Memristor patent issued. (Eugene's #29).

Today, the United States PTO issued patent 8,530,880 Reconfigurable Multilayer Circuit (Strukov, et al.) where I'm the third inventor (this is the 29th US patent where I'm listed as a co-inventor). The patent covers a 3-D structure that uses memristor as one of its key building blocks. I described some of the ideas behind the patent in my earlier blog post and in our book Scalable Innovation, Chapter 10.

Source: Scalable Innovation, by Eugene Shteyn and Max Shtein. 2013. Fig 10.3.

At the time of the invention, Dmitry Strukov and Stanley Williams were scientists at HP Labs, working on the theory and practical configurations for the newly created memristor architecture. (Dmitry Strukov is now a professor at UC Santa Barbara). My role was to help them build HP's IP licensing portfolio, by using  advanced invention development methods. And it worked!

This particular invention enables creation of an integrated circuit configuration where (among other cool stuff) different sensing and processing functions can be packed into the same computer chip. What's really great about it is that, using memristor-specific properties, system configurations can be created dynamically, instead of building everything in the original chip. One of the long-term applications for the technology would be a combination of sensors, neural networks, and traditional computing on the same tiny device, which makes it capable of learning.

tags: invention, patent, semiconductors, electronics

Invention of the Day: 3D memristor circuit.

Memristor is the fourth fundamental passive electronic circuit element (the other three are resistor, capacitor, and inductor). Memristor "remembers" the amount of current that passed through it. In the video below Stan Williams explains how it works.

An HP patent application (Strukov, Williams, Shteyn WO2011014156) published earlier this year shows a 3D structure that can implement a wide array of electronic applications in a compact form factor.

 

An integrated sensor-processor

tags: invention, electronics, information, patent, example

Creativity prescription: 2 miliamps to the scalp.

An old technique for electrical stimulation of the brain is getting a new life. According to a Nature Neuroscience article

Last year a succession of volunteers sat down in a research lab in Albuquerque, New Mexico to play DARWARS Ambush!, a video game designed to train US soldiers bound for Iraq... With just seconds to react before a blast or shots rang out, most forgot about the wet sponge affixed to their right temple that was delivering a faint electric tickle.

Volunteers receiving 2 milliamps to the scalp (about one-five-hundredth the amount drawn by a 100-watt light bulb) showed twice as much improvement in the game after a short amount of training as those receiving one-twentieth the amount of current1. "They learn more quickly but they don't have a good intuitive or introspective sense about why," says Clark.
== Nature 472, 156-159 (2011) | doi:10.1038/472156a ===

The article also mentions development of Thinking Cap, a device for stimulating people's creativity. Allan Snyder, director of the Centre for the Mind at the University of Sydney in Australia, claims that in earlier experiments electrical stimulation helped people solve creative problems three times faster than in control conditions.

tags: creativity, brain, health, games, electronics, mind

Kindle circa 1977

US Patent 4159417, filed in 1977 by David Rubincam of West Hyattsville, MD, and granted by USPTO in 1979, describes an electronic book with holographic memory. Surprisingly, the book's design looks very similar to today's Kindle.

tags: book, technology, evolution, invention, innovation, information

CNet's has a list of most innovative Consumer Electronic devices of the last decade. Apple is clearly the champion, Sony and Nintendo are distant seconds.
Palm Treo is #11, which shows that first mover's advantage doesn't amount to much if the company cannot sustain it with 2nd, 3rd, and 4th generation of improved products.

tags: market, technology, electronics, innovation, efficiency, application, 4q diagram, , digital

ARM dominance

What's the most dominant company in the technology industry? Microsoft? Google? Intel? How about a 1,300-employee British company named ARM?

ARM has created the chip design that is at the center of virtually every mobile phone on the planet. About 98 percent of all mobile phones use at least one ARM-designed core on their motherboards, according to research from the analyst firm the Linley Group.
http://news.com.com/ARMed+for+the+living+room/2100-1006_3-6056729.html