System Bits: March 6


Printed graphene biosensors According to researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering IBMT in St. Ingbert (in Germany’s Saarland region), cell-based biosensors can simulate the effect of various substances, such as drugs, on the human body in the laboratory but depending on the measuring principle, producing them can be expensive. As such, they aren’t used very often.... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Mar. 6


Neural network chip Neural networks are both slow and consume a lot of power. This made researchers at MIT examine the important aspects of the nodes within a neural network and to see how each part of the computation could be improved. The outcome was a dedicated chip that increases the speed of neural-network computations by three to seven times over its predecessors, while reducing power c... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Feb. 27


Magnesium-ion batteries Texas A&M University and others have discovered a new metal-oxide magnesium battery cathode material—a technology that promises to deliver a higher density of energy storage than today’s traditional lithium-ion (Li-ion) cells. Magnesium-ion battery technology is promising. A battery consists of an anode (negative), cathode (positive), electrolytes and a separat... » read more

Systems Bits: Feb. 27


Prepare to prevent malicious AI use According to the University of Cambridge, 26 experts on the security implications of emerging technologies have jointly authored a ground-breaking report thereby sounding the alarm about the potential malicious use of artificial intelligence (AI) by rogue states, criminals, and terrorists. The report forecasts rapid growth in cyber-crime and the misuse of... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Feb. 27


Encryption chip A team at MIT developed a new chip to lower the power consumption of public-key cryptography for IoT devices. Software execution of encryption protocols require more energy and memory space than embedded IoT sensors can typically spare, given the need to maximize battery life. The new chip is hardwired to perform public-key encryption and consumes only 1/400 as much power as... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Feb. 20


Hedgehog spin-vortex crystals The U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory has discovered a missing piece to enable novel superconductor devices--the hedgehog spin-vortex crystal phase. Superconductors are devices that have zero electrical resistance, making them attractive for a range of applications. But superconductors must be cooled down to temperatures at or near absolute zero on ... » read more

System Bits: Feb. 20


An evolution in electronics Restoring some semblance to those who have lost the sensation of touch has been a driving force behind Stanford University chemical engineer Zhenan Bao’s decades-long quest to create stretchable, electronically-sensitive synthetic materials. [caption id="attachment_24131783" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Zhenan Bao, the K.K. Lee professor of chemical engineer... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Feb. 20


Wireless TENG Researchers at Clemson University developed a wireless triboelectric nanogenerator, or W-TENG, that can also act as a battery-free remote. The key to triboelectric nanogenerators is using materials that are opposite in their affinity for electrons so they generate a voltage when brought in contact with each other. For the W-TENG, one electrode was constructed of a multipart... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Feb. 13


Watching nanowires grow Using X-ray techniques, the University of Siegen and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have observed the formation of tiny nanowires in gallium arsenide (GaAs) materials in real time. GaAs is used for fiber optics, infrared systems, RF devices in mobile phones and solar panels in spacecraft. Observing the growth of GaAs nanowires could lead to a better unde... » read more

System Bits: Feb. 13


Enabling individual manufacturing apps Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research IGD focused on Industrie 4.0 recognize that manufacturing is turning toward batch sizes of one and individualized production in what is sometimes referred to as ‘highly customized mass production.’ [caption id="attachment_24131609" align="aligncenter" width="300"] The scanning ... » read more

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