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High renewable energy penetration increases system flexibility requirements, making zone-level assessment essential for long-term system planning. Many previous studies relied on single-metric approaches, capturing only specific aspects of flexibility. More recent work introduced multiple indicators but still assumed fixed reserve margins that fail to reflect the actual flexibility requirements. This study assesses flexibility using four key performance indicators (KPIs): (1) Net Load Ramp Requirement (NLRR), the maximum generation adjustment rate needed to balance net load changes; (2) Insufficient Ramping Resource Expectation (IRRE), the probability that ramping demand exceeds available capacity; (3) Flexibility Reserve Margin (FRM), excess flexible capacity beyond worst-case renewable variability; and (4) Interconnection Flexibility Index (IFI), the extent to which renewable fluctuations can be balanced through interconnection-based cross-border exchanges. The assessment is applied to evaluate the flexibility status for one of the bidding zones of Sweden, SE3, using hourly data of 2024. Results indicated high flexibility adequacy, with limited ramping shortages and strong interconnection support. For example, the maximum NLRR reached 340 MW/h in winter, indicating significant upward flexibility demand. IRRE was 0.03% or 3 hours/year, implying ramp-scarcity occurs infrequently. The minimum FRM was 287%, showing that SE3 had strong flexibility support, mainly from interconnections (78%) and hydropower, and IFI reached 501% for upward ramping (import increases) and 424% for downward ramping (import decreases), indicating strong inter-zonal buffering. These KPIs-based results suggest that SE3 maintained high operational flexibility in 2024, mainly supported by cross-border interconnections, providing a basis for future flexibility risk assessment under extreme conditions.

We propose a unifying framework for four key domains in quantum technology–communication/computation, integrated interconnects, imaging/packaging, and metrology/standards–based on global phase locking (GPL) and multi-scale resonance mapping (MSRM). This approach shifts the focus from state replication to network-wide phase coherence, offering experimentally verifiable witnesses and scalable design principles.

Cu-cored solder interconnects have been demonstrated to increase the performance of interconnect structures, while the quantitative understanding of the effect of the Cu-cored structure on microstructure evolution and atomic migration in solder interconnects is still limited. In this work, the effect of the Cu-cored structure on phase migration and segregation behavior of Sn-58Bi solder interconnects under electric current stressing is quantitatively studied using a developed phase field model. Severe phase segregation and redistribution of Bi-rich phase are observed in the Cu-cored Sn-58Bi interconnects due to the more pronounced current crowding effect near the Cu core periphery. The average current density and temperature gradient in Sn-rich phase and Bi-rich phase decrease with an increase in the diameter of the Cu core. The temperature gradient caused by Joule heating is significantly reduced owing to the presence of the Cu core. Embedding of the Cu core in the solder matrix could weaken the directional diffusion flux of Bi atoms, so that the enrichment and segregation of the Bi phase towards the anode side are significantly reduced. Furthermore, the voltage across the solder interconnects is correspondingly changed due to the phase migration and redistribution.

A comparative radio‐frequency (RF) and crosstalk analysis is performed on carbon nano‐interconnects based on an efficient π‐type equivalent single‐conductor model of bundled multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and stacked multilayer graphene nanoribbons (MLGNRs). Simulation results are extracted using HSPICE for global‐level nano‐interconnects at the 14‐nm node. RF performance is evaluated in terms of skin depth and a 3‐dB bandwidth, while crosstalk performance is analysed in terms of crosstalk‐induced delay and average power consumption. The skin‐depth results indicate significant improvements in skin‐depth degradation at higher frequencies for AsF5‐doped zig‐zag MLGNRs compared with that of Cu, nanotubes and MWCNTs. The transfer gain results explicitly demonstrate that AsF5‐doped MLGNRs exhibit excellent RF behaviour, showing 10‐ and 20‐fold improvements over MWCNTs and copper (Cu), respectively. Further, the 3‐dB bandwidth calculations for AsF5‐doped MLGNRs suggest 18.6‐ and 9.7‐fold enhancement compared with Cu and MWCNTs at 1000 μm. Significant reductions are obtained in crosstalk‐induced out‐of‐phase delays for AsF5‐doped MLGNRs—their delay values were 84.7% and 60.24% less than those for Cu and MWCNTs. Further, AsF5‐doped MLGNRs present the most optimal energy‐delay product results, with values representing 98.6% and 99.6% improvements over their Cu and MWCNT counterparts at a global length of 1000 µm.

