Electronic Components
Turning smartphones into secure and versatile keys
January 14, 2013 1:59 pm | News | Comments
It’s already possible to open doors using an app, but we are a long way from seeing widespread acceptance of this in the market. Now, researchers have developed a piece of software that will make the technology even more secure and versatile.
Rapid prototyping conference breaks past attendance records
June 19, 2013 12:11 am | News | Comments
More than 2,500 attendees turned out for the 2013 RAPID Conference and Exposition,...
First precise MEMS output measurement technique unveiled
May 14, 2013 1:06 pm | News | Comments
Researchers in Europe have developed a new experimental system to gain accurate...
Study unlocks secrets of device that is both battery and memory
April 24, 2013 10:18 am | News | Comments
Unlike the building blocks of conventional hard disk drives and memories, resistive...
NSF and SRC to fund research to create failure-resistant circuits
May 24, 2013 5:00 am | News | CommentsLeaders of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC), the world's leading university-research consortium for semiconductors and related technologies, this week announced 18 new projects funded through a joint initiative to address research challenges in the design of failure-resistant circuits and systems.
Compact DC/DC Converters
March 7, 2013 4:00 pm | Product Releases | CommentsMicroPower Direct has released the G200EI series, a family of compact 2W, EN 60950 approved DC/DC converters. These converters are specifically designed for board level power applications that require small size, robust operation, high input/output isolation levels and low cost.
Serial Communication Board
March 7, 2013 3:56 pm | Product Releases | CommentsACCES I/O Products, Inc. has announced the release of a new family of PCI-104 serial communication boards—the 104I-COM-8SM Series. These PCI-104 boards feature a selection of 8, 4, or 2-ports of field selectable RS-232, RS-422, and RS-485 asynchronous serial protocols on a port by port basis.
Absolute Encoders with Industrial Internet
March 6, 2013 2:34 pm | Product Releases | CommentsSensor and encoder manufacturer SICK has recently launched the AFS60 and AFM60 absolute encoders with Industrial Ethernet. These dual-port Industrial Ethernet encoders provide EtherNet/IP, PROFINET RT and EtherCAT connectivity.
New imaging device is flexible, flat, and transparent
February 20, 2013 12:20 pm | News | CommentsA research team in Austria has developed an entirely new way of capturing images based on a flat, flexible, transparent, and potentially disposable polymer sheet. The new imager, which resembles a flexible plastic film, uses fluorescent particles to capture incoming light and channel a portion of it to an array of sensors framing the sheet. With no electronics or internal components, the imager’s elegant design makes it ideal for a new breed of imaging technologies.
Self-assembled biological filaments form 3D microelectronics
February 12, 2013 1:24 pm | News | CommentsThe size of electronic components is reaching a physical limit. While 3D assembly can reduce bulk, the challenge is in manufacturing these complex electrical connections. Biologists and physicists in France have recently developed a system of self-assembled connections using actin filaments for 3D microelectronic structures. Once the actin filaments become conductors, they join the various components of a system together.
MEMS project pushes for technological revolution
February 7, 2013 6:26 pm | News | CommentsIn Germany, a project called MEMS2015 is underway which has the ultimate goal of developing the first-ever universal design methodology for microelectromechanical systems, or MEMS. The effort, a joint government and industry project coordinated by the Robert Bosch corporation, will improve sensors and actuators, and plug the gaps between electronics and mechanics design, manufacturing, and subsequent integration into products.
World’s most complex 2D laser beamsteering array demonstrated
January 17, 2013 5:09 pm | News | CommentsExisting optical beamsteering assemblies for technologies like LADAR, which scans a field of view with a laser to determine distance, are typically mechnical, bulky, slow, and inaccurate. In an effort to design a better, scalable technology, DARPA researchers have recently demonstrated the most complex optical phased array ever built onto a 2D chip.
New effort to create green electronics, workforce
January 15, 2013 10:18 am | by Emil Venere, Purdue University | News | CommentsThe world's love affair with gadgets—many of which contain hazardous materials—is generating millions of tons of electronic waste annually. Now, Purdue and Tuskegee universities are leading an international effort to replace conventional electronics with more sustainable technologies and train a workforce of specialists to make the transition possible.
'Smart' potty or dumb idea? Wacky gadgets at CES
January 9, 2013 6:49 pm | by Barbara Ortutay and Ryan Nakashima, The Associated Press | News | CommentsNot everything there is “high-tech”, but the annual Consumer Electronics Show is a great place to see the newest and most fanciful products to reach the market each year. From the iPotty for toddlers to the 1,600-pound (725-kg) mechanical spider and the host of glitch-ridden "smart" TVs, the International CES show is a forum for gadget makers to take big—and bizarre—chances.
High-Intensity Pressure Transducers
November 30, 2012 1:43 pm | Product Releases | CommentsMeggitt Sensing Systems has announced the successful application of Endevco 8507C rugged, miniature piezoresistive pressure transducers, as well as its full range of acoustic microphones, to support the requirements of hypersonic, transonic and "quiet flow" wind tunnel testing; turbulent airflow measurements; and other high-intensity aerodynamic testing.
