News and information Samsung's New Graphene technology Will Double Life Of Your Lithium-Ion Battery July 1st,
2015announcements Samsung's New Graphene technology Will Double Life Of Your Lithium-Ion Battery July 1st, 2015researchers from the UCA, key players in a pioneering study that may explain the origin of several digestive diseases June 30th,
2015interviews/Book reviews/Essays/Reports/Podcasts/Journals/White papers Samsung's New Graphene technology Will Double Life Of Your Lithium-Ion Battery July 1st,
#An easy, scalable and direct method for synthesizing graphene in silicon microelectronics: Korean researchers grow 4-inch diameter, high-quality, multi-layer graphene on desired silicon substrates,
an important step for harnessing graphene in commercial silicon microelectronics Abstract: In the last decade, graphene has been studied intensively for its unique optical, mechanical, electrical and structural properties.
The one-atom-thick carbon sheets could revolutionize the way electronic devices are manufactured and lead to faster transistors, cheaper solar cells, new types of sensors and more efficient bioelectric sensory devices.
As a potential contact electrode and interconnection material, wafer-scale graphene could be an essential component in microelectronic circuits,
but most graphene fabrication methods are not compatible with silicon microelectronics, thus blocking graphene's leap from potential wonder material to actual profit-maker.
Now researchers from Korea University in Seoul, have developed an easy and microelectronics-compatible method to grow graphene
and have synthesized successfully wafer-scale (four inches in diameter), high-quality, multi-layer graphene on silicon substrates.
which ions are accelerated under an electrical field and smashed into a semiconductor. The impacting ions change the physical, chemical or electrical properties of the semiconductor.
In a paper published this week in the journal Applied Physics Letters, from AIP Publishing,
which takes graphene a step closer to commercial applications in silicon microelectronics.""For integrating graphene into advanced silicon microelectronics, large-area graphene free of wrinkles, tears and residues must be deposited on silicon wafers at low temperatures,
which cannot be achieved with conventional graphene synthesis techniques as they often require high temperatures, "said Jihyun Kim, the team leader and a professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological engineering at Korea University."
"Our work shows that the carbon ion implantation technique has great potential for the direct synthesis of wafer-scale graphene for integrated circuit technologies."
Graphene's unique optical, mechanical and electrical properties have lead to the one-atom-thick form of carbon being heralded as the next generation material for faster, smaller, cheaper and less power-hungry electronics."
"In silicon microelectronics, graphene is a potential contact electrode and an interconnection material linking semiconductor devices to form the desired electrical circuits,
the method is suited not for silicon microelectronics, as chemical vapor deposition would require a high growth temperature above 1,
"Thus, we are motivated to develop a transfer-free method to directly synthesize high quality, multilayer graphene in silicon microelectronics."
a microelectronics-compatible technique normally used to introduce impurities into semiconductors. In the process, carbon ions were accelerated under an electrical field
#Scientists print low cost radio frequency antenna with graphene ink (Nanowerk News) Scientists have moved graphene--the incredibly strong and conductive single-atom-thick sheet of carbon--a significant step along the path
Researchers from the University of Manchester, together with BGT Materials Limited, a graphene manufacturer in the United kingdom, have printed a radio frequency antenna using compressed graphene ink.
The antenna performed well enough to make it practical for use in radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags and wireless sensors,
the antenna is flexible, environmentally friendly and could be cheaply mass-produced. The researchers present their results in the journal Applied Physics Letters,
"These scanning electron microscope images show the graphene ink after it was deposited and dried (a) and after it was compressed (b). Compression makes the graphene nanoflakes more dense,
said Zhirun Hu, a researcher in the School of Electrical and Electronic engineering at the University of Manchester."
which can be used to print circuits and other electronic components. Graphene ink is generally low cost and mechanically flexible
Paving the Way to Antennas, Wireless Sensors, and More The researchers tested their compressed graphene laminate by printing a graphene antenna onto a piece of paper.
The antenna measured approximately 14 centimeters long, and 3. 5 millimeter across and radiated radio frequency power effectively,
said Xianjun Huang, who is the first author of the paper and a Phd candidate in the Microwave and Communcations Group in the School of Electrical and Electronic engineering.
Printing electronics onto cheap, flexible materials like paper and plastic could mean that wireless technology,
like RFID tags that currently transmit identifying info on everything from cattle to car parts,
as well as sensors and wearable electronics s
#Hematite're-growth'smoothes rough edges for clean energy harvest (Nanowerk News) Finding an efficient solar water splitting method to mine electron-rich hydrogen for clean
In particular, finding effective ways to remove heat energy is vital to the continued miniaturization of electronics.
