Power/Performance Bits: Aug. 28


Multilayer stretchable electronics Researchers at UC San Diego, the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, and the Air Force Research Laboratory developed an approach to creating stacked, stretchable electronics with complex functionality. "Rigid electronics can offer a lot of functionality on a small footprint--they can easily be manufactured with as many as 50 layers of... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: July 24


Single-atom storage Scientists at EPFL are working on a single-atom magnetic data storage device that takes advantage of quantum effects to provide dense storage. The team is using holmium, an element they've been exploring for years. "Single-atom magnets offer an interesting perspective because quantum mechanics may offer shortcuts across their stability barriers that we could exploit in t... » read more

Integrated Passives Market Gets Active


Integrated passive devices are seeing greater use within system-in-package technology and numerous applications, including the Internet of Things. The tiny devices are making their way into automotive electronics, consumer electronics, and health-care products, among other uses. Europe is leading the way in supplying IPDs, thanks to offerings from Infineon Technologies, STMicroelectronics, a... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Jan. 24


Printable circuits with silver nanowires Scientists at Duke University compared the conductivity of films made from different shapes of silver nanostructures and found that electrons move through films made of silver nanowires much easier than films made from other shapes, like nanospheres or microflakes. In fact, electrons flowed so easily through the nanowire films that they could function... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Aug. 23


Rolling Out Solar Power...Literally An International team of researchers have developed solar cells that can be added onto a roll of flexible plastic in liquid form, bringing the same kind of economies of production to the solar industry as rolls of paper and ink did for newspapers more than a century ago. Using a roll-to-roll processing method, the team was able to achieve a power conversi... » read more

RF GaN Gains Steam


The RF [getkc id="217" kc_name="gallium nitride"] (GaN) device market is heating up amid the need for more performance with better power densities in a range of systems, such as infrastructure equipment, missile defense and radar. On one front, for example, RF GaN is beginning to displace a silicon-based technology for the power amplifier sockets in today’s wireless base stations. GaN is m... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: July 5


More storage with electromagnetic switch Scientists at Hokkaido University designed a device that employs both magnetic and electronic signals, potentially doubling the storage capacity of conventional memory devices. In addition to the binary 0/1 method of storing information, this would add an A/B store for the information as well. To do this would require finding a material that can switc... » read more

Using Chip Technology To Detect And Prevent Diseases


The overlap between semiconductor technology and medicine is growing, creating the same kinds of economies of scale that have fueled the semiconductor industry for the past five decades. While technology has long held a place in the medical world, the idea that chips can save lives and improve health is a relatively new concept. That effort is gaining steam, too, as more capabilities are add... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Jan. 12


Incandescent bulbs might not be dead yet Can incandescent bulbs be as efficient – or even more so – than LEDs? More than 95 percent of the energy that goes into incandescents is wasted, most of it as heat, so researchers at MIT and Purdue University struck out to see if that could be changed. A conventional heated metal filament, with all its attendant losses, served as the basis. But... » read more

Inventing Christmas


Christmas has been a tradition in many countries for a considerable number of years. In fact, some of the associated decorations, such as the Christmas Tree, have their roots in 16th century Germany. So you would think that by now there would not be too many new inventions that pass the tests of being novel and non-obvious to those skilled in the art. A quick search using Google yielded more... » read more

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