Power/Performance Bits: July 3


2D straintronics Researchers at the University of Rochester and Xi’an Jiaotong University dug into how 2D materials behave when stretched to push the boundaries of what they can do. "We're opening up a new direction of study," says Stephen Wu, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and physics at Rochester. "There's a huge number of 2D materials with different properti... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: July 3


Graphene foam devices Scientists at Rice University developed a method for building conductive, three-dimensional objects out of graphene foam, which they say could offer new possibilities for energy storage and flexible electronic sensor applications. The same lab initially created laser-induced graphene, or LIG, in 2014. The process involves heating inexpensive polyimide plastic sheets wi... » read more

System Bits: May 23


Next-era transistors engage diamonds To advance the development of more robust and energy-efficient electronics, materials scientists from Japan’s National Institute for Materials Sciences have developed a new diamond transistor fabrication process. To address the challenges of silicon, Jiangwei Liu and the team have recently described new work developing diamond-based transistors. “Sil... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Jan. 20


Boosting silicon solar cells According to Stanford researchers, stacking crystalline perovskites onto a conventional silicon solar cell dramatically improves the overall efficiency of the cell. The researchers reminded that silicon solar cells dominate the world market, but the power conversion efficiency of silicon photovoltaics has been stuck at 25 percent for 15 years. One inexpensive wa... » read more