Microchip Technology Inc., a leading provider of microcontroller and analog semiconductors, announced that it has been recognized by the following national business and electronics organizations for product and workplace leadership.

Engineers and applied physicists from Harvard University have demonstrated the first room-temperature electrically-pumped semiconductor source of coherent Terahertz (THz) radiation, also known as T-rays. The breakthrough in laser technology, based upon commercially available nanotechnology, has the potential to become a standard Terahertz source to support applications ranging from security screening to chemical sensing.

Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE: TXN) announced establishment of the Engibous Prize, $150,000 in annual awards to the engineering students who design the most innovative electronics systems using analog semiconductors. The prize is the largest of its kind and will be awarded in three regions of the world -- Asia, Europe and North America.

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have combined two tiny but powerful NIST inventions on a single microchip, a cryogenic sensor and a microrefrigerator. The combination offers the possibility of cheaper, simpler and faster precision analysis of materials such as semiconductors and stardust.

Research results from University of Maryland physicists show that graphene, a new material that combines aspects of semiconductors and metals, could be a leading candidate to replace silicon in applications ranging from high-speed computer chips to biochemical sensors.

University of Maryland physicists have shown that in graphene the intrinsic limit to the mobility, a measure of how well a material conducts electricity, is higher than any other known material at room temperature. Graphene, a single-atom-thick sheet of graphite, is a new material which combines aspects of semiconductors and metals.

An international science team from Penn State University in the United States and the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom has developed a process for growing a single-crystal semiconductor inside the tunnel of a hollow optical fiber.

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Polyset Company have developed a new inexpensive, quick-drying polymer that could lead to dramatic cost savings and efficiency gains in semiconductor manufacturing and computer chip packaging.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Toshiba Corporation announced that they have entered into a joint development agreement on 32nm bulk complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process technology.

ASML Holding NV (ASML) and Carl Zeiss SMT (Zeiss) announce that each has signed an agreement with Canon Inc. (Canon) for the global cross-license of patents in their respective fields of semiconductor lithography and optical components, used to manufacture integrated circuits, or chips.

Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have made the first direct measurements of the infinitesimal expansion and collapse of thin polymer films used in the manufacture of advanced semiconductor devices.

Nearly a century ago, Dutch physicist Kamerlingh Onnes discovered that some metals transform into perfect electrical conductors when cooled to temperatures near absolute zero. Once started, their currents of electrons can flow perpetually.