#A quantum sensor for nanoscale electron transport The word defect doesnt usually have a good connotation--often indicating failure.
Graphic depiction of NV center sensors (red glowing spheres) used to probe electron motion in a conductor.
Here, each NV center is used as a sensor that can be thought of as switching between two states
1 and 0. The sensor can be calibrated in the presence of a constant magnetic field such that it is in state 1
. If the sensor experiences an oscillating magnetic field, the sensor switches to state 0. There is one more important component to this sensor--it can detect magnetic field strength as well.
For weak magnetic field fluctuations, the NV sensor will slowly decay to state 0; for stronger fluctuations, it will decay much faster from 1 to 0. By detecting different decay times,
physicists can precisely measure the fluctuating magnetic fields, which tells them about the electron behavior at a very small length scale.
Like any good sensor, the NV centers are almost completely non-invasivetheir read-out with laser light does not disturb the sample they are sensing.
#Extremely sensitive temperature sensor developed with plant nanobionic materials Humans have been inspired by nature since the beginning of time.
in order to develop an extremely sensitive temperature sensor they took a close look at temperature-sensitive plants. However, they did not mimic the properties of the plants;
The scientists were able to develop by far the most sensitive temperature sensor: an electronic module that changes its conductivity as a function of temperature."
"No other sensor can respond to such small temperature fluctuations with such large changes in conductivity.
Our sensor reacts with a responsivity at least 100 times higher compared to the best existing sensors,
In doing so, plants are better than any man-made sensor so far. Di Giacomo experimented with tobacco cells in a cell culture."
the cyberwood sensor can identify warm bodies even at distance; for example, a hand approaching the sensor from a distance of a few dozen centimetres.
The sensor's conductivity depends directly on the hand's distance from the sensor. According to the scientists, cyberwood could be used in a wide range of applications;
for instance, in the development of a'touchless touchscreen'that reacts to gestures, with the gestures recorded by multiple sensors.
Equally conceivable might be heat-sensitive cameras or night-vision devices. Thickening agent pectin in a starring role The ETH scientists, together with a collaborator at the University of Salerno, Italy,
The scientists submitted a patent application for their sensor. In ongoing work, they are now further developing it such that it functions without plant cells, essentially with only pectin and ions.
Their goal is to create a flexible, transparent and even biocompatible sensor with the same ultrahigh temperature sensitivity.
Such a sensor could be moulded into arbitrary shapes and produced at extremely low cost. This will open the door to new applications for thermal sensors in biomedical devices
consumer products and low cost thermal cameras s
#Soft, energy-efficient robotic wings Dielectric elastomers are novel materials for making actuators or motors with soft and lightweight properties that can undergo large active deformations with high-energy conversion efficiencies.
Made by sandwiching a soft insulating elastomer film between two compliant electrodes, dielectric elastomers can be squeezed
when a voltage is applied between electrodes. In contrast to actuators based on rigid materials such as silicon, dielectric elastomers can reach a very large extent of stretch, often exceeding 100 percent elongation while not breaking,
as electrical vehicles and personal electronic devices become more ubiquitous in our daily lives, it is becoming increasingly necessary to have more efficient systems for localized electrical power generation and effective cooling mechanisms.
#Micro-magnetometer Nanowerk News) MIT researchers have developed a new, ultrasensitive magnetic-field detector that is 1, 000 times more energy-efficient than its predecessors.
Magnetic-field detectors, or magnetometers, are used already for all those applications. But existing technologies have drawbacks:
A diamond chip about one-twentieth the size of a thumbnail could contain trillions of nitrogen vacancies,
The research team separated the hard-to-kill stem cells from the general glioblastoma population by attracting the stem cells to a microchip coated with antibodies.
Here, the'knob'is applied the voltage to a small electrode placed above the atom.""The findings suggest that it would be possible to locally control individual qubits with electric fields in a large-scale quantum computer using only inexpensive voltage generators, rather than the expensive high-frequency microwave sources.
as well as control of crystallinity and the molecular orientations towards both the substrate surface and the electrodes.
Jilin University (China) and the University of Nottingham (UK) have developed a method that significantly prolongs the lives of charges in organic electronic devices("Organic Electronics:
Engineering Ultra Long Charge Carrier Lifetimes in Organic Electronic devices at Room temperature"."Silicon based chips and transistors have been at the heart of all electronic devices since the 1950s.
Driven by economic and environmental factors, and by the need for renewable energy resources, there is currently an enormous scientific and technological interest in transitioning away from silicon based electronics to new organic electronic devices.
