Ultralow Silicon Substrate Noise Crosstalk Using Metal Faraday Cages in an SOI Technology

In mixed signal integrated circuits noise from the digital circuitry can upset the sensitive analogue circuitry. The Faraday cage structure reported here is based on the unique ground plane SOI technology developed some of the authors. The suppression of crosstalk achieved is an order of magnitude greater than that previously published for frequencies up to 10 GHz. The significance of the technology will be even greater as the operating frequency is increased. This collaborative EPSRC project was judge as tending to outstanding.

C-60 as a Faraday cage

Endohedral fullerenes have been proposed for a number of technological uses, for example, as a nanoscale switch, memory bit and as qubits for quantum computation. For these technology applications, it is important to know the ease with which the endohedral atom can be manipulated using an applied electric field. We find that the Buckminsterfullerene (C-60) acts effectively as a small Faraday cage, with only 25% of the field penetrating the interior of the molecule. Thus influencing the atom is difficult, but as a qubit the endohedral atom should be well shielded from environmental electrical noise. We also predict how the field penetration should increase with the fullerene radius. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.

Highlights from Faraday discussion 170: Challenges and opportunities of modern mechanochemistry, Montreal, Canada, 2014

The Faraday Discussion Mechanochemistry: From Functional Solids to Single Molecules which took place 21-23 May 2014 in Montreal, Canada, brought together a diversity of academic and industrial researchers, experimentalists and theoreticians, students, as well as experienced researchers, to discuss the changing face of mechanochemistry, an area with a long history and deep connections to manufacturing, that is currently undergoing vigorous renaissance and rapid expansion in a number of areas, including supramolecular chemistry, smart polymers, metal-organic frameworks, pharmaceutical materials, catalytic organic synthesis, as well as mineral and biomass processing and nanoparticle synthesis.