#Toward tiny, solar-powered sensors The latest buzz in the information technology industry regards he Internet of thingsthe idea that vehicles, appliances, civil-engineering structures, manufacturing equipment,
and even livestock would have embedded their own sensors that report information directly to networked servers,
however, will require extremely low-power sensors that can run for months without battery changes or, even better,
this new chip can do both, and it can power the device directly from the battery.
All of those operations also share a single inductor the chip main electrical component which saves on circuit board space
the chip power consumption remains low. e still want to have battery-charging capability, and we still want to provide a regulated output voltage,
and we really want to do all these tasks with inductor sharing and see which operational mode is the best.
The prototype chip was manufactured through the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's University Shuttle Program. Ups and downs The circuit chief function is to regulate the voltages between the solar cell, the battery,
To control the current flow across their chip, El-Damak and her advisor, Anantha Chandrakasan,
the Joseph F. and Nancy P. Keithley Professor in Electrical engineering, use an inductor, which is a wire wound into a coil.
When a current passes through an inductor, it generates a magnetic field which in turn resists any change in the current.
Throwing switches in the inductor path causes it to alternately charge and discharge, so that the current flowing through it continuously ramps up
however, the switches in the inductor path need to be thrown immediately; otherwise, current could begin to flow through the circuit in the wrong direction,
El-Damak and Chandrakasan use an electrical component called a capacitor, which can store electrical charge.
The higher the current, the more rapidly the capacitor fills. When it full, the circuit stops charging the inductor.
The rate at which the current drops off however, depends on the output voltage, whose regulation is the very purpose of the chip.
Since that voltage is fixed, the variation in timing has to come from variation in capacitance.
El-Damak and Chandrakasan thus equip their chip with a bank of capacitors of different sizes.
As the current drops, it charges a subset of those capacitors, whose selection is determined by the solar cell voltage.
Once again, when the capacitor fills, the switches in the inductor path are flipped. n this technology space,
there usually a trend to lower efficiency as the power gets lower, because there a fixed amount of energy that consumed by doing the work,
who leads a power conversion development project as a fellow at the chip manufacturer Maxim Integrated. f youe only coming in with a small amount,
he adds. t really kind of a full system-on-a chip for power management. And that makes it a little more complicated
#Sensors and drones: hi-tech sentinels for crops (Nanowerk News) Sensors and drones can be among the farmers'best friends,
helping them to use less fertilizers and water, and to control the general condition of their crops.
the research centre CSP and four wine cooperatives are testing a decision support system (DSS) based on wireless sensor networks,
in charge of the DSS research at CSP, installing in the vineyard five sensors that control the temperature and the humidity of air and soil,
and sensors are channelled into the same database, says Molino, and it allows facts about different years to be compared.
These sensors give us several indexes, explains Sgrelli, such as the normalized difference vegetation index, also known as NDVI,
Connecting these results with those gathered by agronomists and sensors on the ground, the farmer can have a complete overview of
CSP, together with the Association Piattella Canavesana di Cortereggio"and the municipality of San Giorgio Canavese, started monitoring via sensors that control temperature and humidity at 10 and 40 centimetres underground,
which is the first of its kind, in a paper published May 6, 2015, in the journal Nano Energy("Single-electrode triboelectric nanogenerator for scavenging friction energy from rolling tires").
"The nanogenerator relies on an electrode integrated into a segment of the tire. When this part of the tire surface comes into contact with the ground,
During initial trials, Wang and his colleagues used a toy car with LED LIGHTS to demonstrate the concept.
They attached an electrode to the wheels of the car, and as it rolled across the ground,
the LED LIGHTS flashed on and off. The movement of electrons caused by friction was able to generate enough energy to power the lights
Thanks to their low weight, high energy density and slower loss of charge when not in use, LIBS have become the preferred choice for consumer electronics.
or explosion risk from LIBS used in consumer electronic devices. These types of batteries, in all of their different lithium-anode combinations, continue to be an essential part of modern consumer electronics
despite their poor track record at high temperatures. The Korean team tried a totally new approach in making the batteries.
but due to ever increasing demands from electronic devices to be lighter and more powerful, investigation of novel electrolytes is necessary in order.
where they create clothing that kills bacteria, conducts electricity, wards off malaria, captures harmful gas and weaves transistors into shirts and dresses.
