System Bits: April 30


Future batteries could use a graphene sponge Researchers at Sweden’s Chalmers University of Technology devised a porous, sponge-like aerogel, made of reduced-graphene oxide, to serve as a freestanding electrode in the battery cell. This utilization has the potential to advance lithium sulfur batteries, which are said to possess a theoretical energy density about five times greater than lithi... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: April 19


Ferroelectric non-volatile memory Scientists from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), the University of Nebraska, and the University of Lausanne in Switzerland succeeded in growing ultra-thin (2.5-nanometer) ferroelectric films based on hafnium oxide that could potentially be used to develop non-volatile memory elements called ferroelectric tunnel junctions. The film was g... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Dec. 15


Biologically powered chip Columbia Engineering researchers powered an integrated circuit from adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the energy currency of life. They achieved this by integrating a conventional solid-state CMOS integrated circuit with an artificial lipid bilayer membrane containing ATP-powered ion pumps, opening the door to creating entirely new artificial systems that contain both b... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Oct. 21


Sound power While medical researchers would like to plant tiny electronic devices deep inside our bodies to monitor biological processes and deliver pinpoint therapies or relieve pain, so far engineers have been unable to make such devices small and useful enough. Providing power to the implants has been one stumbling block, and the use of wires or batteries to deliver power make implants ... » read more