Recent development in heterogeneous integration for high-performance chips (HPC) demands higher power, which induces a higher level of current density per through-silicon via (TSV) and redistribution layer (RDL) interconnects. Change in electrical and thermomechanical properties during long-term current stressing can result in negative impact on signal integrity and reliability of the device. In this study, test samples of Si interposers containing TSVs with a multilayered RDL structure at the top were tested under current densities ranging from 1 × 105 A/cm2 to 2.5 × 105 A/cm2 at 200°C in vacuum. Microstructural changes were observed in the current-carrying TSVs, and the circuit resistance increased sharply during the test. This increase was associated with several damage modes, including migration of Sn and Ag from solder, and Ni from under-bump metallization, driven by electromigration, leading to alloying and formation of reaction products. A volume increase associated with phase transformations and electromigration-induced void formation defects are identified under highly accelerated testing conditions, which potentially affect the long-term reliability of TSV-containing structures and need to be considered in design and manufacturing protocols for devices and packages.

The recent discoveries of two-dimensional (2D) magnets 1 – 6 and their stacking into van der Waals structures 7 – 11 have expanded the horizon of 2D phenomena. One exciting application is to exploit coherent magnons 12 as energy-efficient information carriers in spintronics and magnonics 13 , 14 or as interconnects in hybrid quantum systems 15 – 17 . A particular opportunity arises when a 2D magnet is also a semiconductor, as reported recently for CrSBr (refs. 18 – 20 ) and NiPS 3 (refs. 21 – 23 ) that feature both tightly bound excitons with a large oscillator strength and potentially long-lived coherent magnons owing to the bandgap and spatial confinement. Although magnons and excitons are energetically mismatched by orders of magnitude, their coupling can lead to efficient optical access to spin information. Here we report strong magnon–exciton coupling in the 2D A-type antiferromagnetic semiconductor CrSBr. Coherent magnons launched by above-gap excitation modulate the exciton energies. Time-resolved exciton sensing reveals magnons that can coherently travel beyond seven micrometres, with a coherence time of above five nanoseconds. We observe these exciton-coupled coherent magnons in both even and odd numbers of layers, with and without compensated magnetization, down to the bilayer limit. Given the versatility of van der Waals heterostructures, these coherent 2D magnons may be a basis for optically accessible spintronics, magnonics and quantum interconnects. Excitons in the electronvolts range are found to couple strongly to coherent magnons in hundreds of microelectronvolts in an atomically thin two-dimensional antiferromagnetic semiconductor.

Neuroscience research has exploded, with more than fifty thousand neuroscientists applying increasingly advanced methods. A mountain of new facts and mechanisms has emerged. And yet a principled framework to organize this knowledge has been missing. In this book, Peter Sterling and Simon Laughlin, two leading neuroscientists, strive to fill this gap, outlining a set of organizing principles to explain the whys of neural design that allow the brain to compute so efficiently. Setting out to \"reverse engineer\" the brain -- disassembling it to understand it -- Sterling and Laughlin first consider why an animal should need a brain, tracing computational abilities from bacterium to protozoan to worm. They examine bigger brains and the advantages of \"anticipatory regulation\"; identify constraints on neural design and the need to \"nanofy\"; and demonstrate the routes to efficiency in an integrated molecular system, phototransduction. They show that the principles of neural design at finer scales and lower levels apply at larger scales and higher levels; describe neural wiring efficiency; and discuss learning as a principle of biological design that includes \"save only what is needed.\"Sterling and Laughlin avoid speculation about how the brainmightwork and endeavor to make sense of what is already known. Their distinctive contribution is to gather a coherent set of basic rules and exemplify them across spatial and functional scales.

