Manufacturing Engineering
An electronic nose can tell pears and apples apart
May 8, 2013 12:13 pm | News | CommentsSwedish and Spanish engineers have created a system of sensors that detects fruit odors more effectively than the human sense of smell. For now, the device, which has 32 sensors and can process scent data in real time, can distinguish between the odorous compounds emitted by pears and apples, but the system can be tailored to other applications.
Electronics comes to paper
May 8, 2013 9:43 am | News | CommentsPaper, a light and foldable raw material, could be a cost-efficient and simple basis for electronic devices if a practical solution for depositing conductive structures could be found. Researchers in Germany say they have done this by creating targeted structures by printing and heating a catalyst on a sheet of paper. The solution was created with a conventional inkjet printer.
New NIST measurement tool is on target for MEMS industry
May 3, 2013 9:19 am | News | CommentsAs markets for miniature, hybrid machines known as MEMS grow and diversify, NIST has introduced a long-awaited measurement tool that will help growing numbers of device designers, manufacturers and customers to see eye to eye on eight dimensional and material property measurements that are key to device performance.
On-site asbestos detector IDs fibers in real-time
May 2, 2013 12:46 pm | News | CommentsAsbestos was banned in the many industrialized countries in the 1980s, but the threat lingers on in the ceilings, walls and floors of old buildings and homes. Now a team of researchers in the U.K. has developed and tested the first portable, real-time airborne asbestos detector. The device uses a laser-based light scattering technique to identify harmful fibers.
Virgin Galactic spaceship makes first powered flight
April 29, 2013 11:00 pm | by Raquel Maria Dillon, Associated Press | News | CommentsIn a major step for Virgin Galactic’s bid to create the first space tourism company, the SpaceShipTwo made its first powered flight Monday, breaking the sound barrier in a test over the Mojave Desert. It then glided to a safe landing. The successful flight moves the company closer to its goal of flying paying passengers on brief hops into space.
High-efficiency neutron imaging detector features new oblique design
March 31, 2013 6:53 pm | News | CommentsTo increase the neutron detection efficiency of bulk-micromegas (MICRO-MEsh GAseous Structure) neutron detectors, researchers from China and the University of Tennessee-Knoxville have proposed three new types of thin-film converters: micro-channel, parallel micro-pillar, and oblique micro-pillar 2D array. When validated using Monte Carlo simulations, the latter design showed a threefold increase in neutron detection efficiencies.
Solar plane plans stops in Phoenix, Dallas, NYC
March 28, 2013 10:41 pm | by Terence Chea, Associated Press | News | CommentsSolar Impulse, considered the world's most advanced solar-powered plane, is set to travel across the United States, stopping for seven to 10 days at major airports in each city, so the pilots can display and discuss the aircraft with reporters, students, engineers and aviation fans. It plans to reach New York's Kennedy Airport in early July—without using a drop of fuel, its creators said.
Centrifugal pendulum reduces engine vibrations
March 28, 2013 9:34 am | News | CommentsDriving a car at low engine speed causes torsional vibrations that passengers perceive as a hum. A new type of centrifugal pendulum has been developed in Germany that helps reduce these vibrations. This device might be useful as automakers increasingly use engines with fewer cylinders which are prone to this phenomenon.
Stroke prevention device misses key goal in study
March 11, 2013 9:16 am | by Marilynn Marchione, AP Chief Medical Writer | News | CommentsThe future is unclear for a promising heart device aimed at preventing strokes in people at high risk of them because of an irregular heartbeat. Early results from a key study of Boston Scientific Corp.'s Watchman device suggested it is safer than previous testing found, but may not be better than a drug that is used now for preventing strokes, heart-related deaths and blood clots in people with atrial fibrillation over the long term.
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.
Quantum refrigerator offers extreme cooling and convenience
March 6, 2013 3:21 pm | News | CommentsResearchers at the NIST have demonstrated a solid-state refrigerator that uses quantum physics in micro- and nanostructures to cool a much larger object to extremely low temperatures. What's more, the prototype NIST refrigerator, which measures a few inches in outer dimensions, enables researchers to place any suitable object in the cooling zone and later remove and replace it, similar to an all-purpose kitchen refrigerator.
New imaging device is flexible, flat, and transparent
February 20, 2013 12:20 pm | News | CommentsA research team in Austria has developed an entirely new way of capturing images based on a flat, flexible, transparent, and potentially disposable polymer sheet. The new imager, which resembles a flexible plastic film, uses fluorescent particles to capture incoming light and channel a portion of it to an array of sensors framing the sheet. With no electronics or internal components, the imager’s elegant design makes it ideal for a new breed of imaging technologies.
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.
