Technology stragegy and business development at a semiconductor equipment company : a process definition and case study of a new technology

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, 2002.Includes bibliographical references (p. 96-100).by Christopher Lance Durham.S.M.M.B.A

Product strategy in response to technological innovation in the semiconductor test industry

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, 2004.Includes bibliographical references (p. 82-84).After the market boom of 2000 in the semiconductor industry changed significantly. The changes included stricter limits on capital cost spending, and the increased propensity of the industry to outsource the manufacturing of semiconductors. Thus, the semiconductor industry demanded greater cost of test economics in semiconductor test equipment. In response to the changes in the industry and the customer demands, the semiconductor test industry segmented itself into two broad strategies. Typically, the large semiconductor test equipment manufacturers employed a broad platform strategy, while the smaller semiconductor test equipment manufacturers employed a niche platform strategy. This thesis confirms the underlying changes in the semiconductor test industry by looking at the entire semiconductor value chain. It also looks at the root causes of the changes in order to determine the future effects of the changes in the semiconductor test industry. This thesis also analyzes the two distinct market strategies, developing a systematic method to compare and evaluate each strategy. In addition, it explores the intangible risks associated with the adoption of each strategy. After understanding the trends in the semiconductor test industry, this thesis also presents a unified model to discuss the future direction of the semiconductor test industry. Looking at this direction, this project develops specific recommendations for businesses to compete effectively given the impending market conditions.by Robert W. Lin.S.M

To make the world smarter and safer

Матеріали ІХ міжвузівської науково-практичної конференції лінгвістичного навчально-методичного центру кафедри іноземних мов, м. Суми, 26 березня 2015 р

Artificial Intelligence and Ambient Intelligence

This book includes a series of scientific papers published in the Special Issue on Artificial Intelligence and Ambient Intelligence at the journal Electronics MDPI. The book starts with an opinion paper on “Relations between Electronics, Artificial Intelligence and Information Society through Information Society Rules”, presenting relations between information society, electronics and artificial intelligence mainly through twenty-four IS laws. After that, the book continues with a series of technical papers that present applications of Artificial Intelligence and Ambient Intelligence in a variety of fields including affective computing, privacy and security in smart environments, and robotics. More specifically, the first part presents usage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) methods in combination with wearable devices (e.g., smartphones and wristbands) for recognizing human psychological states (e.g., emotions and cognitive load). The second part presents usage of AI methods in combination with laser sensors or Wi-Fi signals for improving security in smart buildings by identifying and counting the number of visitors. The last part presents usage of AI methods in robotics for improving robots’ ability for object gripping manipulation and perception. The language of the book is rather technical, thus the intended audience are scientists and researchers who have at least some basic knowledge in computer science

Energy-Efficient Wireless Circuits and Systems for Internet of Things

As the demand of ultra-low power (ULP) systems for internet of thing (IoT) applications has been increasing, large efforts on evolving a new computing class is actively ongoing. The evolution of the new computing class, however, faced challenges due to hard constraints on the RF systems. Significant efforts on reducing power of power-hungry wireless radios have been done. The ULP radios, however, are mostly not standard compliant which poses a challenge to wide spread adoption. Being compliant with the WiFi network protocol can maximize an ULP radio’s potential of utilization, however, this standard demands excessive power consumption of over 10mW, that is hardly compatible with in ULP systems even with heavy duty-cycling. Also, lots of efforts to minimize off-chip components in ULP IoT device have been done, however, still not enough for practical usage without a clean external reference, therefore, this limits scaling on cost and form-factor of the new computer class of IoT applications. This research is motivated by those challenges on the RF systems, and each work focuses on radio designs for IoT applications in various aspects. First, the research covers several endeavors for relieving energy constraints on RF systems by utilizing existing network protocols that eventually meets both low-active power, and widespread adoption. This includes novel approaches on 802.11 communication with articulate iterations on low-power RF systems. The research presents three prototypes as power-efficient WiFi wake-up receivers, which bridges the gap between industry standard radios and ULP IoT radios. The proposed WiFi wake-up receivers operate with low power consumption and remain compatible with the WiFi protocol by using back-channel communication. Back-channel communication embeds a signal into a WiFi compliant transmission changing the firmware in the access point, or more specifically just the data in the payload of the WiFi packet. With a specific sequence of data in the packet, the transmitter can output a signal that mimics a modulation that is more conducive for ULP receivers, such as OOK and FSK. In this work, low power mixer-first receivers, and the first fully integrated ultra-low voltage receiver are presented, that are compatible with WiFi through back-channel communication. Another main contribution of this work is in relieving the integration challenge of IoT devices by removing the need for external, or off-chip crystals and antennas. This enables a small form-factor on the order of mm3-scale, useful for medical research and ubiquitous sensing applications. A crystal-less small form factor fully integrated 60GHz transceiver with on-chip 12-channel frequency reference, and good peak gain dual-mode on-chip antenna is presented.PHDElectrical and Computer EngineeringUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/162975/1/jaeim_1.pd

