Electronics
Nanoelectromechanical systems become plug-and-play
March 8, 2012 7:02 am | News | CommentsFollowing up on a 2009 demonstration of an efficient electrical interface for nanomechanical resonators, a research team in Munich, Germany, have now built a fully integrated nanomechanical sensor platform that permits robust and sensitive detection of tiny displacements.
Holey Optochip first to transfer one terabit of information per second
March 8, 2012 3:56 am | News | CommentsIBM scientists report on a prototype optical chipset, dubbed Holey Optochip, that is the first parallel optical transceiver to transfer one trillion bits, or one terabit, of information per second, the equivalent of downloading 500 high-definition movies. With the ability to move information at high speeds, the breakthrough could transform how data is accessed, shared, and used for a new era of communications and computing technologies.
Imec releases industry's first 14 nm process development kit
March 7, 2012 7:30 am | News | CommentsImec announced that it has released an early-version process development kit (PDK) for 14 nm logic chips. This PDK is the first to address the 14 nm technology node and targets the introduction of key technologies, such as FinFET technology and EUV lithography.
Functional oxide thin films create new field of oxide electronics
March 7, 2012 4:58 am | News | CommentsResearchers from North Carolina State University have developed the first functional oxide thin films that can be used efficiently in electronics, opening the door to an array of new high-power devices and smart sensors. This is the first time that researchers have been able to produce positively charged conduction and negatively charged conduction in a single oxide material, launching a new era in oxide electronics.
Research explores applications for new field of electronics
March 7, 2012 4:37 am | News | CommentsBy looking at the way electrons are excited, researchers can gain a better understanding of the new field of transparent electronics. A Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researcher has developed a new approach to investigate the interplay of excitonic effects and electron doping.
iPad dispute signals new era in trademark troubles
March 7, 2012 3:24 am | by Elaine Kurtenbach, AP Business Writer | News | CommentsFinancially troubled Proview Electronics Co., a computer monitor and LED light maker, says it registered the iPad trademark in China and elsewhere more than a decade ago and wants Apple to stop selling or making the popular tablet computers under that name. Whatever the outcome, the dispute highlights the rising stakes of the trademark name game in the increasingly lucrative China consumer market, one that most global companies cannot afford to miss out on regardless of the risks.
Transistors promise more powerful logic, more logical power
March 7, 2012 3:01 am | by Larry Hardesty, MIT News Office | News | CommentsBroadly speaking, the two major areas of research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Microsystems Technology Laboratory are electronics—transistors in particular—and microelectromechanical systems, or MEMS—tiny mechanical devices with moving parts. Both strains of research could have significant implications for manufacturing in the United States, but at least for the moment, the market for transistor innovation is far larger.
Electron microscopy without the lens
March 5, 2012 7:26 am | News | CommentsFor over 70 years, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), which `looks through´ an object to see atomic features within it, has been constrained by the relatively poor lenses which are used to form the image. A new method invented in the U.K., called electron ptychography, dispenses with the lens and instead forms the image by reconstructing the scattered electron-waves after they have passed through the sample using computers.
A new direction for game controllers
March 5, 2012 7:11 am | News | CommentsUniversity of Utah engineers designed a new kind of video game controller that not only vibrates like existing devices, but pulls and stretches the thumb tips in different directions to simulate the tug of a fishing line, the recoil of a gun, or the feeling of ocean waves.
Pasta-shaped radio waves beamed across Venice
March 2, 2012 7:13 am | News | CommentsA group of Italian and Swedish researchers appears to have solved the problem of radio congestion by cleverly twisting radio waves into the shape of fusilli pasta, allowing a potentially infinite number of channels to be broadcast and received. To demonstrate, they did this in real-life conditions by beaming two corkscrewed radio waves across the waters of Venice, Italy.
New company hopes to replace Wi-Fi with Li-Fi
February 29, 2012 3:06 am | News | CommentsVisible Light Communications (VLC), a University of Edinburgh spin-out, will soon launch its first prototype light-emitting diode communications technology. “Li-Fi” relies on optical spatial modulation and an Internet protocol technology to allow LED light to carry optical wireless communications streams.
Researchers help rethink smartphone design with computational sprinting
February 28, 2012 9:07 am | News | CommentsComputational sprinting is a new approach to smartphone power and cooling that could give users dramatic, brief bursts of computing capability to improve current applications and make new ones possible. Its developers at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan are pushing mobile chips beyond their sustainable operating limits, much like a sprinter who runs extremely fast for a relatively short distance.
