Manufacturing Bits: Oct. 6


High-NA EUV mask materials A team of researchers have presented a new paper on the tradeoffs of photomask absorber materials for high-NA extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. In the paper, researchers concluded that the industry will likely require an alternative mask absorber stack for high-numerical aperture (high-NA) EUV lithography. Fraunhofer, Imec, ASML and Zeiss contributed to the... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Oct. 6


Waste plastic supercapacitor Researchers from the University of California Riverside found a way to recycle waste plastic into energy storage devices. The work focused on polyethylene terephthalate plastic waste, or PET, which is found in soda bottles and many other consumer products. The researchers first dissolved pieces of PET plastic bottles in a solvent. Using electrospinning, they fab... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Sept. 29


Exploring chemical reactions using EUV The University of Tokyo has established a facility to study fast chemical reactions using a coherent extreme ultraviolet light source. The new coherent extreme ultraviolet (XUV) source facility enables researchers to explore time-dependent phenomena, such as ultrafast chemical reactions of biological or physical samples. Located in an underground fa... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Sept. 29


Implantable transmitter Researchers from Purdue University developed a fully implantable, wirelessly powered 2.4GHz radio-frequency transmitter chip for wireless sensor nodes and biomedical devices. The team says the transmitter chip consumes the lowest amount of energy per digital bit published to date, consuming an active-mode power of 70 μW at 10 Mbps while radiating -33 dBm of power, r... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Sept. 22


Hairy nanoparticles The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory is developing a new type of material called preceramic polymer-grafted nanoparticles or “hairy nanoparticles” (HNP). HNPs can be used to manufacture a new class of aircraft parts made of ceramic composite materials. An HNP is a hybrid material. It is based on a polymer shell, which is bound to a nanoparticle core, according to t... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Sept. 22


Drawing sensors on skin Researchers from the University of Houston and University of Chicago created an ink pen that can draw multifunctional sensors and circuits directly on skin. These "drawn-on-skin electronics" aim to provide more precise health data, free of the artifacts that are associated with wearable devices and flexible electronic patches. Caused when the sensor doesn't move prec... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Sept. 15


World’s largest camera The Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory has taken a step towards the development of the world’s largest digital camera. Target for astronomy applications, SLAC has developed a large 3,200-megapixel sensor array and has taken its first photos with the system. The sensor array will be integrated into the world’s largest digital camera, wh... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Sept. 15


Higher-res lidar Researchers from Purdue University and École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) devised a way to improve lidar and provide higher-resolution detection of nearby fast-moving objects through mechanical control and modulation of light on a silicon chip. "Frequency modulated continuous wave" (FMCW) lidar detects objects by scanning laser light from the top of a vehicl... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Sept. 9


Fusion energy The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced $29 million in funding for several projects to develop fusion energy technology. The projects will focus on the components, materials and technologies to develop a long-awaited but elusive net-energy-gain “fusion core.” For years, companies, governments and universities have been working on fusion power technology. Fu... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Sept. 9


Smaller, cheaper integrated photonics Researchers from the University of California Santa Barbara, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), and Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) developed a way to integrate an optical frequency comb on a silicon photonic chip. Optical frequency combs are collections of equally spaced frequencies of laser light (so called because when pl... » read more

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