Electronics
Waves generated by Russian meteor recorded in U.S.
March 7, 2013 10:44 am | News | CommentsWhile thousands of earthquakes around the globe are recorded by seismometers in these stations—part of the permanent Global Seismographic Network (GSN) and EarthScope's temporary Transportable Array (TA)—signals from large meteor impacts are far less common. The meteor explosion near Chelyabinsk on Feb. 15, 2013, generated ground motions and air pressure waves in the atmosphere. The stations picked up the signals with seismometers and air pressure sensors, and recorded the pressures waves as they cross the United States.
Electron field emitter technology to improve imaging, communications
March 7, 2013 10:24 am | News | CommentsScientists in Maryland have built a new practical, high-efficiency nanostructured electron source. Unlike thermionic electron sources, which use an electric current to boil electrons off the surface of a wire, the new emitter uses highly porous silicon carbide to avoid the energy efficiency problems of traditional emitters. This type of field emitter has a fast response and could lead to improved X-ray imaging systems.
Light control on superconducting chip brings quantum devices closer
March 4, 2013 3:05 pm | News | CommentsAs one crucial step of achieving controllable quantum devices, physicists at the University of California Santa Barbara have developed an unprecedented level of manipulating light on a superconducting chip. In their experiment, they caught and released photons in and from a superconducting cavity by incorporating a superconducting switch.
Smart “stickers” let you find things by phone
March 1, 2013 10:43 am | by Peter Svensson, AP Technology Writer | News | CommentsJimmy Buchheim's Davie, Fla.-based company, Stick-N-Find Technologies, wants to give people a way to find things, whether it's keys, wallets, TV remotes, or cat collars. There's no real trick to sending out a radio signal and having a phone pick it up. That's been done before. What makes Buchheim’s Stick-N-Find practical is a new radio technology known as Bluetooth Low Energy, which drastically reduces the battery power needed to send out a signal.
Clever battery completes stretchable electronics package
February 27, 2013 8:05 am | News | CommentsNorthwestern University’s Yonggang Huang and the University of Illinois’ John A. Rogers are the first to demonstrate a stretchable lithium-ion battery—a flexible device capable of powering their innovative stretchable electronics. Their battery continues to work—powering a commercial light-emitting diode (LED)—even when stretched, folded, twisted and mounted on a human elbow. The battery can work for eight to nine hours before it needs recharging, which can be done wirelessly.
College tests fingerprint purchasing technology
February 22, 2013 10:28 am | by Amber Hunt, Associated Press | News | CommentsFuturists have long proclaimed the coming of a cashless society, where dollar bills and plastic cards are replaced by fingerprint and retina scanners. What they probably didn't see coming was its debut not in Silicon Valley but at a small state college in remote western South Dakota. Two shops on the campus are performing one of the world's first experiments in “biocryptology”, a mix of biometrics—using physical traits for identification—and cryptology—the study of encoding private information.
Technique developed to scale up production of graphene microsupercapacitors
February 20, 2013 8:34 am | News | CommentsWhile the demand for ever-smaller electronic devices has spurred the miniaturization of a variety of technologies, one area has lagged behind in this downsizing revolution: energy storage units, such as batteries and capacitors. Now, a team from University of California, Los Angeles may have changed the game by developing a groundbreaking technique that uses a DVD burner to fabricate microscale graphene-based supercapacitors.
Production process doubles speed, efficiency of flexible electronics
February 19, 2013 10:44 am | News | CommentsStretched-out clothing might not be a great practice for laundry day, but in the case of microprocessor manufacture, stretching out the atomic structure of the silicon in the critical components of a device can be a good way to increase a processor's performance.
Chip cleans up common flaws in amateur photographs
February 19, 2013 8:28 am | by Helen Knight, MIT News correspondent | News | CommentsYour smartphone snapshots could be instantly converted into professional-looking photographs with just the touch of a button, thanks to a processor chip developed at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The chip can perform tasks such as creating more realistic or enhanced lighting in a shot without destroying the scene's ambience, in just a fraction of a second. The technology could be integrated with any smartphone, tablet computer, or digital camera.
Organic electronics: Better contact between carbon compounds and metals
February 18, 2013 9:00 am | News | CommentsA recurring problem in organic electronics technology has been the difficulty in establishing good electrical contact between the active organic layer and metal electrodes. Organic molecules are frequently used for this purpose, but, until recent research at the Helmholtz Center in Germany unraveled this mystery, it was practically impossible to accurately predict which molecules performed well on the job.
Researchers invent “acoustic-assisted” magnetic information storage
February 14, 2013 2:29 pm | News | CommentsElectrical engineers at Oregon State University have discovered a way to use high-frequency sound waves to enhance the magnetic storage of data, offering a new approach to improve the data storage capabilities of a multitude of electronic devices around the world.
