’s full potential,’ said Amsterdam university professor Maarten de Rijke said in a press statement. ‘This initiative underscores the urgency of speeding up AI education and keeping talent.’ 

The initiative is costing tends of millions of euros, Philips chief innovation officer Jeroen Tas told the paper. 

The initiative also includes a competition to find new applications for AI and a campaign to boost public acceptance of AI-related technologies.

Related Article:

The Netherlands ranks top in Europe in WEF global competitiveness index

Dutch researchers find major vulnerability in Intel chips

DutchNews, May 15, 2019

Photo: Depositphotos.com

Researchers at Amsterdam’s VU university have discovered a major leak in Intel microchips which make it possible to get hold of passwords and other sensitive information. 

The vulnerability, named Rogue In-Flight Data Load, was discovered a year ago but only just made public to give Intel time to develop an acceptable fix. 

The leak covered all Intel processors made since 2008 and would have been extremely easy to abuse, the researchers say. 

‘Even if home users used their browsers to visit a website with an advert or other content with a malware Java programme, the hacker could still steal information,’ the researchers say. There were also problems with cloud services. 

However, Herbert Bos, who was in charge of the research, told broadcaster RTL Z that most consumers should not immediately be very concerned and that specific targets, such as senior employees of a company or senior government officials, were more likely to have been victims. 

Intel has now taken steps to close the leaks and protect users, who are now being recommended to update their processors and software.

Scientist superstar Katie Bouman designed algorithm for black hole image

Yahoo – AFP, April 11, 2019

The Event Horizon Telescope project provided the first ever image of a black
hole and its fiery halo (AFP Photo)

New York (AFP) - Anonymous to the public just days ago, a US computer scientist named Katie Bouman has become an overnight sensation due to her role in developing a computer algorithm that allowed researchers to take the world's first image of a black hole.

"I'm so excited that we finally get to share what we have been working on for the past year!" the 29 year-old Bouman, a postdoctoral researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, gushed on her Facebook account Wednesday after the image was published.

The term "black hole" refers to a point in space where matter is so compressed that it creates a gravity field from which even light cannot escape. The massive black hole in the photo released Wednesday is 50 million light years away at the center of a galaxy known as M87.

While the existence of black holes have been long known, the phenomenon proved impossible to witness.

In 2016, Bouman developed an algorithm named CHIRP to sift through a true mountain of data gathered by the Event Horizon Telescope project from telescopes around the world to create an image.

The volume of data -- four petabytes (4 million billion bytes) -- was contained in a mountain of computer hard drives weighing several hundred pounds that had to be physically transported to the Haystack Observatory in Westford, Massachusetts, operated by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

To guarantee the accuracy of the image, the Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysics Center, operated by Harvard University, gave the data to four different teams. Each team independently used the algorithm to obtain an image.

After a month of work, the four groups presented their results to the other teams.

"That was the happiest moment I've ever had [when] I saw all the other teams had images that were very similar, with the lower half brighter than the top half. It was amazing to see everyone got that," Bouman told The Wall Street Journal.

"No one algorithm or person made this image," wrote Bouman, who in the fall will begin work as an assistant professor at the California Institute of Technology (Cal Tech).

"It required the amazing talent of a team of scientists from around the globe and years of hard work to develop the instrument, data processing, imaging methods, and analysis techniques that were necessary to pull off this seemingly impossible feat," she said on Facebook.

"It has been truly an honor, and I am so lucky to have had the opportunity to work with you all."

Related Article:

The real deal: astronomers deliver first photo of black hole

'Inkjet' solar panels poised to revolutionise green energy

Yahoo – AFP, Stanislaw WASZAK, February 3, 2019

Polish physicist and businesswoman Olga Malinkiewicz poses with
a printed solar panel (AFP Photo/Janek SKARZYNSKI)

Wroclaw (Poland) (AFP) - What if one day all buildings could be equipped with windows and facades that satisfy the structure's every energy need, whether rain or shine?

That sustainability dream is today one step closer to becoming a reality thanks to Polish physicist and businesswoman Olga Malinkiewicz.

The 36-year-old has developed a novel inkjet processing method for perovskites -- a new generation of cheaper solar cells -- that makes it possible to produce solar panels under lower temperatures, thus sharply reducing costs.

Indeed, perovskite technology is on track to revolutionise access to solar power for all, given its surprising physical properties, some experts say.

"In our opinion, perovskite solar cells have the potential to address the world energy poverty," said Mohammad Khaja Nazeeruddin, a professor at Switzerland's Federal Institue of Technology Lausanne, an institution on the cutting-edge of solar energy research.

Solar panels coated with the mineral are light, flexible, efficient, inexpensive and come in varying hues and degrees of transparency.

