Electronic Equipment
How much longer can photographic film hold on?
June 1, 2011 7:00 am | by Ben Dobbin, Associated Press | News | CommentsKodak remains the world's biggest film manufacturer, with Japan's Fuji right on its tail. But the consumer and professional films they make have dwindled to a precious few dozen film stocks in a handful of formats, becoming one more factor in a mammoth drop-off in film processing. Digital photography is closing the quality gap with film, and may soon consign the once-ubiquitous technology to the bin containing vinyl records and magnetic tape.
Camera duo on Mars rover mast will shoot color views
June 1, 2011 5:37 am | News | CommentsTwo digital color cameras riding high on the mast of NASA's next Mars rover will complement each other in showing the surface of Mars in exquisite detail. They are the left and right eyes of the Mast Camera, or Mastcam, instrument on the Curiosity rover of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission, launching in late 2011.
NI acquires Phase Matrix, merges with AWR Corp.
May 24, 2011 6:08 am | News | CommentsAs part of its move to strengthen its position and product offerings within the RF market, National Instruments this week has announced the acquisition of Phase Matrix, Inc., a maker of RF and microwave test and measurement equipment, and the definitive merger agreement with AWR Corporation, a maker of design software for RF and wireless technology.
Man-made material could facilitate wireless power
May 24, 2011 4:41 am | News | CommentsElectrical engineers at Duke Univ. have determined that unique man-made materials should theoretically make it possible to improve the power transfer to small devices, such as laptops or cell phones, or ultimately to larger ones, such as cars or elevators, without wires. This advance is made possible by the recent ability to fabricate metamaterials.
New physical phenomenon could lead to faster transistors
May 13, 2011 5:07 am | by Larry Hardesty, MIT News Office | News | CommentsIn Science , MIT researchers and their colleagues at the Univ. of Augsburg in Germany report the discovery of a new physical phenomenon that could yield transistors with greatly enhanced capacitance. And that, in turn, could lead to the revival of clock speed as the measure of a computer’s power.
For better gas detection, chirp before sniffing
May 12, 2011 12:41 pm | News | CommentsA new sensor recently developed at NIST is hundreds of times faster and more sensitive than other similar technologies, in part because it rotates (or measures) gas molecules at fast rates and high sensitivity. But the key to its rapid detection capability is how it utilizes these terahertz frequencies.
Pentagonal tiles: Paving the way towards organic electronics
May 6, 2011 8:25 am | News | CommentsNew research paves way for the nanoscale self-assembly of organic building blocks, a promising new route towards the next generation of ultra-small electronic devices.
Accelerating industry adoption of 3D integration of integrated circuits and systems
May 6, 2011 5:22 am | News | CommentsSemiconductor Research Corp. (SRC), a university-research consortium for semiconductors and related technologies, announced it is leading an effort to address key roadblocks for wide-scale adoption of the emerging 3D integration of integrated circuits (IC) and systems. These new initiatives will develop solutions that address critical reliability and design tool issues and leverage a partnership formed by researchers from universities and the semiconductor industry at large.
Chinese tech giants fight over 4G phones
May 5, 2011 10:01 am | by Joe McDonald, AP Business Writer | News | CommentsA patent battle between two technology heavyweights, Huawei Technologies and ZTE Corp., has entered court as they try to stake their territory in the European mobile phone market. The dispute centers on alleged patent infringement by ZTE on Huawei’s fourth-generation mobile technology. At stake are billions of dollars in future sales.
New approach to glasses-free 3D displays could save power
May 4, 2011 4:47 am | by Larry Hardesty, MIT News Office | News | CommentsResearchers at MIT's Media Lab have developed a fundamentally new approach to glasses-free 3D, called HR3D, which they say could double the battery life of devices like the 3DS without compromising screen brightness or resolution.
Taking a step toward valleytronics
April 29, 2011 5:23 am | News | CommentsValley-based electronics, also known as valleytronics, is one step closer to reality. Two researchers at the Naval Research Laboratory have shown that the valley degree of freedom in graphene can be polarized through scattering off a line defect. Unlike previously proposed valley filters in graphene, which rely on confined structures that have proven hard to achieve experimentally, the present work is based on a naturally occurring line defect that has already been observed.
'Nanobead' approach could revolutionize sensor technology
April 27, 2011 4:26 am | News | CommentsResearchers at Oregon State Univ. have found a way to use magnetic "nanobeads" to help detect chemical and biological agents, with possible applications in everything from bioterrorism to medical diagnostics, environmental monitoring, or even water and food safety.
