Electronic Components
Tiny electronic tags monitor birds’ social networks
September 21, 2012 5:42 am | by Hannah Hickey | News | CommentsIt’s a bit like Twitter, only instead of 140 words or less, the electronic tags needed by ornithologists researching the behavior of small birds had to 1 gram or less. This type of miniaturization for a rugged, mobile tag was previously unavailable until a biologist teamed up with an electrical engineer at Scotland’s University of St. Andrews.
New photonic wire waveguide transmits data by the terabit
September 20, 2012 8:00 am | News | CommentsA team researchers in Germany has succeeded in developing a highly effective and manufacturing-ready optical connection between semiconductor chips. Their “photonic wire bonding” invention, based on an optical polymer and built using a combination of 3D imaging and laser lithography, reaches data transmission rates in the range of several terabits per second.
Imec demonstrates electronics that flex and stretch like skin
September 18, 2012 6:12 am | News | CommentsBelgium-based semiconductor manufacturing firm imec announced Tuesday that it has integrated an ultra-thin, flexible chip with bendable and stretchable interconnects into a package that adapts dynamically to curving and bending surfaces. The resulting circuitry can be embedded in medical and lifestyle applications where user comfort and unobtrusiveness is key, such as wearable health monitors or smart clothing.
Demonstrated: Nanotube transistors can survive space
September 18, 2012 6:02 am | News | CommentsAs part of their investigation of the effects ionizing radiation has on crystalline structures found in single-walled carbon nanotube transistors, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory engineers have recently shown these devices can stand up harsh space environments. This durability has been achieved through a combination of a hardened dielectric material and the natural isolation of the transistor.
New 'ATM' takes old phones and gives back green
September 17, 2012 10:09 am | News | CommentsDeveloped by a company in San Diego, a new automated system that lets consumers trade in cell phones and mobile devices for reimbursement or recycling relies artificial intelliigence and sophisticated machine vision diagnostics. The building blocks for the ecoATM have existed for many years, but none, until now, have been applied to the particular problem of consumer recycling.
U.S. research and development most prevalent in small number of regions
September 13, 2012 4:29 am | News | CommentsAccording to data from a 2008 Business R&D and Innovation Survey by the National Science Foundation, businesses perform the lion's share of their R&D activity in just a small number of geographic areas, particularly the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland area and the New York-Newark-Bridgeport area.
Nanoparticle quick response code becomes banknote security feature
September 12, 2012 5:26 am | News | CommentsAn invisible quick response (QR) code has been created by researchers in South Dakota in an attempt to increase security on printed documents and reduce the possibility of counterfeiting, a problem which costs governments and private industries billions of dollars each year. The QR code is made of tiny nanoparticles that have been combined with blue and green fluorescence ink, which is invisible until illuminated with laser light.
Norway scientists commercialize semiconductors grown on graphene
September 11, 2012 3:58 am | News | CommentsScientists at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology report they have patented and are commercializing gallium arsenide (GaAs) nanowires grown on graphene. These semiconductors, which are being developed for market by the the company CrayoNano, are grown on atomically-thin graphene using molecular beam epitaxy.
Smart fabric triggers alarm at intrusion
September 6, 2012 6:26 am | News | CommentsResearchers have developed a new kind of anti-theft system, based on a woven fabric, that triggers an alarm when penetrated. Because of the fine lattice of conductive threads woven into the material, the fabric can notify the precise location of a failure, allowing the source of a break-in to be quickly identified. The invention could be significantly cheaper than other burglary detection systems.
A step forward for ultrafast spintronics
September 6, 2012 4:08 am | News | CommentsIn spin-based electronics, the spin of the electron is used as a carrier of information. To meet the need for faster electronics, the speed must be increased as far as possible. Uppsala University physicists have shown how spin information can be transmitted using spin currents at terahertz speeds, a thousand times faster than today.
Measuring glucose without needle pricks
September 4, 2012 10:02 am | News | CommentsThe frequency at which droplets emerge is controlled by an acoustic trigger, which can be tuned so that each droplet containing a protein or virus meets an
Silicon chip to enable mass-manufacture of quantum technologies
September 4, 2012 4:33 am | News | CommentsAn international research collaboration led by scientists in the U.K. has developed a new approach to quantum computing that could lead more widespread use of new quantum technologies. The breakthrough has been a move from glass-based circuitry that allowed circuits to manipulate photons to a silicon-based technology that accomplishes the same calculations using quantum mechanical effects.