The Hinestroza group has turned cotton fibers into electronic components such as transistors and thermistors so instead of adding electronics to fabrics,
he converts the fabric into an electronic component. Marcia Silva da Pinto, postdoctoral researcher, works on growing metal organic frameworks onto cotton samples to create a filtration system capable of capturing toxic gas,
as Juan Hinestroza looks on. Creating transistors and other components using cotton fibers brings a new perspective to the seamless integration of electronics
and textiles, enabling the creation of unique wearable electronic devices, Hinestroza said. Taking advantage of cottons irregular topography, Hinestroza and his students added conformal coatings of gold nanoparticles,
as well as semiconductive and conductive polymers to tailor the behavior of natural cotton fibers. The layers were so thin that the flexibility of the cotton fibers is preserved always
#An easy, scalable and direct method for synthesizing graphene in silicon microelectronics (Nanowerk News) In the last decade,
The one-atom-thick carbon sheets could revolutionize the way electronic devices are manufactured and lead to faster transistors, cheaper solar cells, new types of sensors and more efficient bioelectric sensory devices.
As a potential contact electrode and interconnection material, wafer-scale graphene could be an essential component in microelectronic circuits,
but most graphene fabrication methods are not compatible with silicon microelectronics, thus blocking graphene's leap from potential wonder material to actual profit-maker.
Now researchers from Korea University in Seoul, have developed an easy and microelectronics-compatible method to grow graphene
and have synthesized successfully wafer-scale (four inches in diameter), high-quality, multi-layer graphene on silicon substrates.
which ions are accelerated under an electrical field and smashed into a semiconductor. The impacting ions change the physical, chemical or electrical properties of the semiconductor.
In a paper published this week in the journal Applied Physics Letters("Wafer-scale synthesis of multi-layer graphene by high-temperature carbon ion implantation"),from AIP Publishing
which takes graphene a step closer to commercial applications in silicon microelectronics. Wafer-scale (4 inch in diameter) synthesis of multi-layer graphene using high-temperature carbon ion implantation on nickel/Sio2/silicon.
J. Kim/Korea University, Korea)" For integrating graphene into advanced silicon microelectronics, large-area graphene free of wrinkles, tears and residues must be deposited on silicon wafers at low temperatures,
"Our work shows that the carbon ion implantation technique has great potential for the direct synthesis of wafer-scale graphene for integrated circuit technologies."
Graphene's unique optical, mechanical and electrical properties have lead to the one-atom-thick form of carbon being heralded as the next generation material for faster, smaller, cheaper and less power-hungry electronics."
"In silicon microelectronics, graphene is a potential contact electrode and an interconnection material linking semiconductor devices to form the desired electrical circuits,
the method is suited not for silicon microelectronics, as chemical vapor deposition would require a high growth temperature above 1,
"Thus, we are motivated to develop a transfer-free method to directly synthesize high quality, multilayer graphene in silicon microelectronics."
a microelectronics-compatible technique normally used to introduce impurities into semiconductors. In the process, carbon ions were accelerated under an electrical field
ingestible electronics, which can diagnose and monitor a variety of conditions in the GI TRACT; or extended-release drug-delivery systems that could last for weeks or months after a single administration.
either--the antenna and power-converting circuit can only extend the battery life of an iphone 6 by about 30,
consequently, are of interest for use as organic LEDS (OLEDS). Within graphene, benzene rings are fused to form a honeycomb structure.
Sections of this structure, referred to as nanographenes or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHS), play an integral role in organic electronics.
mechanically flexible electronic components adapted to individual applications, such as LEDS. Courtesy of Goethe University Frankfurt. The boron-containing nanographenes have an impact on two key properties of an OLED luminophore
the researchers said: the color of fluorescence shifts into the highly desirable, blue spectral range and the capacity to transport electrons is improved substantially.
Hertz and Wagner anticipate that such materials like the graphene flakes they developed will be particularly suitable for use in portable electronic devices,
#Computer Chips Can Now Be made From Wood Not quite what we had in mindthe woods are lovely, dark, deep,
researchers announced the construction of computer chips made from wood. But don't expect to see hipsters advertising hand-carved artisan computer chips.
The wood product that the scientists are using is called cellulose nanofibril, or CNF. It is thin, flexible,
The researchers were able to use CNF as a substrate or base layer for electronic circuits in lab tests,
unlike a lot of the petroleum-based alternatives that manufacturers use to build the bases of modern computer chips.
"The majority of material in a chip is support. We only use less than a couple of micrometers for everything else,
"Now the chips are so safe you can put them in the forest and fungus will degrade it.
