Uniken

Creator
University of New South Wales. Public Affairs Unit
Call Number
Nf 378.944 UNI
Created/Published
Kensington, N.S.W. : University of New South Wales, [1975]-2015
Issue
1991, no. 15 (27 Sept., 1991)
Images
12
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Contents

Uniken THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES 1
Chip reaches back to the vacuum tube 1 , 2
A fair go for casual academic staff 2
Student housing to proceed – light rail corridor reprieve 1 , 4
First professorial woman in chemical engineering 2
New course in survey design & data analysis 2
Is our brain large enough to comprehend our predicament? 3
Leading the way to help Cambodia 3
Displays and training just a phone call away 4
Aboriginal studies in the 90s 4
How an underground movement struck gold 5
Book sets its sights to help Africans 5
Reconciling economics and the environment 6
Paging the Department of English... 6
How technology acquires a masculine identity 6
Aborigines and the law 7
ARC grant for major Australian literature 7
UNSW signs agreement with three Taiwan universities 7
Baldessin exhibition 8
Let's talk about death 8
Uni Union eases the squeeze 8
Medical students – test your knowledge before the exams! 8
Street children and the need for legal reform 8
United Kingdom awards 8
Managers may hamper export growth 8
Library hours October Long Weekend 8
Reporting theft 8
October graduation speakers 8
UNSW science scholarships 8
Long service recognised 9
Seminar to examine Cambodia watching 9
Ventura Publisher Windows (advanced) course 9
Women’s Group 9
Roundup World’s oldest higher education student dies 9
Vacation scholarships 9
500 years after Columbus – UNSW tour to Latin America 9
Silicon graphics presentations 9
No change in bus timetable 9
ANZAAS – renewal and reproduction 9
Phi Delta Kappa election 9
Diary 28 September – 13 October 10
Advertising 10
Mudrooroo to talk on new play 11
Resident Deputy Head, Basser College 11
Resident tutors for New College 11
Even computational musicology can be fun 11
sport ADFA retains Monaro Cup 12
Mixed results for football teams 12
Dive, drive and jive 12
Success for Fourths 12
Button Day collectors needed 12
RACI (NSW Branch) and UNSW Chemical Society joint meeting 12
Feedback Commitment to improved transport 12
Littering endemic at universities 12

Text

Uniken  

THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES  

No. 315 (No. 15 of 1991)  

Published fortnightly by the News Service  

Registered by Australia Post Publication No. NBF 4388  

27 September 1991  

Chip reaches  

back to the  

vacuum tube  

Before glasnost took some  

of the excitement out of  

Soviet-American rivalry, each  

side displayed an almost  

paranoid interest in the  

other’s technology.  

One source of great interest to  

the Americans was provided by the  

trickle of Soviet military aircraft  

which accompanied pilots defect-  

ing westwards. The latest models of  

these aircraft were usually picked  

over very carefully before they  

were returned.  

Among the several interesting  

items the Americans came across  

was computer chip in which the  

usual metal oxide semiconductor  

(MOS) combination had been  

replaced by vacuum devices having  

the same principles as vacuum  

tubes but integrated into silicon  

chips in the same way that modem  

integrated circuits are produced.  

This form of vacuum chip  

technology had been looked at by  

Western researchers and had been  

found wanting in several respects,  

but it did offer two advantages: it  

was ‘radiation hard’, i.e. could  

retain its integrity in high radiation  

environments such as cosmic rays  

encountered in high altitude flight  

(or during nuclear war), and it  

could operate at much higher  

voltages than the usual western  

microchip.  

While high voltages are not  

desirable in normal computer chips,  

they have many applications in  

other areas, such as TV scanning  

controllers and the output stages of  

other electrostatic devices.  

Now, Mr Sik-On Kong, PhD  

student in UNSW’s Department of  

Electronics in the School of Elec-  

trical Engineering, is attempting to  

turn the technology again by re-  

substituting silicon dioxide for the  

Soviets’ vacuum while retaining  

the ability to operate his chip at  

high voltages.  

Mr Kong’s supervisor is Dr  

Chee Yee Kwok, Senior Lecturer  

in the Department of Electronics  

within UNSW’s Faculty of Engi-  

neering.  

Realising the significance of  

this new technology, Mr Kong, or  

‘Stephen’ to his colleagues, con-  

tacted Unisearch Ltd, where Mr  

David Hogg, Unisearch’s Manager  

of Intellectual Property, has  

assisted him in filing patent  

application for his new chip design.  

Unisearch is UNSW’s com-  

mercial research and development  

company, with responsibility for,  

among other things, acquiring  

patents for UNSW researchers such  

as Stephen.  

Stephen said that, with the  

inspiration of the oxide studies  

done by Dr Kwok, he has produced  

planar design for his quasi-  

vacuum transistors so they can be  

produced by the usual microchip  

technology, which is available in  

the School of Electrical Engineer-  

ing’s Integrated Circuit Laboratory.  

Stephen has called his new  

technology the ‘quasi-vacuum tran-  

sistor’ because, although the vac-  

uum has been replaced by silicon  

dioxide, the electronic mechanism  

employed is similar in some ways  

to that which occurs in the Soviet  

chips, and to what occurred in the  

old vacuum tubes.  