Just like living organisms, organic electronics use carbon in complex molecules as their key functional component.
These new organic electronic devices are less expensive, more environmentally friendly and better recyclable than the older ones.
Today the most commercially successful organic electronic devices are OLEDS (organic light emitting diodes) found in smart phone displays.
) The team was able to design an organic electronic device in which charge generated by light lived approximately 10,000 times longer than was thought previously possible.
This opens up the possibility of creating entirely new classes of organic electronic devices such as ultra-sensitive photo detectors to image distant stars,
or flexible memory elements which could be used in wearable computers s
#'Parachuting'boron on benzene rings (Nanowerk News) Tuning the para position of benzene moieties is significant for creating biologically active compounds and optoelectronic materials.
classical dipole patch antennas have been used.""Now, our technology introduces'metasurfaces'that are much better energy collectors than classical antennas,
"explained Omar M. Ramahi, professor of electrical and computer engineering. Metasurfaces are formed by etching the surface of a material with an elegant pattern of periodic shapes.
"Conventional antennas can channel electromagnetic energy to a load --but at much lower energy absorption efficiency levels,"said Ramahi."
"Our research enables significantly higher energy absorption than classical antennas, "Ramahi said.""This results in a significant reduction of the energy harvesting surface footprint.
However, the measurements based on a single f transition may be affected much by the variation of the sensor concentration and the drift of the optoelectronic systems
namely, the excitation sources and detectors. Recently, authors reported self-reference nanothermometers based on the intensity ratio of two f transitions that overcome the drawbacks of temperature determination with a single transition.
portable sensor that can detect gases emitted by rotting meat, allowing consumers to determine whether the meat in their grocery store or refrigerator is safe to eat.
The sensor, which consists of chemically modified carbon nanotubes, could be deployed in"smart packaging"that would offer much more accurate safety information than the expiration date on the package,
who is the senior author of a paper describing the new sensor this week in the journal Angewandte Chemie("Single-Walled carbon nanotube/Metalloporphyrin Composites for the Chemiresistive Detection of Amines and Meat Spoilage").
The sensor is similar to other carbon nanotube devices that Swager's lab has developed in recent years,
For this sensor, the researchers used a metalloporphyrin with cobalt at its center. Metalloporphyrins are very good at binding to nitrogen-containing compounds called amines.
In this study, the researchers tested the sensor on four types of meat: pork, chicken, cod, and salmon.
There are other sensors that can detect the signs of decaying meat, but they are usually large and expensive instruments that require expertise to operate."
easiest-to-manufacture sensors, "Swager says. The new device also requires very little power and could be incorporated into a wireless platform Swager's lab recently developed that allows a regular smartphone to read output from carbon nanotube sensors such as this one.
"The detector and light source was the same as on light microscopes found at any hospital, but my colleague Tom Vosch has optimized the microscope to the point where everything is almost beyond the possible.
and avoids obstacles thanks to optic flow sensors inspired by insect vision. It can fly along a tunnel with uneven, moving walls without measuring either speed or altitude.
optic flow sensors could be used as an ultra-light backup system in the event of failure on a space mission4.
Sub-optimal Lunar Landing GNC using Non-gimbaled Bio-inspired Optic Flow Sensors, G. Sabiron, T. Raharijaona, L. Burlion, E. Kervendal, E
#Flexible sensors turn skin into a touch-sensitive interaction space for mobile devices (w/video) If a mobile phone rings during a meeting,
They have developed flexible silicone rubber stickers with pressure-sensitive sensors that fit snugly to the skin.
Because of the flexible material used, the sensors can be manufactured in a variety of shapes, sizes and personalized designs.
They have developed flexible silicone rubber stickers with pressure-sensitive sensors that fit snugly to the skin.
Because of the flexible material used, the sensors can be manufactured in a variety of shapes, sizes and personalized designs.
Hall 9). Someone wearing a smartwatch can look at a calendar or receive e-mails without having to reach further than their wrist.
and electrically conducting sensors that can be worn on the skin. The stickers can act as an input space that receives
The silicone used to fabricate the sensor patches makes them flexible and stretchable. his makes them easier to use in an everyday environment.
Users can therefore decide where they want to position the sensor patch and how long they want to wear it.
Currently the sensor stickers are connected via cable to a computer system. According to Steimle, inbuilt microchips may in future allow the skin-worn sensor patches to communicate wirelessly with other mobile devices.
The publication about Skinwon the est Paper Awardat the SIGCHI conference, which ranks among the most important conferences within the research area of human computer interaction.