Researchers create super-small transistor
April 19, 2011 5:28 am | News | CommentsA Univ. of Pittsburgh-led team has created a single-electron transistor that provides a building block for new, more powerful computer memories, advanced electronic materials, and the basic components of quantum computers.
Data from NASA's sky-mapping telescope released
April 18, 2011 8:27 am | by Alicia Chang, AP Science Writer | News | CommentsNASA has released a trove of data from its sky-mapping mission, allowing scientists and anyone with access to the Internet to peruse millions of galaxies, stars, asteroids and other hard-to-see objects. Many of the targets in the celestial catalog released online this week have been previously observed, but there are significant new discoveries.
Agilent Technologies launches industry’s fastest logic analyzer
April 15, 2011 7:30 am | Agilent Technologies Inc. | Product Releases | CommentsThe new analyzer offers reliable data capture rates up to 4 Gb/s on the industry’s smallest eye openings: 100 ps to 100 mV. The U4154A AXIe-based logic analyzer module is engineered for working with double data rate memory systems, application-specific ICs, A/D converters, and FPGAs.
Coherent introduces “meterless” laser energy sensors
April 12, 2011 5:54 am | Product Releases | CommentsThe meterless laser measurement concept from Coherent has been expanded with a new range of energy sensors in which all meter electronics are miniaturized and integrated within the sensor head cable.
Japan quake stirs unease about global supply chain
March 30, 2011 7:02 am | by Joe McDonald, AP Business Writer | News | CommentsA shortage of auto parts and other components after Japan's earthquake has stirred unease about two pillars of manufacturing: the country's role as a crucial link in the global supply chain and "just in time" production. The realization that these practices have made companies brittle in the face of natural disasters has some questioning current practices.
“Good-bye, blind spot” – man and machine always in view
March 21, 2011 8:19 am | News | CommentsResearchers in Germany are introducing a new prototype for intelligent safety monitoring in industrial workplaces that illuminates the entire production hall. The process involves building a 3-D model of the factory and using to eliminate any blind spots where accidents or collisions could occur.
Room-temperature spintronic computers coming soon?
March 16, 2011 5:50 am | News | CommentsUniv. of Utah researchers built spintronic transistors and used them to align the magnetic spins of electrons for a record period of time in silicon chips at room temperature. The study is a step toward computers, phones, and other spintronic devices that are faster and use less energy than their electronic counterparts.
Newly developed nanorods could improve visual display of information
March 15, 2011 5:00 am | News | CommentsChemists at the Univ. of California, Riverside have developed nanoscale-size rods of iron oxide particles in the lab that respond to an external magnetic field in a way that could improve how visual information is displayed in the future.
Electromechanical circuit sets record beating microscopic 'drum'
March 10, 2011 4:11 am | News | CommentsPhysicists at NIST have demonstrated an electromechanical circuit in which microwaves communicate with a vibrating mechanical component 1,000 times more vigorously than achieved before in similar experiments. The microscopic apparatus is a new tool for processing information and potentially could control the motion of a relatively large object at quantum scale.
Physicists measure current-induced torque in nonvolatile magnetic memory devices
March 10, 2011 3:35 am | News | CommentsTomorrow's nonvolatile memory devices—computer memory that can retain stored information even when not powered—will change electronics, and Cornell Univ. researchers have discovered a new way of measuring and optimizing their performance.
New stretchable solar cells will power artificial electronic 'super skin'
February 23, 2011 4:30 am | by Louis Bergeron | News | CommentsUltrasensitive electronic skin developed by Stanford researcher Zhenan Bao is getting even better. Now she's demonstrated that it can detect chemicals and biological molecules, in addition to sensing an incredibly light touch. And it can now be powered by a new, stretchable solar cell she's developed in her lab, opening up more applications in clothing, robots, prosthetic limbs, and more.
Toward computers that fit on a pen tip
February 23, 2011 3:58 am | News | CommentsA prototype implantable eye pressure monitor for glaucoma patients is believed to contain the first complete millimeter-scale computing system. And a compact radio that needs no tuning to find the right frequency could be a key enabler to organizing millimeter-scale systems into wireless sensor networks. Both developments at the Univ. of Michigan are significant milestones in the march toward millimeter-scale computing, believed to be the next electronics frontier.
Technique boosts high-power potential for gallium nitride electronics
February 3, 2011 3:35 am | News | CommentsGallium nitride (GaN) material holds promise for emerging high-power devices that are more energy efficient than existing technologies—but these GaN devices traditionally break down when exposed to high voltages. Now researchers at North Carolina State Univ. have solved the problem, introducing a buffer that allows the GaN devices to handle 10 times greater power.
