Manufacturing Bits: Aug. 28


Neutron scattering The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has reached what the agency says is the world’s highest power level for a neutron source. Oak Ridge has several facilities, including the so-called Spallation Neutron Source (SNS). The SNS is used in a metrology field called neutron scattering. Used in physics, chemistry, biology, and materials science, neutron ... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: June 26


Gummy bear chips The Technical University of Munich (TUM) and Forschungszentrum Jülich have developed a 3D inkjet printing technique to print electrodes on several soft substrates, including gummy bears. The main application is to develop a new class of sensor-based implants for life sciences. For this application, electrodes or microelectrode arrays (MEAs) are developed and printed on sof... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: June 12


Elastic diamonds A group has developed a way to make elastic diamonds, enabling tiny diamond needles that can flex and stretch. Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the City University of Hong Kong and Nanyang Technological University have developed a process that enables elastic diamonds. Elastic diamonds could one day... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: April 24


Super electron guns The Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory is developing a new type of electron gun based on superconducting technology. The new superconducting electron gun recently produced its first beam of electrons, according to SLAC. The technology is being developed for future high-energy X-ray lasers and ultra-fast electron microscopes. Electron guns a... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: April 17


Finding metallic glass Using machine learning techniques, a group of researchers have accelerated the discovery of an alloy called metallic glass. Northwestern University, the Department of Energy’s National Accelerator Laboratory and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have devised a shortcut for discovering and improving metallic glass. In metallic glass, the at... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: March 20


Giant thermometer The Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory has devised a new way to take the temperature of a material at the nanoscale—the organization has developed a giant thermometer. The technology, dubbed electron energy gain spectroscopy, enables researchers to take the temperature of a material from an area at about a billionth of a meter wide. Developed by Nion, t... » 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

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

New Materials For Computing


The U.S. Department of Energy rolled out a new program to develop materials for "extreme conditions" for high-performance computing, setting the stage for much more mobile versions of AI and machine learning. This effort, if successful, has interesting implications on a number of levels. For one, the DOE's mandate includes everything from energy security to weaponry, and high-performance com... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Sept. 19


Ion implant lithography At a recent conference, the University of California at Berkeley presented more details about its efforts to develop a multiple patterning method using tilted ion implantation (TII) technology. TII is somewhat similar today’s self-aligned double patterning (SADP) processes in logic and memory. SADP and the follow-on technology, self-aligned quadruple (SAQP), enable... » read more

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