Silicon Technologies (United States)

This study presents a compact 2.5D opto-electronic system-in-package solution based on a silicon interposer. This single package integrates opto-electronic chips, electrical chips, and directly soldered radio frequency (RF) interfaces (GPPO connector). This novel approach eliminates RF bond wires and enables direct connection between RF cables and optical chips, leading to a smaller form factor and improved signal integrity. Both single-ended and differential signal transmission lines are co-designed with RF connector and patterned through wafer-level fabrication. The chips and connectors are connected via flip-chip bonding and solder reflow. Optical fiber is aligned through optical vias on the silicon interposer. In the demonstration, clear eye diagrams are achieved for both VCSEL-based optical transmitter and optical receiver. The directly modulated VCSEL exhibits a 106.25 Gb/s PAM4 eye diagram under a PRBS13Q pattern, while the receiver achieves a 25.78125 Gb/s NRZ.

Physically unclonable functions (PUFs) are a fundamental component of hardware security, enabling secure and low-cost on-chip secret key generation. However, achieving near-zero bit error rates (BERs) across wide supply voltage and temperature (VT) variations often requires access to secret PUF data during stabilization, which poses security risks. This work presents an eight-transistor (8T) SRAM-based PUF that employs a secure in-cell hot-carrier injection (HCI) burn-in technique to stabilize the PUF without requiring access to PUF data and without incurring redundancy, bitcell loss, or on-chip mask data storage. An nMOS-dominant PUF data generation technique is introduced to enhance HCI effectiveness and suppress long-term aging effects, achieving near-zero BER across VT corners even after long-term operation. Fabricated in a standard 130-nm CMOS process, the proposed design achieves a BER of less than 4.16E–7 across a temperature range from –20 °C to 120 °C and a supply voltage range of 1.17–1.43 V. Long-term reliability is validated through a 320-h accelerated aging test. In addition, the design attains a compact bitcell area of 434 F2and low energy consumption of 8.52 fJ/bit.

Abstract Background Sunflower sclerotiniose, caused by the fungal pathogen Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, is a devastating disease that results in substantial yield losses in sunflower production globally, highlighting an urgent need for sustainable and eco-friendly management strategies. Bacillus velezensis has emerged as a promising biocontrol agent against various plant fungal pathogens due to its safety and effectiveness, however, the specific molecular mechanisms underlying its antagonistic effects against S. sclerotiorum remain poorly understood, which limits its widespread application in sunflower sclerotiniose control. Results A novel B. velezensis strain, SGTSH 0811, was isolated from the rhizosphere soil of healthy sunflowers, and its biocontrol potential and growth-promoting effects were systematically evaluated. The strain exhibited potent dual-function biocontrol activity: in vitro experiments demonstrated significant antifungal inhibition against S. sclerotiorum, while field trials confirmed its excellent control efficacy against sunflower sclerotiniose. Genomic analysis of SGTSH 0811 identified 12 biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs), among which 6 were annotated to possess known antimicrobial functions, providing a genetic basis for its antifungal activity. Further in vitro studies showed that the cell-free filtrate of SGTSH 0811 could disrupt the structural integrity of S. sclerotiorum, leading to plasma membrane leakage, cell wall damage, hyphal deformation, and ultimately pathogen cell death. Transcriptomic profiling of S. sclerotiorum treated with SGTSH 0811 metabolites revealed 216 differentially expressed genes, which clearly indicated that the strain induces metabolic reprogramming in the pathogen, thereby impairing its pathogenicity and stress adaptation capabilities. Additionally, antifungal lipopeptides isolated from SGTSH 0811 exhibited exceptional antifungal activity and high thermal stability, further confirming the strain’s biocontrol potential. Notably, SGTSH 0811 also exerted significant plant growth-promoting effects on sunflowers, including enhancing stress tolerance by increasing proline content and the activities of antioxidant enzymes. Conclusion The novel B. velezensis strain SGTSH 0811 possesses multi-faceted advantages, including potent antifungal activity against S. sclerotiorum, effective field control of sunflower sclerotiniose, and significant promotion of sunflower growth and stress tolerance. These findings not only present SGTSH 0811 as a promising multi-talented biocontrol candidate for sunflower sclerotiniose management but also provide novel insights into the molecular interplay between Bacillus species and S. sclerotiorum, laying a foundation for the further development and application of biocontrol agents.

This work presents a NearLink 2.0-compliant dual-band RF transceiver. Compared with traditional BT/BLE counterparts, this design achieves receiver figures of merit (FOM) of 188.7 dB in the 2.4 GHz band and 185.2 dB in the 5 GHz band, exceeding the state-of-the-art by$>4 \text{dB}$. Furthermore, it demonstrates a 30.9% 2.4GHz-transmitter-system power efficiency with exceptional EVM performance: 3.3% in$3 \text{Mb} / \mathrm{s}$BT Enhanced Data Rate mode and 3.64% in 4M-16-QAM NearLink 2.0 mode$(16 \text{Mb} / \mathrm{s})$.