Evaluation Engineering - 5

Application Suite (PAS),
to support wavelength
repeatability of ±1.5 pm
at two-way sweeps up to
200 nm/s within 1,240nm
to 1,650nm to ensure accuracy and repeatability
from O-band to L-band;
* Keysight's N4373E 67GHz lightwave component analyzer, which
delivers the necessary
bandwidth for both optical receiver testing
and optical transmitter
testing with guaranteed
specifications for electro-optical S-parameter
measurements for device
traceability;
* Keysig ht 's Pat hWave
software platform, which
provides a consistent
user experience as well as
common data formats and
control interfaces; and
* FormFactor's SiPh software that enables automated calibrations and
alignments and simplif ies integ ration w ith
Keysight's PathWave software platform, as well as
optical instrumentation,
to ensure ease of use.
Silicon photonics also delivers benefits for industrial
segments such as intra-datacenter communication and
datacenter interconnects
(DCI), telecom, 5G and automotive connectivity, highperformance computing, light
detection and ranging (lidar),
as well as sensing and medical
applications.

Scientists discover
'ripple' in flexible material
that could improve
electronic properties
Two-dimensional materials-
those either only an atom or
layer thick-display a number
of interesting properties and

Scanning tunneling microscopy topography of a rippled MoS2 single layer as a
result of strain relaxation (bottom). The corresponding dI/dV map at the valence
band edge (middle), and the strain map (top) are overlaid.
Argonne National Laboratory

could form the foundation for
a range of new devices. One of
these materials, molybdenum
disulfide (MoS2), has shown an
unusual flexibility that could
make it attractive as a semiconducting component of
bendable electronics.
In a new study from the
U.S. Department of Energy's
Argonne National Laboratory
and Temple University, scientists have discovered an
intriguing new behavior in
MoS2 at the atomic level as it
is stretched and strained, like
it would be in an actual flexible device.
After straining a film of the
material grown on graphite,
the researchers noticed that
the formerly two-dimensional
sheet of MoS2 would slip, relaxing the strain. This, in turn,
formed a rippled pattern at a
larger scale that translated
into an altered electronic
structure within the individual atoms.
"You can think of it like
stretching a rubber band,"
said Argonne nanoscientist
Saw-Wai Hla, an author of
the study. "After you release
the tension, the rubber band
snaps back together even
more tightly than its initial
position."
The ripple pattern remains
after the strain is removed

and leaves the material looking like a rug that has been
bunched up as the material
loses its total two-dimensionality. Introducing the
ripple through strain could be
either deleterious or helpful to
the functioning of an actual
flexible electronic device, according to Hla, who explained
that while an unintentional
strain relaxation would likely
impair the material, a directed
strain response could achieve
precisely targeted electronic
behavior in MoS2.
A paper based on the study,
"The effects of atomic-scale
strain relaxation on the electronic properties of monolayer
MoS2," appeared in the July 3
issue of ACS Nano. Additional
collaborators on the study
included Argonne's Yuan
Zhang and Temple's Fabrizio
Bobba, Xiaoxing Xi, and Maria
Iavarone.

AR enters agreement with
NEXIO in North America
for EMC solutions
Amplifier Research (AR) announced that it has added a
significant component to its
offerings for the EMC market. The company said it has
been appointed an exclusive
distributor of NEXIO products and services when incorporated as part of a turnkey

solution. With the addition of
this suite of NEXIO products,
AR said, it is now a 1-stop total solutions provider for the
electromagnetic compatibility
testing market.
As a specialist in EMC and
RF testing, NEXIO serves
laboratories worldwide in the
commercial, automotive, and
aerospace and defense market
sectors with a range of test automation software, EMC test
engineering, and simulationanalysis services.
"The arrangement with AR
represents the first step to
global collaboration. NEXIO is
excited to participate in an al-

liance consisting of industryleading companies working
together to deliver optimal
customer solutions," explained
Frederic Amoros-Routie, president of NEXIO.

Cadence, NI enter
into strategic alliance
agreement
National Instruments on Dec.
2 announced a "system innovation strategic alliance to create
an integrated design-to-test
flow, leveraging reusable data
and test IP from electronics
design and verification to
validation and production
test for electronic system and
semiconductor companies."
The expressed intent in a
press release from National
Instruments is "to provide customers with a seamless flow
from pre-silicon development
to post-silicon test, leveraging
design, verification, and analysis data between Cadence and
NI technologies."

JANUARY 2020 EVALUATIONENGINEERING.COM

5
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Evaluation Engineering

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