MIT professor suspected of spying for China helped discover \"best material\" for semiconductor manufacturing

A team of researchers at the world-renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) announced the discovery that cubic boron arsenide has better characteristics for microchip production than silicon, calling it \"the best material for semiconductors ever found.
Notably, the team that made the discovery included a scientist of Chinese descent, previously suspected of spying for China.Image source: Muzammil Soorma/unsplash.comIn July, scientists from MIT, University of Houston and other academic institutions have proven that cubic boron arsenide conducts both heat and electricity better than the commonly used silicon in semiconductor production.
According to the study, cubic boron arsenide is 10 times more efficient conductor of heat than silicon.
It is also a better conductor for both electrons and electron holes - this is especially important for semiconductor performance.
Materials like boron arsenide, if they can be used commercially, could change the \"rules of the game\" in the industry.The research team included Gang Chen (Gang Chen), formerly head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT - for a year he was under investigation for suspicion of espionage, after which the U.S.
Department of Justice dropped the charges for insufficient evidence.
According to Fortune, during the Trump era, the Justice Department's China Initiative began investigating dozens of Chinese scientists and Chinese-American scientists, accusing them of having ties to Chinese agencies to transfer advanced technology to Beijing.It could be decades before commercial use of boron arsenide chips - if the technology is even recognized as suitable for use.
Nevertheless, the material is expected to produce better, faster and more compact chips than today - results that, according to Fotrune, the U.S.
could be deprived of because of pressure on specialists like Chen.Image source: Lucas Vasques/unsplash.comIt is known that authorities arrested the Chinese-born Chen (naturalized in the United States back in 2000), in January 2021.
He was accused, among other things, of hiding ties to Chinese agencies in grant applications from the U.S.
Department of Energy.
The prosecutors stressed the allegiance to China.
The scientific community, including scientists at MIT, criticized the arrest and wrote an open letter saying, \"They are all Gan Chen.
Under President Joe Biden, the Justice Department dropped all charges after the Department of Energy reported that no one had ever asked for information about Gang Chen's ties to China.
A month after the Chen case was dismissed, the Justice Department also terminated the China Initiative.Scientists stressed that this \"witch hunt\" discourages researchers - particularly those from China - from moving to the United States, making the United States unable to capitalize on their intellectual potential.
According to one study, the U.S.
would need to increase the staff of semiconductor manufacturing specialists by 50 percent in order to shift the center of chip production from Asia to North America.
At the same time, talent will have to be recruited from abroad, including China.

Vulnerability found in Apple M1 processors that cannot be closed by software

Scientists at the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have reported the creation of a PACMAN cyberattack technique based on a hardware vulnerability in Apple M1 processors.
The authors of the study specified that their solution could also be relevant for other chips on the Arm-architecture, but it has not yet been confirmed in practice.Image source: apple.comAttack is performed using a combination of hardware and software and can be performed remotely, without physical access to the victim's computer.
In theory, PACMAN gives the attacker access to the OS kernel, which essentially means full control over the machine.
The most annoying thing is that this hardware vulnerability cannot be fixed by any software, which means that it can remain relevant not only for existing, but also for future products.
Theoretically, Arm-chips from other manufacturers, including Qualcomm and Samsung, could also be vulnerable if they use pointer authentication.
The attack is based on the Pointer Authentication security feature, which is used to verify executable software via cryptographic signatures or Pointer Authentication Codes (PACs).
This helps protect the system from attacks involving pointer spoofing of memory addresses, which are controlled by PAC values.
The PACMAN technique allows PAC values to be \"tampered with,\" working in a similar way to the Spectre and Meltdown exploits.
Researchers emphasize that PACMAN works at various privilege levels all the way up to gaining access to the OS kernel.The researchers reported their discovery to Apple months ago.
The vulnerability has not yet been registered in the public CVE database, but the authors of the project promised to do so in the near future.
Scientists will provide all the details in their report at the International Symposium on Computer Architecture (ISCA 2022), which will open on June 18 in New York.

MIT engineers have developed a glucose energy source that can power miniature implants and sensors

Powering medical implants can be challenging, but using your own body's energy as a fuel source can keep them working for a long time.
A new tiny fuel cell design converts glucose into electricity to power implants more efficiently than any other technology known so far.AdvertisementThis silicon chip contains dozens of glucose fuel cells, which can be seen as small silver squares.
Kent DaytonDevices like pacemakers can last for decades, so they need a constant power supply, and running cables through a patient's skin is not the best solution.
Embedded batteries might be some compromise, but replacing them requires surgery.
Even with new advances in wireless charging, batteries take up too much space in devices that need to be as compact and lightweight as possible.Ideally, implants should be equipped with devices capable of generating their own energy, and what could be a more efficient energy source than our own cells? Glucose fuel cells, which convert the chemical energy of sugar in the blood into electricity, have been developed for decades, but they still have many drawbacks.
Perhaps with the new device, developed by researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Technical University of Munich, a solution to this problem can be found.The structure of the new fuel cell is almost identical to existing batteries and consists of an anode, electrolyte and cathode.
The anode reacts with the glucose in the body fluids to produce gluconic acid, releasing two protons and two electrons.
The electrolyte carries the protons away, where they mix with air and turn into harmless water molecules.
And the flow of electrons creates an electric current, which is used to power the implanted device.Typically, electrolytes in glucose fuel cells are made of polymers, but for their device the researchers used ceramics containing cerium dioxide, a strong, stable material that passes protons well and is used for the same purpose in hydrogen fuel cells.
The electrodes were made of platinum, which actively interacts with glucose.The researchers made about 150 tiny fuel cells (about 300 micrometers wide and 400 nanometers thick).
The scientists placed the cells on silicon wafers, proving that the devices could be combined with conventional semiconductor materials.
They then measured the current produced by each cell by applying a glucose solution to the wafer.The fuel cells produced a peak voltage of about 80 millivolts, corresponding to about 43 microwatts per square centimeter.
The team says this is the highest power density of any glucose-based fuel cell created to date, and more than enough to power implantable devices.In addition to the high power output, the ceramic material provides a longer life span and allows it to withstand high temperatures during sterilization.
According to the developers, \"thin-film coatings could be created on the basis of such cells, which would also wrap implants in them, thus providing them with reliable power.
\"The work was published in the Journal Advanced Materials.Sources: MIT, Journal Advanced Materials.(https://news.mit.edu/2022/glucose-fuel-cell-electricity-0512) (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/adma.202109075) The post is rewardedThis material was written by a website visitor, and it is rewarded.