Magnetic sensors based on tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) effect exhibit high sensitivity, small size, and low power consumption. They have gained a lot of attention and have potential applications in various domains. This study first introduces the development history and basic principles of TMR sensors. Then, a comprehensive description of TMR sensors linearization and Wheatstone bridge configuration is presented. Two key performance parameters, the field sensitivity and noise mechanisms, are considered. Finally, the emerging applications of TMR sensors are discussed.

Thanks to the emerging 3D integration technology, The multiprocessor system on chips (MPSoCs) can now integrate more IP cores on chip with improved energy efficiency. However, several severe challenges also rise up for 3D ICs due to the die-stacking architecture. Among them, power supply noise becomes a big concern. In the paper, we investigate power supply noise (PSN) interactions among different cores and tiers and show that PSN variations largely depend on task assignments. On the other hand, high integration density incurs a severe thermal issue on 3D ICs. In the paper, we propose a novel task scheduling framework considering both the PSN and the thermal issue. It mainly consists of three parts. First, we extract current stimuli of running tasks by analyzing their power traces derived from architecture level simulations. Second, we develop an efficient power delivery network (PDN) solver to evaluate PSN magnitudes efficiently. Third, we propose a heuristic algorithm to solve the formulated task scheduling problem. Compared with the state-of-the-art task assignment algorithm, the proposed method can reduce PSN by 12% on a 2 × 2 × 2 3D MPSoCs and by 14% on a 3 × 3 × 3 3D MPSoCs. The end-to-end task execution time also improves as much as 5.5% and 7.8% respectively due to the suppressed PSN.

Two-dimensional (2D) materials and their heterostructures, with wafer-scale synthesis methods and fascinating properties, have attracted significant interest and triggered revolutions in corresponding device applications. However, facile methods to realize accurate, intelligent, and large-area characterizations of these 2D nanostructures are still highly desired. Herein, we report the successful application of machine-learning strategy in the optical identification of 2D nanostructures. The machine-learning optical identification (MOI) method endows optical microscopy with intelligent insight into the characteristic color information of 2D nanostructures in the optical photograph. The experimental results indicate that the MOI method enables accurate, intelligent, and large-area characterizations of graphene, molybdenum disulfide, and their heterostructures, including identifications of the thickness, existence of impurities, and even stacking order. With the convergence of artificial intelligence and nanoscience, this intelligent identification method can certainly promote fundamental research and wafer-scale device applications of 2D nanostructures.