Electronics play by new set of rules at the molecular scale
September 4, 2012 4:06 am | by Aviva Hope Rutkin | News | CommentsFor several years, experts in nanotechnology have suspected—but not proven—that quantum interference effects make the conductance of a circuit with two paths up to four times higher than the conductance of a circuit with a single path. By constructing their own controllable, molecular-scale circuits, scientists at Brookhaven National Laboratory have confirmed an increase in conductance. But not as large as was anticipated.
Nanoresonators might improve cell phone performance
August 30, 2012 12:56 pm | by Emil Venere | News | CommentsBecause of the proliferation of mobile wireless devices, there is not enough radio spectrum to account for everybody's needs. To counter the problem, industry is trying to build systems that operate with more sharply defined channels so that more of them can fit within the available bandwidth. At Purdue University, the recent invention of nanoelectromechanical resonators may provide the solution.
New technique builds graphene-boron sheets without substrate
August 29, 2012 11:34 am | by Anne Ju | News | CommentsEngineers at Cornell University have invented a way to pattern single atom films of graphene and boron nitride, an insulator, without the use of a silicon substrate. The technique, called patterned regrowth, is reliant on conventional silicon photolithography technology and could lead to substrate-free circuits that would be atomically thin yet retain high tensile strength and superior electrical performance.
Liquid crystal film on gold produces ultra-compact color filter
August 29, 2012 7:49 am | News | CommentsFlat panel displays and mobile phones require thin, efficient, and low-cost light emitters, which are typically made from pixels wired to complex electronic circuits. Engineers in Singapore have now developed a display technology that requires a much simpler architecture: a thin perforated gold film with a liquid crystal layer.
Nanoinverters are created with low-cost additive manufacturing process
August 27, 2012 6:59 am | by Angela Herring | News | CommentsA critical element in any microchip is an inverter—an electronic component that spits out zeros when it is given ones, and vice versa. Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor, or CMOS, is the industry standard for this type of component, but still requires billions of dollars to achieve production scale. Researchers have recently pioneered a room-temperature additive process that creates a nanoscale inverter quickly and at low cost.
Grants send engineers after flexible circuitry, self-assembly, and photosynthesis
August 27, 2012 4:02 am | News | CommentsDuring the next four years, research teams who have been the recipients of 15 innovation grants totalling $30 million from the National Science Foundation will pursue transformative, fundamental research in three emerging areas: flexible electronic systems that can interface with the body; self-folding materials and structures; and large-scale chemical production from photosynthesis.
Study details power of new chip to diagnose disease, analyze proteins
August 20, 2012 10:33 am | by Krista Conger | News | CommentsResearchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Intel Corp. have collaborated to synthesize and study a grid-like array of short pieces of a disease-associated protein on silicon chips normally used in computer microprocessors. Used recently to identify patients with a severe form of lupus, the new technology has the potential to improve diagnoses of a multitude of diseases.
Magnetic insulator shows way to dissipationless electronics
August 20, 2012 8:01 am | News | CommentsA team of researchers at in Japan has demonstrated a new material that promises to eliminate loss in electrical power transmission. Their methodology for solving this classic energy problem is based on a highly exotic type of magnetic semiconductor first theorized less than a decade ago—a magnetic topological insulator.
Researchers demonstrate that 15=3x5 about half of the time
August 20, 2012 7:56 am | News | CommentsA research team at the University of Santa Barbara has designed and fabricated a quantum processor capable of factoring a composite number—in this case the number 15—into its constituent prime factors, 3 and 5. Although modest compared to, say, a 600-digit number, the algorithm they developed was right about half the time, matching theoretical predictions and marking a milestone on the trail of building a stronger quantum computer.
It's plasma, revolutioned
August 31, 2005 8:00 pm | Award WinnersForget your ‘old’ plasma TV’s, researchers at Imaging Systems Technology, Toledo, Ohio, have created the next breed of plasma displays with the Flexible Plasma-sphere Display. In contrast to conventional plasma displays, Plasma-sphere displays integrate gas encapsulating microspheres (Plasma-spheres) as its pixel element.
