Electronics
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.
NRI to lead five-year effort to develop post-CMOS electronics
October 19, 2012 8:17 am | News | CommentsNIST announced the selection of the Nanoelectronics Research Initiative (NRI), a collaboration of several key firms in the semiconductor industry, to support university-centered research for the development of after-the-next-generation "nanoelectronics" technology. NRI consists of participants from the semiconductor industry, including GLOBALFOUNDRIES, IBM, Intel, Micron Technology, and Texas Instruments.
Complex logic circuits can be made from bacterial genes
October 12, 2012 5:07 pm | by Diana Lutz, Washington University in St. Louis, Tae Seok Moon, logic circuit, gene circuit | News | CommentsLogic circuits can be built from just about anything, including billiard balls, pipes of water, or animals in a maze. Tae Seok Moon, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis, intends to build logic gates out of genes, and has already built the largest such device yet reported. But the purpose of these circuits is not to crunch numbers.
New tools to aid in recycling flat-screen monitors, televisions
October 10, 2012 8:41 am | News | CommentsMillions of flat-screen monitors and television sets will soon become obsolete, posing environmental hazards, and Purdue University researchers are developing tools to help industry efficiently recycle the products. The researchers are producing equipment and tools specifically designed to disassemble liquid-crystal displays with acceptable labor cost while recovering high-value components and reducing environmental hazards.
Scientists simultaneously measure electronic and optical properties of OLEDs
October 9, 2012 3:35 pm | News | CommentsA research team in Japan has succeeded in developing equipment that enables simple, high speed measurement of the band diagrams of organic semiconductor materials in atmospheric conditions. The device essentially combines a spectrophotometer system for studying band gaps with a photoemission yield system to examine ionized potential.
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.
Silicon at the breaking point could be basis for efficient transistors
October 8, 2012 11:53 am | by Paul Piwnicki | News | CommentsWhen stretched, a layer of silicon can build up internal mechanical strain which can considerably improve its electronic properties. Using this principle, engineers have developed a method which allows them to produce 30-nm-thick highly strained wires in a silicon layer. This strain is the highest that has ever been observed in a material which can serve as the basis for electronic components.
Research describes longest fiber-optic sensor network yet
October 1, 2012 7:57 am | News | CommentsDesign for remotely monitoring large infrastructures, the longest fiber-optic sensor network yet designed would measure 250 km in length and be equipped with multiplexing technology to allow multiple information channels to be carried. Theorized by a researcher in Spain, the network would allow long-distance analysis with requiring a power source for the sensors.
Near-field scanning microwave microscope: Big at the nanoscale
October 1, 2012 5:52 am | News | CommentsThe ability to determine the composition and physics of nanoscale materials and devices at NIST is about to improve dramatically with the arrival of a new near-field scanning microwave microscope (NSMM) design. Researchers there, using existing commercial and homemade NSMMs, have pioneered many applications, notably including determination of semiconductor dopant distribution in 2D and 3D. Now they hope to look at mechanical and magnetic resonance on the nanoscale.
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.
'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.
Researchers engineer novel DNA barcode
September 24, 2012 10:17 am | News | CommentsScientists at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University have created a new kind of barcode that uses DNA origami technology. Colored dots can be arranged into geometric patterns or fluorescent linear DNA barcodes, and the combinations are almost limitless—substantially increasing the number of distinct molecules or cells scientists can observe in a sample.
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.
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.
New technology for at-home diagnoses of ear infections
September 19, 2012 5:11 am | News | CommentsA new pediatric medical devices being developed by Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University could make life easier for parents who have rushed to the doctor with a child screaming from an ear infection. Soon, parents may be able to skip the doctor's visit and receive a diagnosis without leaving home by using Remotoscope, a clip-on attachment and software app that turns an iPhone into an otoscope.
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.
'Memristors' based on transparent electronics offer technology of the future
September 14, 2012 9:33 am | News | CommentsThe transparent electronics that were pioneered at Oregon State University may find one of their newest applications as a next-generation replacement for some uses of non-volatile flash memory, a multi-billion dollar technology nearing its limit of small size and information storage capacity.
Less wear, longer life for memory storage device
September 12, 2012 9:42 am | News | CommentsProbe storage devices read and write data by making nanoscale marks on a surface through physical contact, but they currently have limited lifespans due to mechanical wear. A research team, led by Intel Corp., has now developed a long-lasting ultrahigh-density probe storage device by coating the tips of the probes with a thin metal film. The technology may one day extend the data density limits of conventional magnetic and optical storage.
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.