They can easily be fixed to almost any surface -- be it laptop, car, drone, spacecraft or building -- to produce electricity, including in the shade or indoors.

Though the excitement is new, perovskite has been known to science since at least the 1830s, when it was first identified by German mineralogist Gustav Rose while prospecting in the Ural mountains and named after Russian mineralogist Lev Perovski.

In the following decades, synthesising the atomic structure of perovskite became easier.

But it was not until 2009 that Japanese researcher Tsutomu Miyasaka discovered that perovskites can be used to form photovoltaic solar cells.

'Bull's eye'

Initially the process was complicated and required ultra high temperatures, so only materials that could withstand extreme heat -- like glass -- could be coated with perovskite cells.

This is where Malinkiewicz comes in.

In 2013, while still a PhD student at the University of Valencia in Spain, she figured out a way to coat flexible foil with perovskites using an evaporation method.

Later, she developed an inkjet printing procedure that lowered production costs enough to make mass production economically feasible.

The panels can easily be fixed to almost any surface (AFP Photo/Janek SKARZYNSKI)

"That was a bull's eye. Now high temperatures are no longer required to coat things with a photovoltaic layer," Malinkiewicz told AFP.

Her discovery quickly earned her an article in the journal Nature and media attention, as well as the Photonics21 Student Innovation award in a competition organised by the European Commission.

The Polish edition of the MIT Technology Review also selected her as one of its Innovators Under 35 in 2015.

She went on to cofound the company Saule Technologies -- named after the Baltic goddess of the sun -- along with two Polish businessmen.

They had to assemble all their laboratory equipment from scratch, before multimillionaire Japanese investor Hideo Sawada came on board.

The company now has an ultra-modern laboratory with an international team of young experts and is building an industrial-scale production site.

"This will be the world's first production line using this technology. Its capacity will reach 40,000 square metres of panels by the end of the year and 180,000 square metres the following year," Malinkiewicz said at her lab.

"But that's just a drop in the bucket in terms of demand."

Eventually, compact production lines could easily be installed everywhere, according to demand, to manufacture perovskite solar panels that are made to measure.

Self-sufficient buildings

The Swedish construction group Skanska is testing the cutting-edge panels on the facade of one of its buildings in Warsaw.

It also inked a licencing partnership with Saule in December for the exclusive right to incorporate the company's solar cell technology in its projects in Europe, the United States and Canada.

"Perovskite technology is bringing us closer to the goal of energy self-sufficient buildings," said Adam Targowski, sustainability manager at Skanska.

"Perovskites have proven successful even on surfaces that receive little sunlight. We can apply them pretty much everywhere," he told AFP.

"More or less transparent, the panels also respond to design requirements. Thanks to their flexibility and varying tints, there's no need to add any extra architectural elements."

A standard panel of around 1.3 square metres, at a projected cost of 50 euros ($57), would supply a day's worth of energy to an office workstation, according to current estimates.

Malinkiewicz insists that the initial cost of her products will be comparable to conventional solar panels.

Perovskite technology is also being tested on a hotel in Japan, near the city of Nagasaki.

Plans are also afoot for the pilot production of perovskite panels in Valais, Switzerland and in Germany under the wings of the Oxford Photovoltaics venture.

"The potential of the technology is clearly enormous," Assaad Razzouk, the CEO of Singapore-based Sindicatum Rewable Energy, a developer and operator of clean energy projects in Asia, told AFP.

"Just think of all the buildings one could retrofit worldwide!"

Scientific journals have to tear down paywall; open access for all

DutchNews, September 4, 2018

Photo: Depositphotos.com

From 2020 all scientific papers resulting from publicly funded research in the Netherlands will be freely available for anyone to read. Eleven countries have signed up for the new rule which was developed by Science Europe, a group of heads of national research funding organisations and the EC European Political Strategy Centre. 

Plan S, of which the Netherlands has been one of the most vocal supporters, may effectively put scientific journals, which depend on hefty subscription fees and paywalls, out of business. 

In the Netherlands alone universities wishing to stay up to speed with the latest scientific developments are paying some €40m a year, the Volkskrant said. 

From January 2020 publicly funded research papers can only be published on open access platforms or open access journals which agree to one-off bill for editing and publishing costs. 

Prestigious journals, such as Nature and Science, already offer scientists the possibility to buy out their papers and put them on line for free. ‘This was a hybrid model that was only supposed to be temporary. But publishers are continuing to do it and we want to put an end to it,’ research funding organisation NOW spokesman Stan Gielen told the paper. 

The EU also wants to change the way science is valued and says scientific work should no longer be judged by the journal it is published in. ‘We want to stop looking at where it was published and start looking at what has been published,’ Gielen said.

