Power/Performance Bits: Sept. 3


Flexible, organic solar cells Work by a team of chemical engineers at Penn State and Rice University may lead to a new class of inexpensive organic solar cells. If solar cells could be made as easily as posters or newspapers are printed, sheets of organic solar cells could be made, representing a fundamental shift in the way solar cells are made, the researchers said. Today, most solar c... » read more

System Bits: July 30


Controlling nanomaterials To find out why some sets of flat nanocrystals arrange themselves in an alternating, herringbone style even though it wasn’t the simplest pattern, University of Pennsylvania researchers turned to experts in computer simulation at the University of Michigan and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The result of the collaboration gives nanotechnology research... » read more

System Bits: July 23


Bottom-up nanoribbons Concentric hexagons of graphene grown in a furnace at Rice University represent the first time anyone has synthesized graphene nanoribbons on metal from the bottom up — atom by atom. As seen under a microscope, the layers brought onions to mind, according to Rice chemist James Tour, until a colleague suggested flat graphene could never be like an onion. “So I said,... » read more

Efficiency Vs. Accuracy


By Barry Pangrle If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. I wrote an article, Power vs. Accuracy, last year that discussed tradeoffs between power and accuracy for different applications. It turns out that for a number of processing applications, if every bit isn’t perfect, the impact on the final result might not be all that great. Anyone performing financial analytical... » read more

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