Manufacturing Bits: Nov. 15


Tiny magnifying glass The University of Cambridge has devised what researchers claim is the world’s smallest magnifying glass. More specifically, researchers developed a tiny optical cavity, dubbed a pico-cavity. The pico-cavity consists of self-assembled, biphenyl-4-thiol molecules. These materials are sandwiched between gold nanostructures the size of a single atom. With the pico-cav... » read more

System Bits: Nov. 15


Revolutionizing sports via AI and computer vision A new technology developed by PlayfulVision — an EPFL startup — will be used in all NBA games in the United States starting next year to records all aspects of sporting events for subsequent analysis in augmented reality. Will artificial intelligence and computer vision revolutionize the sports industry? PlayfulVision’s approach uses ... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Nov. 15


Another record-breaking tandem perovskite solar cell University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientists report a new design for perovskite solar cells that achieves an average steady-state efficiency of 18.4%, with a high of 21.7% and a peak efficiency of 26%. "This has a great potential to be the cheapest photovoltaic on the market, plugging into any... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Nov. 8


Self-healing magnetic ink The University of California at San Diego has developed a self-healing magnetic ink. The ink can be used to print inexpensive electrochemical devices, such as batteries, sensors, textile-based electrical circuits and other products. A key to the technology is the self-healing concept. This means a device could autonomously repair itself in the field. Over the ye... » read more

System Bits: Nov. 8


Optimizing multiprocessor programs for non-experts While ‘dynamic programming’ is a technique that yields efficient solutions to computational problems in economics, genomic analysis, and other fields, adapting it to multicore chips requires a level of programming expertise that few economists and biologists have. But researchers from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence La... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Nov. 8


Scrap metal batteries A research team at Vanderbilt University used scraps of steel and brass - two of the most commonly discarded materials - to create a steel-brass battery that can store energy at levels comparable to lead-acid batteries while charging and discharging at rates comparable to ultra-fast charging supercapacitors. The researchers found that when scraps of steel and brass a... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Nov. 1


New approach to switches According to the National Resource Defense Council, Americans waste up to $19 billion annually in electricity costs due to always-on digital devices in the home that suck power even when they are turned off. With that in mind, a team from University of Utah devised a new kind of switch for electronic circuits that uses solid electrolytes such as copper sulfide to ... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Nov. 1


U.S. to boost IC competitiveness President Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science & Technology (PCAST) has launched a new semiconductor working group in the United States. The new working group will focus on ways to strengthen the competitiveness of the U.S. semiconductor industry. It will provide recommendations to PCAST regarding the challenges facing the U.S. semiconductor industry. Th... » read more

System Bits: Nov. 1


There is a lurking malice in cloud hosting services A team of researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Indiana University Bloomington, and the University of California Santa Barbara has found — as part of a study of 20 major cloud hosting services — that as many as 10 percent of the repositories hosted by them had been compromised, with several hundred of the ‘buckets’ act... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Oct. 25


GaN-on-GaN power semis Power semiconductors based on gallium nitride (GaN) are heating up in the market. Typically, suppliers are shipping devices using a GaN-on-silicon process. These devices are available with blocking voltages of up to 650 volts. Going beyond 650 volts is problematic, however. GaN-on-silicon processes suffer from lattice mismatches, cost and other issues. At the ... » read more

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