The superhero afterlife subgenre and its hermeneutics for selfhood through character multiplicity

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston UniversityComic book superheroes venture frequently into the afterlife, to the extent that the recurring conventions of such tales constitute a superhero subgenre. These generic elements help ensure that the stories can be read normatively by their audience (e.g. one's soul continues separately to function after the death of the body, existence after death is its own reality and discernible from illusion). The new subgenre, however, can also be regarded as masking an alternate understanding of narrative character and suggesting an alternative model of selfhood to readers. Beginning with the genre theory work of Paul Ricoeur, Tzvetan Todorov, and Peter Coogan, this project applies their perceived linkage between generic character and audience models for selfhood to the concerns of Helene Tallon Russell, J. Hillis Miller, and Karin Kukkonen. This second set of theorists warns against narrative characters being understood as whole and unified a priori when the presumably counterfactual idea of a multiple self better matches with the goals of religious pluralism and healthful self-understanding. Through these combined sets of theoretical lenses, the project focuses on popular recent depictions of the afterlife in the word-and-image medium of top-selling comics titles such as Thor, Green Lantern, Fantastic Four, Planetary, and Promethea. The comics, with their dual sign systems and 'low-art' fringe status, provide a consideration of personal multiplicity more naturally than prose does alone. Jeffery Burton Russell and Andrew Delbanco recount modern Americans' declining investment in the afterlife, one steeped in traditionally Augustinian models of singular selfhood. As H.T. Russell champions in Irigaray and Kierkegaard: On the Construction of the Self, this model may serve more as a hindering relic than as a useful system for consideration of one's full selfhood. This superhero subgenre offers a hermeneutic for integrating multiplicity into religious practices and considerations of the afterlife

Tracking RFID

RFID-Radio Frequency Identification-is a powerful enabling technology with a wide range of potential applications. Its proponents initially overhyped its capabilities and business case: RFID deployment is proceeding along a much slower and less predictable trajectory than was initially thought. Nonetheless, in the end it is plausible that we will find ourselves moving in the direction of a world with pervasive RFID: a world in which objects\u27 wireless self-identification will become much more nearly routine, and networked devices will routinely collect and process the resulting information. RFID-equipped goods and documents present privacy threats: they may reveal information about themselves, and hence about the people carrying them, wirelessly to people whom the subjects might not have chosen to inform. That information leakage follows individuals, and reveals how they move through space. Not only does the profile that RFID technology helps construct contain information about where the subject is and has been, but RFID signifiers travel with the subject in the physical world, conveying information to devices that otherwise would not recognize it and that can take actions based on that information. RFID implementations, thus, can present three related privacy threats, which this article categorizes as surveillance, profiling, and action. RFID privacy consequences will differ in different implementations. It would be a mistake to conclude that an RFID implementation will pose no meaningful privacy threat because a tag does not directly store personally identifiable information, instead containing only a pointer to information contained in a separate database. Aside from any privacy threats presented by the database proprietor, privacy threats from third parties will depend on the extent to which those third parties can buy, barter, or otherwise gain database access. Where a tag neither points to nor carries personal identifying information, the extent of the privacy threat will depend in part on the degree to which data collectors will be able to link tag numbers with personally identifying information. Yet as profiling accelerates in the modem world, aided by the automatic, networked collection of information, information compiled by one data collector will increasingly be available to others as well; linking persistent identifiers to personally identifying information may turn out to be easy. Nor are sophisticated access controls and other cryptographic protections a complete answer to RFID privacy threats. The cost of those protections will make them impractical for many applications, though, and even with more sophisticated technology, security problems will remain. This article suggests appropriate government and regulatory responses to two important categories of RFID implementation. It concludes with a way of looking at, and an agenda for further research on, wireless identification technology more generally