"It will be years before computers containing wood-based computer chips hit store shelves, but computers as fertilizer isn't a totally crazy idea.
Society tends to treat electronics as disposable commodities. But unlike a glass bottle that gets recycled or food that hits a compost heap,
but there's still a ton of electronics (well, a few million tons) headed for the landfill.
By changing the materials that we build electronics with, Ma, and others like him (another team is building dissolvable circuits) are trying to deal with the e waste problem at the start--long before your phone gets stepped on or your computer crashes.
and tested a new sensor to detect ambient levels of mercury in the atmosphere. Funded through a National Science Foundation Major Research Instrumentation grant, the new highly sensitive, laser-based instrument provides scientists with a method to more accurately measure global human exposure to mercury.
titled"Deployment of a sequential two-photon laser-induced fluorescence sensor for the detection of gaseous elemental mercury at ambient levels:
It also generates small amounts of electricity--in practice enough to drive a small fan, a sensor or a light-emitting diode.
but which could also transfer electrons to a metal electrode, "he says. The idea behind this water purification approach was born many years ago
#New laser for computer chips: International team of scientists constructs first germanium-tin semiconductor laser for silicon chips The transfer of data between multiple cores as well as between logic elements and memory cells is regarded as a bottleneck in the fast-developing computer technology.
Data transmission via light could be the answer to the call for a faster and more energy efficient data flow on computer chips as well as between different board components.
Signal transmission via copper wires limits the development of larger and faster computers due to the thermal load and the limited bandwidth of copper wires.
The clock signal alone synchronizing the circuits uses up to 30%of the energy--energy which can be saved through optical transmission explains Prof.
They allow very high bandwidths even over long distances. Through optical fibres signal propagation is almost lossless and possible across various wavelengths simultaneously:
However in spite of intensive research a laser source that is compatible with the manufacturing of chips is not yet achievable according to the head of Semiconductor Nanoelectronics (PGI-9). The basis of chip manufacturing is silicon an element of main group IV of the periodic table.
Typical semiconductor lasers for telecommunication systems made of gallium arsenide for example however are costly and consist of elements from main groups III
In contrast semiconductors of main group IV--to which both silicon and germanium belong--can be integrated into the manufacturing process without any major difficulties.
They are classed among the indirect semiconductors. In contrast to direct semiconductors they emit mostly heat and only a little light when excited.
That is why research groups all over the globe are intensively pursuing the objective of manipulating the material properties of germanium
The scientists at Julich's Peter Grunberg Institute have succeeded now for the first time in creating a real direct main group IV semiconductor laser by combining germanium and tin
Currently the scientists in Dr. Dan Buca's group at Julich are working on linking optics and electronics even more closely.
Hence sensors made of Gesn promise a new possibility of detecting these compounds. Along with computer chips completely new applications that have not been pursued so far for financial reasons may
thus benefit from the new laser material. Gas sensors or implantable chips for medical applications which can gather information about blood sugar levels
or other parameters via spectroscopic analysis are examples. In the future cost-effective portable sensor technology--which may be integrated into a smart phone--could supply real-time data on the distribution of substances in the air
or the ground and thus contribute to a better understanding of weather and climate development m
#Comprehensive know-how and the full value chain, from technology development to complete systems Arraythe FBH develops the LED TECHNOLOGY in the UV-B and UV-C spectral range from the chip to the final
In this particular case, LEDS emitting at a wavelength around 310 nm are used to stimulate health-promoting secondary metabolites in plants.
which are defined by gratings implemented into the semiconductor chip. Wavelength selection is realized by separately addressable sections within the laser.
With these FBH tiny monolithic light sources on chip level, a compact SERDS measurement head that is only as small as a laser pointer was realized for the first time.
For rapid prototyping applications the FBH has developed DBR ridge waveguide (RW) lasers with 24 individually addressable emitters featuring a wavelength spacing>0. 3 nm and a spectral width<1 pm.
#Biodegradable, flexible silicon transistors Now researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison have come up with a new solution to alleviate the environmental burden of discarded electronics.
This work opens the door for green, low-cost, portable electronic devices in future. Array"We found that cellulose nanofibrillated fiber based transistors exhibit superior performance as that of conventional silicon-based transistors,
"said Zhenqiang Ma, the team leader and a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the UW-Madison."
"And the bio-based transistors are so safe that you can put them in the forest,
"Nowadays, the majority of portable electronics are built on nonrenewable, non-biodegradable materials such as silicon wafers,
All these superior properties make cellulose nanofibril an outstanding candidate for making portable green electronics.