Like the old vacuum tubes,  

Stephen’s design makes use of the  

‘tunnelling current’, first described  

by Fowler and Nordheim in 1928,  

by which electrons can ‘tunnel’  

through an insulator if sufficient  

voltage is applied.  

Much of the novelty of  

Stephen’s design lies in his use of  

another of the many oddities of  

quantum mechanics, the ‘sharp  

point effect’, by which the ability  

of the electrons to tunnel through  

the silicon dioxide insulator can be  

influenced by the sharpness of the  

point of the conducting cathode  

where it pokes into the insulator.  

“Unfortunately,” Stephen said,  

“it is very difficult to control the  

‘sharpness’ of these points repro-  

ducibly to create the right condi-  

tions for the current to flow at  

given voltage.  

“My idea is to produce mil-  

lions of these sharp points. Even  

though almost all of them will have  

the wrong dimensions, will have  

so many that there will still be  

enough to provide the current  

need to operate the chip.  

“Another control am using is  

the ‘work function’. The work  

function of conductor is the  

amount of energy which must be  

imparted to an electron to allow it  

to escape from the surface of the  

conductor  

“Different metals have differ-  

ent work functions, so it is possible  

to ‘tune’ the required voltage by  

selecting the metal with the appro-  

priate work function.  

“The alkali metals have the  

lowest work functions, which are  

what we need, but unfortunately the  

alkalis oxidise easily and are  

unusable for my purpose. Very  

little work has been done on find-  

ing the best compromise between  

low work functions and more stable  

metals, so this will take up lot of  

my research.”  

Stephen claimed that his quasi-  

vacuum transistor technology had  

several advantages over the stan-  

dard MOS technology, including:  

• higher radiation resistance at  

similar switching speed  

• simpler process, therefore  

cheaper  

• output impedance can be high,  

allowing high voltage gain  

• operating voltage up to 10,000  

volts is possible, permitting use as  

an electrostatic output stage.  

With these and other advan-  

tages offered by his technology,  

Stephen has also designed tune-  

able CCD image sensor, able to  

Continued on page  

Student housing to proceed  

light rail corridor reprieve  

University proposal to  

construct accommodation for  

90 Students on the controver-  

sial Prince-Cowper Street site  

at Randwick has been de-  

ferred and annroval will he  

cmioht to nrnreeH with the  

sought to proceed with the  

student accommodatton pro-  

ject on University-owned  

site at nearby Mulwarree  

Avenue and the Barker Street  

site on campus.  

The University has approval to  

borrow funds for the construction  

of an initial 350 beds on university  

owned sites. Along with other  

initiatives being planned the  

University is still aiming for its  

stage target of 1,000 beds.  

The decision to defer building  

on the Prince-Cowper Street site  

was foreshadowed by the Manager  

tFe ro ert and Works Depart-  

ncn !’ Mr Laurie Lardner, at  

lunchtime meeting of concerned  

311(1 stu dcnts convened by the  

University Staff Association on 18  

September.  

The former tram corridor,  

which the University purchased in  

1966, is part of scheme proposed  

hy the Light Rail Association to  

provide light rail system of trans-  

OlllO Sydney’s south-eastern sub-  

urbs. Supporters of the light rail  

scheme have been protesting  

against the University decision to  

build on the corridor and their  

concern led to the meeting spon-  

sored by the Staff Association.  

Mr Lardner told the meeting  

that instead of proceeding with the  

Prince-Cowper Street development,  

the University would seek dcvel-  

opment approval from the Rand-  

wick Municipal Council to con-  

struct accommodation for students  

on the Mulwarree Avenue site  

“If the Mulwarree develop-  

ment goes ahead, the Prince-  

Cowpcr Street site would remain  

available as possible light rail  

corridor,” he said.  

But he cautioned that gaining  

development approval for the  

Mulwarree Avenue site could en-  

counter difficulties similar to those  

encountered in gaining develop-  

ment approval for the Prince-  

Continued on page  

News from UNSW's campuses at Kensington; the University College, ADFA; St George, Oatley; College of Fine Arts, Paddington  

Some of the 70 people who attended lunchtime meeting convened by  

the Staff Association to hear about the light rail scheme and the  

University's plans for the Prince-Cowper Street site.  

Stephen prepares to coat silicon chip with another layer of silicon one tenth of micron thick.  

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Citation options:
Work identifier

http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-253124914

APA citation

University of New South Wales. Public Affairs Unit & University of New South Wales, issuing body. (1975). Uniken Retrieved June 11, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-253124914

MLA citation

University of New South Wales. Public Affairs Unit and University of New South Wales, issuing body. Uniken Kensington, N.S.W: University of New South Wales, 1975. Web. 11 June 2025 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-253124914>

Harvard/Australian citation

University of New South Wales. Public Affairs Unit & University of New South Wales, issuing body. 1975, Uniken University of New South Wales, Kensington, N.S.W viewed 11 June 2025 http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-253124914

Wikipedia citation

{{Citation
  | author1=University of New South Wales. Public Affairs Unit.
  | author2=University of New South Wales, issuing body.
  | title=Uniken.
  | year=1975
  | section=volumes : illustrations ; 30-43 cm.
  | issn=0312-7877
  | issue=1991, no. 15 (27 Sept., 1991)
  | location=Kensington, N.S.W
  | publisher=University of New South Wales
  | url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-253124914
  | id=nla.obj-253124914
  | access-date=11 June 2025
  | via=Trove
}}

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