#Compact optical data transmission Compact optical transmission possibilities are of great interest in faster and more energy-efficient data exchange between electronic chips.
Optical technologies offer an enormous potential especially in transmitting data between computer chips, explains Manfred Kohl of the KIT.
Nano Scale Disruptive Silicon-Plasmonic Platform for Chip-to-Chip Interconnection, developed the plasmonic modulator (an electric-to-optical converter)
Compact optical transmitter and receiver units could exceed the speed limits of present-day electronic systems and help get rid of the bottlenecks in data centers.
at the same time, act as electrodes. The electrodes carry a voltage which is modulated in line with the digital data. The electro-optical polymer changes its index of refraction as a function of the voltage.
The waveguide and the coupler made of silicon route the two parts of a split light beam to the gaps or from the gaps.
and thus can easily be integrated into current chip architectures. At the present time, some 10 percent of the electricity in Germany is consumed by information and communication technologies, such as computers and smart phones of users,
and electrons in metal surfaces to develop novel components for optical data transmission between chips. The project is funded under the 7th Research Framework Programme of the European union
The overwhelming majority of microchips that exist in electronics now are made from silicon, and they work extremely well.
However, as devices get smaller there is an increasing demand to shrink the size of the logic chips that make those devices work.
As the chips approach single or several atom thickness, (commonly referred to as 2-dimensional),
metal electrodes can be applied to it directly, saving any additional work of finding a way to attach metal leads.
The dual-phase Mote2 transistor looks promising for use in new electronic devices as demand for components increases for materials that are small, light and extremely energy efficient n
and Graphene has grown as the most promising material for brand-new electronic circuitry, sensors and optical communications devices.
color lightave moved from the research lab into commercial products like high-end TVS, e readers, laptops,
#Super-small needle technology for the brain Microscale needle-electrode array technology has enhanced brain science and engineering applications, such as electrophysiological studies, drug and chemical delivery systems, and optogenetics.
including recording/stimulation electrodes, glass pipettes, and optogenetic fibers.""He added:""This has the potential to reduce invasiveness drastically
or the development of silicon computing chips that process data communicated by photons of light instead of electricity.
The scientists experimented with silicon structures used in computer chips that power computers, tablets and mobile phones,
"Like the Tour lab's previous discovery of silicon oxide memories, the new devices require only two electrodes per circuit,
"The layered structure consists of tantalum, nanoporous tantalum oxide and multilayer graphene between two platinum electrodes.
They outfitted the robots feet with load sensors that measure the force exerted by each foot on the ground.
#New optical chip lights up the race for quantum computer The microprocessor inside a computer is a single multipurpose chip that has revolutionised people's life,
Now, researchers from the University of Bristol in the UK and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) in Japan, have pulled off the same feat for light in the quantum world by developing an optical chip that can process photons in an infinite number
The fully reprogrammable chip brings together a multitude of existing quantum experiments and can realise a plethora of future protocols that have not even been conceived yet, marking a new era of research for quantum scientists and engineers at the cutting edge of quantum technologies.
"A whole field of research has essentially been put onto a single optical chip that is easily controlled.
"The team demonstrated the chip's unique capabilities by reprogramming it to rapidly perform a number of different experiments, each
it took seconds to re-programme the chip, and milliseconds for the chip to switch to the new experiment.
We carried out a year's worth of experiments in a matter of hours. What we're really excited about is using these chips to discover new science that we haven't even thought of yet."
"The device was made possible because the world's leading quantum photonics group teamed up with Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT), the world's leading telecommunications company.
and plans to add more chips like this one to the service so others can discover the quantum world for themselves s
"We see possible applications in thermoelectrics, batteries, catalysis, solar cells, electronic devices, structural composites and many other fields, enabling a new level of engineering on the atomic scale
light detectors, and several kinds of electronic devices that are by nature transparent to visible light. Of particular importance are new materials that conduct electricity by using missing electrons, otherwise known as"holes."
"A potential application of this finding could be to create logic gates for DNA based computing.
Logic gates are an elementary building block of digital circuits-used in computers and other electronic equipment. They are made traditionally using diodes or transistors
"This research expands how DNA could be used as a switching mechanism for a logic gate in DNA-based computing or in nano-technology
low-power embedded systems-the computing devices found in everything from thermostats to automobiles.""Using our techniques,
"Because the embedded system software and power converter software are using a shared processor on a single chip,
"could lead to ultracompact optical systems such as advanced microscopes, displays, sensors, and cameras that can be mass-produced using the same photolithography techniques used to manufacture computer microchips."
