Power/Performance Bits: Jan. 19


Electronic skin for health tracking Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder developed a stretchy electronic 'skin' that can perform the tasks of wearable fitness devices such as tracking body temperature, heart rate, and movement patterns. "Smart watches are functionally nice, but they're always a big chunk of metal on a band," said Wei Zhang, a professor in the Department of Chem... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Dec. 15


Graphite films for cooling electronics Researchers at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) developed a way to make a carbon material well suited to dissipating heat in electronic devices. Graphite films are frequently used for heat management. "However, the method used to make these graphite films, using polymer as a source material, is complex and very energy intensiv... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Dec. 7


Logic-in-memory with MoS2 Engineers at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) built a logic-in-memory device using molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) as the channel material. MoS2 is a three-atom-thick 2D material and excellent semiconductor. The new chip is based on floating-gate field-effect transistors (FGFETs) that can hold electric charges for long periods. MoS2 is particularly se... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: April 28


Flat microwave reflector Researchers from Los Alamos National Laboratory developed a new flat reflector for microwaves that could improve communications while providing a better form factor. It also breaks reciprocity, effectively turning it into a one-way mirror. The flat reflector can be reconfigured on the fly electronically, allowing it to be used for beam steering, customized focusing,... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: March 17


MRAM speed Researchers at ETH Zurich and Imec investigated exactly how quickly magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM) can store data. In the team's MRAM, electrons with opposite spin directions are spatially separated by the spin-orbit interaction, creating an effective magnetic field that can be used to invert the direction of magnetization of a tiny metal dot. "We know from earlier experiments, i... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Jan. 21


Two-layer MRAM Scientists at Tokyo Institute of Technology propose a simpler MRAM construction that could perform faster with less power than conventional memories. The idea relies on unidirectional spin Hall magnetoresistance (USMR), a spin-related phenomenon that could be used to develop MRAM cells with an extremely simple structure. The spin Hall effect leads to the accumulation of elect... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Aug. 20


Six-angstrom waveguide Engineers at the University of California San Diego, City University of New York, and Johns Hopkins University created the thinnest optical waveguide yet. At only three atoms thick, the team says the waveguide serves as a proof of concept for scaling down optical devices. The waveguide consists of a tungsten disulfide monolayer (made up of one layer of tungsten atoms ... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Oct. 23


Integrated solar battery Researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) built a unified solar cell-liquid battery device capable of returning more than 14% of the incoming solar energy as electricity. The device is capable of both converting solar energy to electricity for immediate use or storing it as chemical energy in ... » read more

System Bits: Jan. 9


Microspectrometer smartens up smartphones Thanks to researchers at TU Eindhoven, smartphones are about to get much smarter to do things like checking how clean the air is, whether food is fresh or a lump is malignant thanks to a spectrometer that is so small it can be incorporated easily and cheaply in a mobile phone. The little sensor developed at TU Eindhoven is just as precise as the no... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Nov. 14


Bacteria power wastewater cleanup Researchers at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) are exploring ways to detoxify warm, salty industrial wastewater while simultaneously generating electricity. They are using bacteria with remarkable properties: the ability to transfer electrons outside their cells (exoelectrogenes) and the capacity to withstand extremes of temperat... » read more

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