Researchers develop new approach for producing 3D microchips
February 28, 2012 3:28 am | by Jennifer Chu, MIT News Office | News | CommentsResearchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a new approach to MEMS design that enables engineers to design 3D configurations, using existing fabrication processes; with this approach, the researchers built a MEMS device that enables 3D sensing on a single chip. The tiny device contain microscopic elements that can be engineered to reach heights of hundreds of microns above the chip's surface.
Engineers demonstrate record-speed wireless data bridge
February 27, 2012 5:42 am | News | CommentsResearchers have developed a wireless link that bridges two fiber-optic points at an unprecedented 20 billion bits of data per second. The phenomenal speed, which is to be presented at the Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exposition in Los Angeles next week, was achieved using much higher frequencies than have been typically used in mobile communications.
Radio conference approves bandwidth for ocean current tracking
February 27, 2012 3:10 am | News | CommentsThe International Telecommunication Union, which coordinates global radio spectrum use, recently came to an agreement that provides specific radio frequency bands for ocean radars, which until now operated only on an informal basis and were subject to immediate shut-down if they caused interference with other radio systems. The new technology may eventually make real-time detection of tsunamis and oil spills possible.
Wireless bicycle brake offers nearly 100% reliability
February 24, 2012 7:06 am | News | CommentsAt Cebit on March 6, Saarland University Professor Holger Hermanns will present an unusual bicycle. Unlike most other bicycles, his cruiser brakes using a wireless mechanism that theoretically will fail only three times out of one trillion uses. The technology presages what he hopes will be used in the future for train travel.
Researchers build first physical 'metatronic' circuit
February 23, 2012 8:17 am | News | CommentsThe technological world of the 21st century owes a tremendous amount to advances in electrical engineering, specifically, the ability to finely control the flow of electrical charges using increasingly small and complicated circuits. And while those electrical advances continue to race ahead, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania are pushing circuitry forward in a different way, by replacing electricity with light.
New tongue drive system to improve performance, user comfort
February 21, 2012 6:56 am | News | CommentsGeorgia Institute of Technology's Tongue Drive is a wireless device that enables people with high-level spinal cord injuries to operate a computer and maneuver an electrically powered wheelchair simply by moving their tongues. The newest prototype of the system allows users to wear an inconspicuous dental retainer embedded with sensors to control the system.
A step toward better electronics
February 21, 2012 3:21 am | News | CommentsResearchers at Northwestern University have developed a new method for chemically altering graphene, a development that could be a step toward the creation of faster, thinner, flexible electronics. Their method, which oxidizes graphene without the collateral damage encountered in the Hummers method, is also reversible.
Avnet to distribute Discera’s MEMS oscillators
February 21, 2012 2:12 am | News | CommentsDiscera, a maker of micro-electrical mechanical systems (MEMS)-based timing solutions based in San Jose, Calif., has entered into a distribution deal with Avnet Electronics Marketing Americas, an operating group of Avnet, which distributes computer products, electronic components and embedded technology to customers in over 70 countries.
New system allows robots to continuously map their environment
February 16, 2012 4:24 am | by Helen Knight, MIT News correspondent | News | CommentsRobots could one day navigate through constantly changing surroundings with virtually no input from humans, thanks to a system developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that allows them to build and continuously update a 3D map of their environment using a low-cost camera such as Microsoft's Kinect.
Nanomaterials produce forward leap in infrared technology
February 15, 2012 3:16 am | News | CommentsInfrared photodetectors are critical to national defense and security systems, and are increasingly important in commercial applications and consumer products. Superlattices made of certain materials, carefully structured, are minimizing electron loss in these detectors, greatly boosting their efficiency. Recent research at Arizona State University details these advances.
Scientists build GPU cluster for subatomic calculations
February 14, 2012 4:05 am | News | CommentsThe latest addition to computing power at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory is a 45-teraflop cluster of graphics processing units (GPU) that scientists use to explore the properties of the strong nuclear force. The GPU nodes power through data faster than any other computing nodes at more than five times the rate of the processing units of the previous generation.
SCaN satellite to redefine software-defined radio
February 9, 2012 12:19 pm | News | CommentsNASA scientists are in the midst of preparing their Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) Testbed for launch later this year. Its mission will be to push the limits of software-defined radio, a communication system in which components typically implemented in hardware are instead provided by means of software.
New technology platform for molecule-based electronics
February 9, 2012 5:44 am | News | CommentsResearchers at the University of Copenhagen have developed a new nanotechnology platform for the development of molecule-based electronic components using graphene. At the same time, they have solved a problem that has challenged researchers from around the world for ten years.