"Currently, optical systems are made one component at a time, and the components are assembled often manually, "says Andrei Faraon (BS'04), an assistant professor of applied physics and materials science,
"But this new technology is very similar to the one used to print semiconductor chips onto silicon wafers,
They specifically concentrated on the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide on metal electrodes ecause of the current interest in this process for sustainable production of fuels and value added chemicals,
they could be used widely in many applications including as exceptionally strong components in personal electronic devices, in space exploration vehicles,
which is he universal electrode materialin batteries and fuel cells, Surendranath says. By finding a way to make this material tunable in the same ways as molecular catalysts
#Darwin on a chip Researchers of the MESA+Institute for Nanotechnology and the CTIT Institute for ICT Research at the University of Twente in The netherlands have demonstrated working electronic circuits that have been produced in a radically new way,
It is a major challenge to produce chips in which the millions of transistors have the same characteristics,
and thus to make the chips operate properly. Another drawback is that their energy consumption is reaching unacceptable levels.
such as high-power engines, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) instruments, and thermal sensors.""Because of its shape flexibility, the active thermal cloak might also be applied in human garments for effective cooling and warming,
#Protein-based sensor could detect viral infection or kill cancer cells MIT biological engineers have developed a modular system of proteins that can detect a particular DNA sequence in a cell
and biocompatible metal electrodes"),pairs gold nanomesh with a stretchable substrate made with polydimethylsiloxane, or PDMS.
That means the materials aren't durable enough for consumer electronics or biomedical devices.""Metallic materials often exhibit high cycle fatigue,
or organ surfaces, suggest the nanomesh"might be implanted in the body as a pacemaker electrode,
#Permanent data storage with light The first all-optical permanent on-chip memory has been developed by scientists of Karlsruhe Institute of technology (KIT) and the universities of Münster, Oxford, and Exeter.
nonvolatile on-chip memory. ptical bits can be written at frequencies of up to a gigahertz. This allows for extremely quick data storage by our all-photonic memory,
Permanent all-optical on-chip memories might considerably increase future performance of computers and reduce their energy consumption.
Their new approach could be used to study everything from semiconductor chips to cancer cells. The team will present their work at the Frontiers in Optics, The Optical Society's annual meeting and conference in San jose
and find their way onto a detector, creating a diffraction pattern. By analyzing that pattern,
the detector must be placed close to the target material--similar to placing a specimen close to a microscope to boost the magnification.
hardly any photons will bounce off the target at large enough angles to reach the detector.
Engineers can use this to hunt for tiny defects in semiconductor chips. Biologists can zoom in on the organelles that make up a cell.
& Interfaces("Highly sensitive and Selective Sensor Chips with Graphene oxide Linking Layer")."Valentyn Volkov is the co-lead author, a visiting professor from the University of Southern Denmark.
New GO based biosensor chips exploit the phenomenon of surface plasmon resonance (SPR. This is a photo of the state-of-art biosensor.
These sensors can detect biomolecule adsorption even at a few trillionth of a gram per millimeter square.
Nevertheless, the most distinctive feature of such sensors is an ability to"visualize"molecular interactions in real time."
With SPR sensors we just need to estimate the interaction between the drug and targets on the sensing surface,
Most commercial SPR sensor chips comprise a thin glass plate covered by gold layer with thiol
The biosensing sensitivity depends on the properties of chip surface. Higher binding capacity for biomolecules increases the signal levels and accuracy of analysis. The last several years
and patented a novel type of SPR sensor chips with the linking layer, made of GO, a material with more attractive optical and chemical properties than pristine graphene.
Scientists conducted a series of experiments with the GO chip the commercially available chip with carboxymethylated dextran (CMD) layer and the chip covered by monolayer graphene.
Experiments showed that the proposed GO chip has three times higher sensitivity than the CMD chip and 3. 7 times than the chip with pristine graphene.
These results mean, that the new chip needs much less molecules for detecting a compound
and can be used for analysis of chemical reactions with small drug molecules. An important advantage of the new GO based sensor chips is their simplicity
and low-cost fabrication compared to sensor chips that are already commercially available.""Our invention will help in drug development against viral and cancer diseases.
We are expecting that pharmaceutical industry will express a strong demand for our technology, "Stebunov said."
"The sensor can also find applications in food quality control, toxin screening, the sensor can significantly shorten a time for a clinical diagnostic,"researcher added.