Quantum information joined to quantum storage
February 14, 2013 10:38 am | News | CommentsPhysicists in Finland have successfully connected a superconducting quantum bit, or qubit, with a micrometer-sized drum head. With this invention they have transferred information from the qubit to the resonator and back again. This work represents the first step towards creating exotic mechanical quantum states which can preserve the qubit’s information (as a vibration) for a longer period of time.
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.
3D micrometer-scale printer is world’s fastest
February 8, 2013 11:09 am | News | CommentsAt the Photonics West conference in San Francisco this week, the Germany-based company Nanoscribe showcased the world’s fastest 3D printer of micro- and nanostructures. With this printer, small 3D objects, often smaller than the diameter of a human hair, can be manufactured with minimum time consumption and maximum resolution. The printer is based on a new laser lithography method.
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.
Improved “peacock" technology could lock in color for high-res displays
February 5, 2013 12:17 pm | News | CommentsIridescence, or sheen that shifts color depending on your viewing angle, is pretty in peacock feathers. But it's been a nuisance for engineers trying to mimic the birds' unique color mechanism to make high-resolution, reflective, color display screens. Researchers at the University of Michigan have found a way to lock in so-called structural color, which is made with texture rather than chemicals. The finding could lead to advanced color e-books, electronic paper, and screens that don't need their own light to be readable.
Physicists show that organic semiconductors withstand sharp bends
February 5, 2013 11:41 am | News | CommentsOrganic semiconductors hold promise for making low-cost flexible electronics—if they can perform in spite of frequent flexing and sharp bending. Scientists have recently demonstrated extremely flexible organic semiconductors that withstood multiple bending cycles in which the devices were rolled to a radius as small as 200 μm. The scientists worked with numerous crystalline devices they made and found no degradation in their performance.
Self-powered nanoscale devices never need new batteries
February 4, 2013 8:59 am | by Adam Piore, Columbia University | News | CommentsResearchers at Columbia University are attempting to build self-powered systems using nanoscale devices that can transmit and receive wireless signals using so little power that their batteries never need replacing. Some of the chips built so far are 100 times more energy efficient than most standard technologies, and they rely on tiny bits of ambient solar energy to recharge themselves.
Microchip moves information around in 3D
January 30, 2013 5:11 pm | News | CommentsScientists from the University of Cambridge, U.K., have created, for the first time, a new type of microchip which allows information to travel in three dimensions. The chip’s design relies on spintronics, a technology that makes use of an electron's tiny magnetic moment, or “spin”, to store information. Currently, microchips can only pass digital information in a very limited way—from either left to right or front to back.
New device electrically steers and focuses terahertz waves
January 29, 2013 7:53 am | News | CommentsResearchers in Japan and Germany have recently demonstrated a device that can focus and steer terahertz beams electrically. Based on an array of metal cantilevers which can be micromechanically actuated by electrostatic forces, the device can create tunable gratings that may be crucial in future terahertz wavelength communication systems.
DARPA funds research for electronics that disappear
January 28, 2013 5:23 pm | News | CommentsAdvanced electronics are indispensable in modern warfare, but locating and tracking them all on the field of battle is almost impossible. To prevent valuable and strategic technology from falling into enemy hands, DARPA has announced the Vanishing Programmable Resources (VAPR) program, which has the aim of improving “transient” electronics, or electronics capable of dissolving into the environment around them.
Technique points toward 2D devices
January 28, 2013 7:59 am | News | CommentsRice University scientists have taken an important step toward the creation of 2D electronics with a process to make patterns in atom-thick layers that combine a conductor and an insulator. The materials at play—graphene and hexagonal boron nitride—have been merged into sheets and built into a variety of patterns at nanoscale dimensions.
Researchers keep electronic devices cool with nanotechnology
January 21, 2013 10:57 am | News | CommentsA team of scientists have designed and fabricated ultrasmall devices for energy-efficient electronics. By finding out how molecules behave in these devices, a ten-fold increase in switching efficiency was obtained by changing just one carbon atom. These devices could provide new ways to combat overheating in mobile phones and laptops, and could also aid in electrical stimulation of tissue repair for wound healing.
Experiment to reshape future of atmospheric science
January 17, 2013 8:38 am | by Kathryn Hansen, NASA | News | CommentsNASA scientists and engineers are working now to lay the groundwork for the Aerosol-Cloud-Ecosystem (ACE) mission, which will change what we can learn about clouds and aerosols. To that end, the Polarimeter Definition Experiment (PODEX) in Southern California will soon commence, testing a new class of polarimeters that are especially suited for finding the type, shape, and size of particles in the upper atmosphere.
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.