Catheter performs triple-duty with stretchable electronics
November 15, 2012 4:20 pm | News | CommentsA research team has used stretchable electronics to create a multipurpose medical catheter that can both monitor heart functions and perform corrections on heart tissue during surgery. The device marks the first time stretchable electronics have been applied to a surgical process known as cardiac ablation, a milestone that could lead to simpler surgeries for arrhythmia and other heart conditions.
Data storage: How magnetic recording heats up
November 7, 2012 2:15 pm | News | CommentsMost electronic data is stored on magnetic hard drives that cannot simply be enlarged to store more data. The required spinning speed for larger sizes strains components. Researchers in Singapore report that an alternative technology, heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR), is now a significant step closer to commercial realization. The method has the potential to double storage capacity for a given hard drive.
Breakthrough produces dense carbon nanotube chip
October 30, 2012 2:29 pm | News | CommentsAt IBM, scientists have for the first time precisely placed and tested more than 10,000 carbon nanotube devices in a single chip using mainstream manufacturing processes. Achieved through conventional chemistry, materials, and wafer fabrication methods, the invention helps validate the used of carbon nanotube technology for future electronic circuit design.
Well-ordered nanorods could improve LED displays
October 25, 2012 2:16 pm | News | CommentsSynchrotron-based imaging has helped develop enhanced light-emitting diode (LED) displays using bottom-up engineering methods. Collaborative work between researchers from the University of Florida and Cornell University has produced a new way to make colloidal "superparticles" from oriented nanorods of semiconducting materials.
Obstinate electrons “ignore” assumptions and follow another path
October 25, 2012 10:36 am | News | CommentsIt is possible to make gold wires so thin that there is not even enough room for electrons to pass one another. But exactly what path do the electrons take? Measurements made by researchers have found that the electrons do not move through the nanowires themselves, but through the “troughs” between them.
Researchers build spin-polarized contacts on silicon
October 23, 2012 9:56 am | News | CommentsNaval Research Laboratory scientists have demonstrated that graphene can serve as a low resistance spin-polarized tunnel barrier contact which successfully enables spin injection/detection in silicon from a ferromagnetic metal. The graphene provides a highly uniform, chemically inert and thermally robust tunnel barrier free of defects and trap states which plague oxide barriers.
Optical vortices packaged on a chip
October 19, 2012 9:01 am | News | CommentsAn international research group has recently demonstrated integrated arrays of emitters of so call “optical vortex beams” onto a silicon chip. The generation of these “twisted” light beams, which do not propagate in straight rays, have typically relied on bulk optical elements such as plates, lenses, and holograms. The new emitters, however, are thousands of times smaller than conventional elements.
Interactive system detects touch and gestures on any surface
October 9, 2012 3:25 pm | News | CommentsPeople can let their fingers—and hands—do the talking with a new touch-activated system that projects onto walls and other surfaces and allows users to interact with their environment and each other. Developed at Purdue University, the "extended multitouch" system allows more than one person to use a surface at the same time and also enables people to use both hands, distinguishing between the right and left hand.
24V Line Drivers with Impedance Adaption
October 3, 2012 7:58 am | Product Releases | CommentsThe nearly released integrated devices iC-HD2, iC-HD7 and iC-HE from manufacturer iC-Haus are line drivers for 5 V and 24 V industrial encoder/sensor applications. The output drivers are designed for cable impedances in the range of 30 to 140 ohms. The devices feature a unique integrated wave impedance adaption.
Module sends wireless data at much higher speeds
October 1, 2012 5:34 am | News | CommentsDigital cameras and camcorders deliver high resolution film sequences that are several gigabytes in size. These can take several minutes to transfer wirelessly to your home computer via Bluetooth. A researcher in Germany has come up with a speedier alternative: a “multi-gigabit communication module” that is six times faster than a USB cable.
High-Intensity Piezoelectric Microphone
September 28, 2012 9:32 am | Product Releases | CommentsMeggitt Sensing Systems has recently introduced the Endevco model 2510 piezoelectric sound pressure level microphone, designed to measure very high-intensity acoustic noise and very low pressure fluctuations over a wide temperature range.
'Transient electronics' dissolve in body, environment
September 27, 2012 11:01 am | News | CommentsTiny, fully biocompatible electronic devices that are able to dissolve harmlessly into their surroundings after functioning for a precise amount of time have been created by a research team led by biomedical engineers. Dubbed "transient electronics," the new class of silk-silicon devices promises a generation of medical implants that never need surgical removal, as well as environmental monitors and consumer electronics that can become compost rather than trash.
Automatic building mapping could help emergency responders
September 24, 2012 2:47 pm | by Larry Hardesty, MIT News Office | News | CommentsA prototype sensor array built by Massachusetts Institute of Technology engineers can be worn on the chest and automatically maps the wearer’s environment, recognizing movement between floors. The prototype system is envisioned as a tool to help emergency responders coordinate disaster response.
Silicon, erbium are built on one chip for the first time
September 24, 2012 4:44 am | News | CommentsWithin optical microchips, light finds its way through waveguides made of silicon, and is amplified with the help of other semiconductors, such as gallium arsenide and erbium. But until recent work in The Netherlands, no chip existed on which both silicon and erbium-doped material had been successfully integrated. The new chip now amplifies light up to 170 Gbit/sec.