However, the developed chip should go through a clinical trial for medical applications s
#Pioneering research develops new way to capture light-for the computers of tomorrow The key breakthrough will allow large quantities of data to be stored directly on an integrated optical chip,
rather than being processed and stored electronically, as happens today. Light is suited ideally to ultra-fast high-bandwidth data transfer,
and optical communications form an indispensable part of the IT world of today and tomorrow. However, a stumbling block so far has been the storage of large quantities of data directly on integrated chips in the optical domain.
While optical fibre cables and with them data transfer by means of light have long since become part of our everyday life,
The team of scientists from Germany and England have made a key breakthrough by capturing light on an integrated chip,
so developing the first permanent, all-optical on-chip memory. The research is published in leading scientific journal, Nature Photonics("On-chip integratable all-photonic nonvolatile multilevel memory".
"Professor David Wright, from the University of Exeters Engineering department said: With our prototype we have, for the first time,
by delivering extremely fast on-chip optical data storage In addition, he says, the written state is preserved
when the power is removed, unlike most current on-chip memories. The scientists from Oxford Exeter, Karlsruhe and Mnster used so-called phase change materials at heart of their all-optical memory.
The rapid development in nano-optics and on-chip photonic systems has increased the demand for ultrathin flat lenses with three-dimensional subwavelength focusing capability the ability to see details of an object smaller than 200 nanometres.
which will officially be published tomorrow in the Journal of the American Chemical Society("A highly selective electrochemical DNA-based sensor that employs steric hindrance effects to detect proteins directly in whole blood),
(or traffic) at the surface of a sensor, which drastically reduced the signal of our tests,
and limits the ability of this DNA to hybridize to its complementary strand located on the surface of a gold electrode.
The new material could also lead to optical sensors that are highly sensitive to the electrical field in the environment on the nanometer scale e
#Flexible microfluidic tactile sensor for robotics, electronics and healthcare applications A team of scientists from the National University of Singapore (NUS) Faculty of engineering has developed a wearable liquid-based microfluidic tactile
sensor that is small, thin, highly flexible and durable. Simple and cost-effective to produce, this novel device is very suitable for applications such as soft robotics, wearable consumer electronics, smart medical prosthetic devices,
as well as real-time healthcare monitoring. Tactile sensors are data acquisition devices that detect and measure a diversity of properties arising from physical interaction
and translate the information acquired to be analysed by an interconnected intelligent system. Conventional tactile sensors that are available today are typically rigid and in solid-state form
restricting various natural body movements when used and may also be subjected to plastic deformation and failure when pressure is exerted,
Addressing the limitations of existing tactile sensors, a team of researchers led by Professor Lim Chwee Teck from NUS Department of Biomedical engineering achieves a significant technological breakthrough by adopting a liquid-based pressure sensing method in the design of such sensors.
The team and their flexible sensor. Novel liquid-based pressure sensing element The newly developed microfluidic tactile sensor is fabricated on a flexible substrate like silicone rubber
and uses non-corrosive, nontoxic 2d nanomaterial suspension in liquid form, such as graphene oxide, as the pressure sensing element to recognise force-induced changes.
The NUS team has put the device through rigorous tests and also subjected it to various strenuous deformations, such as pressing, bending or stretching,
From idea to market The teams invention will further advance the applications of tactile sensors
This liquid-based microfluidic tactile sensor, which is the first of its kind, addresses an existing gap in the market.
the sensor gives a better fit when monitoring natural body movements. Its small size, durability and ease of production further differentiate this novel device from conventional tactile sensors.
With the rapid advancement of healthcare and biomedical technologies as well as consumer electronics we are optimistic about new possibilities to commercialise our invention,
said Prof Lim. The NUS team has filed already a patent for its creation and is also keen to explore licensing partnerships in commercial development.
#Chip-based technology enables reliable direct detection of Ebola virus A team led by researchers at UC Santa cruz has developed chip-based technology for reliable detection of Ebola virus and other viral pathogens.
Adding a"preconcentration"step during sample processing on the microfluidic chip extended the limit of detection well beyond that achieved by other chip-based approaches,
The system combines two small chips, a microfluidic chip for sample preparation and an optofluidic chip for optical detection.
For over a decade, Schmidt and his collaborators have been developing optofluidic chip technology for optical analysis of single molecules as they pass through a tiny fluid-filled channel on the chip.
The microfluidic chip for sample processing can be integrated as a second layer next to or on top of the optofluidic chip.
and transferred to the optofluidic chip for optical detection. Schmidt noted that the team has not yet been able to test the system starting with raw blood samples.
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