Chip machinery maker ASML wins first order from China

DutchNews, May 16, 2018

Photo: ASML 

Chipmachine marker ASML of Veldhoven has won its first-ever order from China, the Financieele Dagblad reported on Wednesday. 

The paper said Chinese Semiconductor Manufacturing International has ordered a $120m extreme ultraviolet lithography machine from ASML which never identifies its customers. Citing Nikkei Asian Review the FD said this is the latest in a series of orders for the EUV machines from ASML. 

Taiwan-based TSMC has ordered eight of the EUV machines, Samsung six and Intel three while GlobalFoundries of the US has ordered one. At the presentation of first-quarter figures in April, ASML said it had booked orders for 20 of the machines. 

EUV technology allows the industry to continue to print smaller features onto ever-more complex chips. It is carried out in a vacuum using a plasma to produce EUV light using highly sophisticated mirrors instead of lenses to project the circuit patterns onto silicon wafers. 

Today’s silicon chips have features as small as 40 nanometers – less than a few hundred atoms across – and ASML says EUV lithography tools will be used to print even smaller 

Using EUV to print transistors this small is equivalent to printing an image the size of a human eye on the surface of the earth from a space shuttle . . . and then printing another image on top of the first one with perfect alignment, the company says.

The Netherlands is 4th most attractive high-tech centre says US consultant

DutchNews, March 20, 2018

NXP’s Eindhoven headquarters. Photo: Michaelkriek via Wikimedia Commons 

Commercial property services group Cushman & Wakefield said on Tuesday the Netherlands is the fourth most attractive centre for high-tech companies in its annual Manufacturing Risk Index, which looks at 42 countries worldwide. 

‘The fact that the Netherlands is so high in the list is largely due to the development of several knowledge centres and campuses where R&D goes hand-in-hand with concrete high-tech production industry,’ said Jan Verhhaegh, head of Cushman & Wakefield Industrial. 

‘A prime example of this is the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven combined with the new Brainport Industries Campus. In Leiden there is the similar Bio Science park and Delft has its High Tech Campus and Betafactory,’ he said. 

The Netherlands scored only 34th in C&W’s list of traditional production countries, which is dominated by Eastern Europe and Asia.

Palmreaders? Japan team builds second skin message display

Yahoo – AFP, Hiroshi HIYAMA, February 18, 2018

Palmreading could take on a whole new meaning thanks to a new invention from
Japan: an ultra-thin display and monitor that can be stuck directly to the body (AFP
 Photo/TORU YAMANAKA)

Tokyo (AFP) - Palmreading could take on a whole new meaning thanks to a new invention from Japan: an ultra-thin display and monitor that can be stuck directly to the body.

The band-aid-like device is just one millimetre thick and can monitor important health data as well as send and receive messages, including emojis.

Takao Someya, the University of Tokyo professor who developed the device, envisions it as a boon for medical professionals with bed-ridden or far-flung patients, as well as family living far from their relatives.

"With this, even in home-care settings, you can achieve seamless sharing of medical data with your home doctors, who then would be able to communicate back to their patients," he told AFP.

Slapped onto the palm or back of a hand, it could flash reminders to patients to take their medicine, or even allow far-away grandchildren to communicate with their grandparents.

"Place displays on your skin, and you would feel as if it is part of your body. When you have messages sent to your hand, you would feel emotional closeness to the sender," Someya said.

"I think a grandfather who receives a message saying 'I love you' from his grandchild, they would feel the warmth, too."

A man holds an ultra-thin elastic display equipped with a light emitting diode, newly 

developed by Professor Takao Someya of Tokyo University (AFP Photo/
TORU YAMANAKA)

The invention could prove particularly useful in Japan, with its rapidly ageing population, replacing the need for in-person checks by offering continuous, non-invasive monitoring of the sick and frail, Someya told AFP.

The display consists of a 16-by-24 array of micro LEDs and stretchable wiring mounted on a rubber sheet.

It also incorporates a lightweight sensor composed of a breathable "nanomesh" electrode, and a wireless communication module.

"Because this device can stretch, we now can paste a display on things with complex shapes, like skin," Someya said.

It can be placed on the human body for a week without causing skin inflammation, and is light enough that users might eventually even forget they are wearing it.

Along with medical applications, Someya hopes the device could eventually lead to wearable displays for joggers to monitor heart rates or check running routes.

He imagines labourers using the displays to consult manuals on their arms while working.

The device will be showcased at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Texas over the weekend.

Someya created the device in partnership with Japanese printing giant Dai Nippon Printing, which hopes to put it on the market within three years.

"Electronic skin" -- an ultra-thin display and monitor that can be stuck directly to the body -- could revolutionise healthcare, its Japanese creator says https://t.co/llJK698yRw pic.twitter.com/oLA3HtltMg

— AFP news agency (@AFP) February 18, 2018