System Bits: Feb. 19


Eco-friendly material for wireless IoT sensors Researchers at Canada’s Simon Fraser University and in Switzerland collaborated on developing a wood-derived cellulose material that could be used in a 3D printer, instead of the customary plastic and polymeric materials for electronics. With 3D printing, the material can offer flexibility to add or embed functions onto 3D shapes or fabrics, the... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Feb. 19


Flexible energy harvesting rectenna Researchers from MIT, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, University Carlos III of Madrid, Boston University, University of Southern California, and the Army Research Laboratory created a flexible rectenna capable of converting energy from Wi-Fi signals into electricity to power small devices and sensors. The device uses a flexible RF antenna to capture e... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Feb. 11


How things stick together Using a metrology technique called atomic force microscopy (AFM), Brown University has gained more insights into the theory of adhesion or how things stick together. Understanding the theory of adhesion also has some practical applications. It could pave the way towards a new class of MEMS or nanoscale devices. Nanoscale patterning is another potential application.... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Feb. 11


Body heat harvesting Chemists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst developed a fabric that can harvest body heat to power small wearable electronics such as activity trackers. The device works on the thermoelectric effect created by body temperature and ambient cooler air. "What we have developed is a way to inexpensively vapor-print biocompatible, flexible and lightweight polymer fil... » read more

System Bits: Feb. 11


Modeling computer vision on human vision University of Michigan scientists used digital foveation technology to render images that are more comprehensible to machine vision systems, while also reducing energy consumption by 80%. The effect is achieved by manipulating a camera’s firmware. “It'll make new things and things that were infeasible before, practical,” Professor Robert Dick s... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Feb. 5


Multi-beam litho shakeout The multi-beam e-beam market for lithography applications continues to undergo a shakeout amid technical roadblocks and other issues. Last week, ASML announced that it had acquired the intellectual-property (IP) assets of Mapper Lithography, a Dutch supplier of multi-beam e-beam tools for lithography applications that fell into bankruptcy late last year. As it t... » read more

System Bits: Feb. 5


Rubbery material for stretchable electronics Researchers at the University of Houston came up with a rubbery semiconducting material that they say could find applications in stretchable electronics, such as human-machine interfaces, implantable bioelectronics, and robotic skins. Cunjiang Yu, Bill D. Cook Assistant Professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Houston and correspo... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Feb. 5


Photonic-magnetic memory Researchers at the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) have developed a hybrid photonic-magnetic memory device that takes advantage of the speed of optical writing and stability of magnetic drives. "All-optical switching for data storage has been known for about a decade. When all-optical switching was first observed in ferromagnetic materials - amongst the mo... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Jan. 29


Thermal lithography Using a technique called thermal scanning probe lithography, New York University (NYU) and others have reported a breakthrough in fabricating 2D semiconductors. With the technology, researchers have devised metal electrodes with vanishing Schottky barriers on 2D semiconductors based on molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂). Thermal scanning probe lithography, sometimes called t-... » read more

System Bits: Jan. 29


Quantum physics make hybrid semiconductors glow Hybrid semiconducting materials have quantum properties capable of bringing significant changes to light-emitting diode lighting and monitors, along with photovoltaic solar cells, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology report. Physical chemists worked with halide organic-inorganic perovskite (HOIP), which combines a crystal lattice wi... » read more

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