Power/Performance Bits: June 8


High temp capacitor Researchers at Pennsylvania State University doped a dielectric capacitor to increase storage capacity while also increasing electric charge efficiency, enabling the capacitor to withstand greater voltage with very little energy loss at temperatures higher than 300 degrees Fahrenheit. “What we have done is to use interface effects in nano-dopants to increase both the stor... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: April 14


Complex microparticles A team of researchers have developed the world’s most complex microparticle. In the lab, researchers have assembled hierarchically organized particles with twisted spikes and polydisperse Au-Cys (gold-cysteine) nanoplatelets or nanosheets. The sheets all twist in the same direction. Cysteine is a proteinogenic amino acid. The structure is said to be more complex ... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: March 24


Autonomous microscopes FLEET, also known as the ARC Centre of Excellence in Future Low-Energy Electronics Technologies, has developed an autonomous scanning probe microscopy (SPM) technology. SPM is an instrument that makes use of an atomically sharp probe. The probe is placed in close proximity above the surface of a sample. With the probe, the SPM forms images of the surface of the sample... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Feb. 25


Thinner, flexible touchscreens Researchers from RMIT University, University of New South Wales, and Monash University developed a thin, flexible electronic material for touchscreens. The material is 100 times thinner than current touchscreen materials. The new screens are still based on indium-tin oxide (ITO), a common touchscreen material. However, a liquid metal printing approach was used... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Jan. 28


Accelerator-on-chip Researchers at Stanford University and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory created an electron-accelerator-on-chip. While the technique is much less powerful than standard particle accelerators, it can be much smaller. It relied upon an infrared laser to deliver, in less than a hair’s width, the sort of energy boost that takes microwaves many feet. The team carved ... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Mar. 11


Reading qubits faster Researchers at Aalto University and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland propose a faster way to read information from qubits, the building blocks of quantum computers. Currently, they are extremely sensitive to disruption even in cryogenic environments, holding quantum information for less than a millisecond. In the method now used to read information from a qubit... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Oct. 16


On-chip modulator Researchers at Harvard SEAS and Nokia Bell Labs boosted shrunk down an important component of optoelectronics with an on-chip modulator that is 100 times smaller and 20 times more efficient than current lithium niobite (LN) modulators. Lithium niobate modulators form the basis of modern telecommunications, converting electronic data to optical information in fiber optic ca... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Nov. 23


Increasing lithium battery density Researchers at Columbia University developed a new method to increase the energy density of lithium batteries using a trilayer structure that is stable in ambient air. "When lithium batteries are charged the first time, they lose anywhere from 5-20% energy in that first cycle," said Yuan Yang, assistant professor of materials science and engineering at C... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: August 13


Graphene-based device enables next-gen energy storage Monash University researchers have brought next generation energy storage closer with an engineering first: a graphene-based device that is compact, yet lasts as long as a conventional battery. A research team in the Department of Materials Engineering has developed a completely new strategy to engineer graphene-based supercapacitors (SC... » read more

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