Ma's team employed silicon nanomembranes as the active material in the transistor--pieces of ultra-thin films (thinner than a human hair) peeled from the bulk crystal
and glued onto the cellulose nanofibrill substrate to create a flexible, biodegradable and transparent silicon transistor.
But to make portable electronics, the biodegradable transistor needed to be able to operate at microwave frequencies,
which is the working range of most wireless devices. The researchers thus conducted a series of experiments such as measuring the current-voltage characteristics to study the device's functional performance,
which finally showed the biodegradable transistor has superior microwave-frequency operation capabilities comparable to existing semiconductor transistors."
"Biodegradable electronics provide a new solution for environmental problems brought by consumers'pursuit of quickly upgraded portable devices,
"It can be anticipated that future electronic chips and portable devices will be much greener and cheaper than that of today."
"Next, Ma and colleagues plan to develop more complicated circuit system based on the biodegradable transistors s
Sunlight to electricity Solar cells work by converting photons of sunlight into an electric current that moves between two electrodes.
A key roadblock to building an efficient perovskite-silicon tandem has been a lack of transparency. olin had to figure out how to put a transparent electrode on the top
Mcgehee said. o one had made ever a perovskite solar cell with two transparent electrodes. Perovskites are damaged easily by heat and readily dissolve in water.
This inherent instability ruled out virtually all of the conventional techniques for applying electrodes onto the perovoskite solar cell
#A new kind of wood chip: collaboration could lead to biodegradable computer chips Portable electronics typically made of nonrenewable,
non-biodegradable and potentially toxic materials are discarded at an alarming rate in consumerspursuit of the next best electronic gadget.
In an effort to alleviate the environmental burden of electronic devices, a team of University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers has collaborated with researchers in the Madison-based U s. Department of agriculture Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) to develop a surprising solution:
a semiconductor chip made almost entirely of wood. A cellulose nanofibril (CNF) computer chip rests on a leaf.
Image credit: Yei Hwan Jung, Wisconsin Nano Engineering Device Laboratory A cellulose nanofibril (CNF) computer chip rests on a leaf.
Image credit: Yei Hwan Jung, Wisconsin Nano Engineering Device Laboratory The research team, led by UW-Madison electrical
or support layer, of a computer chip, with cellulose nanofibril (CNF), a flexible, biodegradable material made from wood. he majority of material in a chip is support.
Ma says. ow the chips are so safe you can put them in the forest
Working with Shaoqin arahgong, a UW-Madison professor of biomedical engineering, Cai group addressed two key barriers to using wood-derived materials in an electronics setting:
CNF offers many benefits over current chip substrates, she says. he advantage of CNF over other polymers is that it a bio-based material and most other polymers are based petroleum polymers.
The group work also demonstrates a more environmentally friendly process that showed performance similar to existing chips.
The majority of today wireless devices use gallium arsenide-based microwave chips due to their superior high-frequency operation and power handling capabilities.
However, gallium arsenide can be environmentally toxic, particularly in the massive quantities of discarded wireless electronics.
500 gallium arsenide transistors in a 5-by-6 millimeter chip. Typically for a microwave chip that size,
there are only eight to 40 transistors. The rest of the area is wasted just, he says. e take our design
and make a completely functional circuit with performance comparable to existing chips. While the biodegradability of these materials will have a positive impact on the environment,
Ma says the flexibility of the technology can lead to widespread adoption of these electronic chips. ass-producing current semiconductor chips is so cheap,
he says. ut flexible electronics are the future, and we think wee going to be well ahead of the curve. t
#Single Atom Building blocks For Future Electronics The material is called a silicene, a layer of silicon single atoms arranged in a honeycomb pattern that was fabricated first by researchers at UOW Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials (ISEM) and their partners in Europe and China.
which means reducing power and cooling requirements for electronic devices. f silicene could be used to build electronic devices,
it could enable the semiconductor industry to achieve the ultimate in miniaturization, Dr Yi Du,
The next step will be to integrate it into electronic devices and test its usefulness for specific applications. he challenge is to make large-scale
and high-quality silicene layers that are large enough for integrated circuits, Dr Du said. here is also work to be done in developing ways to peel
as well as embed electrodes in it. s
#Scientists construct first whole genome sequence of bighorn sheep Geneticists at the University of Alberta have constructed the first whole genome sequence of a bighorn sheep in a new study that could have a significant impact on conservation efforts of the species,
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