Electronic retina and 3D electronics.Electronic retina and 3D electronics A conventional integrated circuit integrated circuit (IC), electronic circuit built on a semiconductor substrate, usually one of single-crystal silicon. The circuit, often called a chip, is packaged in a hermetically sealed case or a nonhermetic plastic capsule, with leads extending from it for is made up of thousands of horizontally connected electronic components embedded in the surface of a silicon wafer. Japanese scientists from seven corporations, who are participating in a 10-year government research project, are stacking these electronics-loaded wafers and integrating the layers with vertical connections in order to make unconventional circuits. Shoei Kataoka of the Sharp Corporation in Nara, Japan, reports in the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, New York, www.ieee.org) A membership organization that includes engineers, scientists and students in electronics and allied fields. ELECTROTECHNOLOGY REVIEW 1986 on his own and others' recent work on using three-dimensional integrated circuits Integrated circuits Miniature electronic circuits produced within and upon a single semiconductor crystal, usually silicon. Integrated circuits range in complexity from simple logic circuits and amplifiers, about 1/20 in. (1. for "intelligent' artificial retinas. In place of biological photoreceptors Photoreceptors Specialized nerve cells (rods and cones) in the retina that are responsible for vision. Mentioned in: Macular Degeneration such as rod and cone cells cone cell n. One of the photoreceptors in the retina of the eye that is responsible for daylight and color vision; they are densely concentrated in the fovea centralis, creating the area of greatest visual acuity. , the Japanese scientists use a layer of electronic photosensors. Instead of the the eye's bipolar, horizontal and amacrine cells, which process the information gathered by the rods and cones (Anat.) the elongated cells or elements of the sensory layer of the retina, some of which are cylindrical, others somewhat conical. See also: Rod , the electronic retina has "signal transfer gates, memories, logic gates and driver circuits,' each on its own silicon layer. From the biological retina, preprocessed signals travel to deeper areas of the visual system via ganglion cells whose axons comprise the optic nerves. The output of the electronic retina will be sent to deeper areas of a computer embedded within the same three-dimensional chip, where it can be processed further. Kataoka comments that the device might be used as "an eye and brain, in a robot.' "By 1990,' he adds, "prototypes of one-chip intelligent imaging devices will be completed.' |
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