Exploiting the excellent electronic properties of two-dimensional (2D) materials to fabricate advanced electronic circuits is a major goal for the semiconductor industry 1 , 2 . However, most studies in this field have been limited to the fabrication and characterization of isolated large (more than 1 µm 2 ) devices on unfunctional SiO 2 –Si substrates. Some studies have integrated monolayer graphene on silicon microchips as a large-area (more than 500 µm 2 ) interconnection 3 and as a channel of large transistors (roughly 16.5 µm 2 ) (refs.  4 , 5 ), but in all cases the integration density was low, no computation was demonstrated and manipulating monolayer 2D materials was challenging because native pinholes and cracks during transfer increase variability and reduce yield. Here, we present the fabrication of high-integration-density 2D–CMOS hybrid microchips for memristive applications—CMOS stands for complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor. We transfer a sheet of multilayer hexagonal boron nitride onto the back-end-of-line interconnections of silicon microchips containing CMOS transistors of the 180 nm node, and finalize the circuits by patterning the top electrodes and interconnections. The CMOS transistors provide outstanding control over the currents across the hexagonal boron nitride memristors, which allows us to achieve endurances of roughly 5 million cycles in memristors as small as 0.053 µm 2 . We demonstrate in-memory computation by constructing logic gates, and measure spike-timing dependent plasticity signals that are suitable for the implementation of spiking neural networks. The high performance and the relatively-high technology readiness level achieved represent a notable advance towards the integration of 2D materials in microelectronic products and memristive applications. High-integration-density 2D–CMOS hybrid microchips for memristive applications are made demonstrating in-memory computation and electrical response suitable for the implementation of spiking neural networks representing an advance towards integration of 2D materials in microelectronic products and memristive applications.

Conductive polymer composites (CPCs) with the ability to maintain high conductivity whilst remaining flexible at various operating temperatures and conditions have gained interest as potential materials for electronic interconnect applications. The ability of a polymer matrix to conduct electricity is mainly dependent on the conductive filler loadings as well as the formation of network paths within the CPCs. The main aim of this research work was to establish and understand the correlation between the network structure formation and mechanical properties of linear low-density polyethylene/copper (LLDPE/Cu) and liquid silicone rubber/copper (LSR/Cu) CPCs. Various techniques such as electron microscopy, thermal studies, four-point probe, and tensile testing were employed in this study. Furthermore, selected samples were characterized and tested using synchrotron micro-x-ray fluorescence (XRF) technique and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA). It was found that the electrical conductivity of the CPCs increased with increasing filler loadings. Addition of Cu filler had a marginal effect on the tensile strength of both LLDPE/Cu and LSR/Cu CPCs. Nevertheless, it was found that the elongation at break for LLDPE/Cu consistently increased with the addition of Cu whereas, for LSR/Cu samples, the elongation at break decreased with the addition of Cu at various loadings. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) micrographs obtained show that the particles of Cu were closer to one another at higher filler loadings. The data obtained revealed the potential for utilizing CPCs as flexible interconnects suitable for advanced electronic applications.

The complexity of current social and environmental grand challenges generates many conflicts and tensions at the individual, organization and/or systems levels. Paradox theory has emerged as a promising way to approach such a complexity of corporate sustainability going beyond the instrumental business-case perspective and achieving superior sustainability performance. However, the fuzziness in the empirical use of the concept of “paradox” and the absence of a systems perspective limits its potential. In this paper, we perform a systematic review and content analysis of the empirical literature related to paradox and sustainability, offering a useful guide for researchers who intend to adopt the concept of “paradox” empirically. Our analysis provides a comprehensive account of the uses of the construct - which allows the categorization of the literature into three distinct research streams: 1) paradoxical tensions, 2) paradoxical frame/thinking, and 3) paradoxical actions/strategies - and a comprehensive overview of the findings that emerge in each of the three. Further, by adopting a system perspective, we propose a theoretical framework that considers possible interconnections across the identified paradoxical meanings and different levels of analysis (individual, organizational, systems) and discuss key research gaps emerging. Finally, we reflect on the role a clear notion of paradox can have in supporting business ethics scholars in developing a more “immanent” evaluation of corporate sustainability, overcoming the current instrumental view.