Model aims to help companies make products we actually want
February 12, 2013 12:24 pm | News | CommentsResearchers have developed a model that will, hopefully, help companies develop innovative products that people actually want to use. The model is a first step towards capturing the behavior of both companies and consumers, so that we end up with more iPods and fewer Edsels.
U.K.'s space age Antarctic base can slide across ice
February 6, 2013 12:29 pm | by Rapahel Satter, Associated Press | News | CommentsBritish researchers have unveiled a futuristic Antarctic research base that can move, sliding across the frozen surface to beat the shifting ice and pounding snow that doomed its predecessors. Its builders hope that the Halley VI Research Station, the sixth facility to occupy the site on the Brunt Ice Shelf, can adapt to the unpredictable ice conditions.
Nanoantenna array could be vast improvement over silicon
February 5, 2013 12:01 pm | by Colin Poitras, University of Connecticut | News | CommentsFor years, scientists have studied the potential benefits of a new branch of solar energy technology that relies on incredibly small nanosized antenna arrays that are theoretically capable of harvesting more than 70% of the sun’s electromagnetic radiation and simultaneously converting it into usable electric power. A new fabrication technique developed by University of Connecticut engineering professor Brian Willis could provide the breakthrough for this technology.
High-tech cargo airship being built in California
January 30, 2013 9:09 am | by Raquel Maria Dillon, Associated Press | News | CommentsA new massive blimp-like aircraft was recently hovering just a dozen feet off a military hangar floor during flight testing south of Los Angeles. The fact that the hulking Aeroscraft could fly for just a few minutes represents a step forward in aviation, according to the engineers who developed it. According to the Department of Defense and NASA, their prototype could one day carry more cargo than any other aircraft to disaster zones and forward military bases.
Nanotubes-on-a-chip may simplify optical power measurements
January 25, 2013 11:37 am | News | CommentsNIST has demonstrated a novel chip-scale instrument made of carbon nanotubes that may simplify absolute measurements of laser power, especially the light signals transmitted by optical fibers in telecommunications networks. The prototype device, a miniature version of an instrument called a cryogenic radiometer, is a silicon chip topped with circular mats of carbon nanotubes standing on end.
New material for warm-white LEDs
January 18, 2013 8:09 am | News | CommentsLight-emitting diodes (LEDs) are known for their energy efficiency and durability, but the bluish, cold light of current white LEDs has precluded their widespread use for indoor lighting. Now, University of Georgia scientists have fabricated what is thought to be the world's first LED that emits a warm white light using a single light-emitting material, or phosphor, with a single emitting center for illumination.
Webb Telescope teams completes optics milestone
January 17, 2013 10:27 am | News | CommentsEngineers working on NASA's James Webb Space Telescope have recently concluded performance testing on the observatory's aft-optics subsystem at Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp's facilities in Boulder, Colo. This is significant because it means all of the telescope's mirror systems are ready for integration and testing.
Aerial platform supports development of lightweight sensors for UAVs
January 17, 2013 7:44 am | News | CommentsA research team at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is developing an airborne testing capability for sensors, communications devices, and other airborne payloads. This aerial test bed, called the GTRI Airborne Unmanned Sensor System (GAUSS), is based on an unmanned aerial vehicle made by Griffon Aerospace and modified by GTRI.
Building electronics from the ground up
January 14, 2013 5:19 pm | News | CommentsElectronics devices are a mainstay of our daily lives. But the expectation that the next shopping season will inevitably offer an upgrade to more-powerful gadgets largely depends on size, and developers who employ top down manufacturing methods are running into expensive roadblocks as the domain shrinks to the nanoscale. To go further, some researchers looking at a bottom up method, coaxing individual molecules to self-arrange into patterns.
Predicting material fatigue
November 29, 2012 1:51 pm | News | CommentsDetection of material failure is a difficult task for engineers, because cracks inside a material block can’t readily be identified from the outside. Researchers in Germany have now developed so-called self-reporting composite materials that can communicate their internal condition. The concept utilizes zinc oxide tetrapod crystals as a filler material for composites which at the same time reveals material failure by a visual signal under UV light.
Versatile optomechanical sensors aid atomic force microscopy
October 25, 2012 2:25 pm | News | CommentsResearchers from NIST have developed on-chip optomechanical sensors for atomic force microscopy (AFM) that extend the range of mechanical properties found in commercial AFM cantilevers, potentially enabling the use of this technology to study a wide variety of physical systems.
Well-ordered nanorods could improve LED displays
October 25, 2012 2:16 pm | News | CommentsSynchrotron-based imaging has helped develop enhanced light-emitting diode (LED) displays using bottom-up engineering methods. Collaborative work between researchers from the University of Florida and Cornell University has produced a new way to make colloidal "superparticles" from oriented nanorods of semiconducting materials.
