Category Archives: Cleantech, Applied
President Obama Visits Applied Materials
President Obama rode Air Force One into Austin, Texas, to shine a spotlight on the importance of U.S. manufacturing and middle class jobs and get an up-close look at what Applied Materials has been able to do. Approximately 1,200 employees, business leaders, elected officials and community partners gathered in a former clean room, where Mike [...]
The Era of Nanoscale Chip Wiring
This TEM image taken at Applied Materials’ Maydan Technology Center shows a series of 20nm-wide trenches in cross section. These tiny structures – about 1/5000th of the diameter of an average human hair – are similar to the interconnects used to wire the billions of transistors in next-generation microchips. You can see that each trench [...]
Energy Science, Innovation and the Future of America
What does it really mean to change the game in energy technologies? Not to change a single game – as with a last-second shot at the buzzer, a Hail Mary pass, or a diving catch to close out the inning – but to transform the entire game, with new rules, new technologies, and often-unexpected new [...]
FUTUREWATCH: What Comes After MEMS?
Over the last 50 years computing power has migrated from the mainframe, to the desktop, to the laptop, and now, with almost-equivalent computing capability, onto mobile devices, tablets, and smart phones. And tomorrow? If you were in Scottsdale, AZ in November for the now semi-annual MEMS Executive Congress, you would have heard about the latest [...]
How Student Competitions Increase Innovation
It s a thrill to experience the energy, creativity, and enthusiasm of young people from around the world as they apply their curiosity and talents to address significant global challenges. There are budding scientists and innovators all around us and I have been fortunate to recently visit with some of the best. On an October [...]
The Future of Epitaxy Technology
Epitaxy is one of the fundamental processes used to make all kinds of semiconductor devices: LEDs, power electronics and, of course, microchips. The term epitaxy means, roughly speaking, “adding order” and that’s exactly what it does. Hot gases react on a surface to “grow” a layer that precisely matches the underlying crystal structure. Epitaxy was [...]
Designing for Impact
This was my third year attending the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting (CGI). It seems to get better every year. Between the world leaders, superstar nonprofit organizations, social entrepreneurs, foundations and corporations, former President Clinton has created a movement that is changing the world in sustainable ways. At my first meeting, I was learning about [...]
In Focus: The Collaborative Economy
Can sharing goods and services help save the planet? That was one of a number of provocative questions posed by Van Jones in a Master class offered by the Presidio Graduate School. You may recall Jones as the passionate human rights and green jobs proponent who served briefly in the Obama Administration. The problem statement [...]
Profiting from Solar Printing Technologies
Solar installations are rocketing worldwide as solar electricity becomes cheaper than electricity from fossil fuels – it’s already happened in 105 countries. This is the tipping point where economics takes over from altruism and solar PVbecomes a serious part of the global energy mix. The steady drop in cost-per-watt is great news for the end [...]