#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.
and the Electronics-Inspired Interdisciplinary Research Institute (EIIRIS) at Toyohashi University of Technology has developed a methodology to temporarily enhance the stiffness of a long, high-aspect-ratio flexible microneedle (e g.,<
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,
The memories are based on tantalum oxide, a common insulator in electronics. Applying voltage to a 250-nanometer-thick sandwich of graphene, tantalum,
"Like the Tour lab's previous discovery of silicon oxide memories, the new devices require only two electrodes per circuit,
"And it doesn't even need diodes or selectors, making it one of the easiest ultradense memories to construct.
"The layered structure consists of tantalum, nanoporous tantalum oxide and multilayer graphene between two platinum electrodes.
the researchers found the tantalum oxide gradually loses oxygen ions, changing from an oxygen-rich, nanoporous semiconductor at the top to oxygen-poor at the bottom.
These negatively charged ions produce an electric field that effectively serves as a diode to hinder error-causing crosstalk.
They outfitted the robots feet with load sensors that measure the force exerted by each foot on the ground.
who led the WISE study and whose previous work identifying recycled planetary dust, known as debris disks, around close to a hundred other star systems, puts the discovery of the exoplanet in context.
and optoelectronics devices("Observation of tunable bandgap and anisotropic Dirac semimetal state in black phosphorus").The research team operating out of Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH),
affiliated with the Institute for Basic Science's (IBS) Center for Artificial Low Dimensional Electronic systems (CALDES), reported a tunable band gap in BP,
and optimization of electronic and optoelectronic devices like solar panels and telecommunication lasers. black phosphorus To truly understand the significance of the team's findings,
This amalgamation makes it a terrifically attractive material to apply to scientific developments in a wide variety of fields, such as electronics, aerospace and sports.
the semiconductor potential can't be realized because the conductivity can't be shut off, even at low temperatures.
This obviously dilutes its appeal as a semiconductor, as shutting off conductivity is a vital part of a semiconductor's function.
Birth of a Revolution Phosphorus is the fifteenth element in the periodic table and lends its name to an entire class of compounds.
Like graphene, BP is a semiconductor and also cheap to mass produce. The one big difference between the two is BP's natural band gap
therefore we tuned BP's band gap to resemble the natural state of graphene, a unique state of matter that is different from conventional semiconductors."
#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
T Venky Venkatesan led to the discovery of this new magnetic phenomenon by growing perfectly-crystalline atomic layers of a manganite, an oxide of lanthanum and manganese {Lamno3},
This shift of electric charge occurs as the manganese atomic layers form atomically charged capacitors leading to the build up of an electric field, known as polar catastrophe
Drexel University researchers are testing an array of new combinations that may vastly expand the options available to create faster, smaller, more efficient energy storage, advanced electronics and wear-resistant materials.
because it represents a new way of combining elemental materials to form the building blocks of energy storage technology--such as batteries, capacitors and supercapacitors,
"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
#A new material for transparent electronics he performance of solar cells, flat panel displays, and other electronics are limited by today's materials.
A new material, created by modifying a transparent insulating oxide, replacing up to 25 percent of the lanthanum ions in the host material with strontium ions, offers considerable promise.
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."
and yet are more stable and structurally compatible with the workhorse materials of oxide electronics,
Being structurally and chemically compatible with other perovskite oxides, perovksite LSCO offers considerable promise in the design of all-perovskite oxide electronics s
This roximity magnetismeffect could create an energy gap, a necessary feature for transistors, in a topological insulator, making it possible to turn a device off and on as a potential building block for spintronics,
says Mingda Li, the lead author of the paper. owever, the proximity effect is usually weak,
Possible applications of the new findings include the creation of spintronics, transistors based on the spin of particles rather than their charge.
So having this precise control of the magnetic structure could lead to novel quantum spintronics.
"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
which act as electronic switches.""This research expands how DNA could be used as a switching mechanism for a logic gate in DNA-based computing or in nano-technology
#Electrons that stick together, superconduct together The discovery of a surprising feature of superconductivity in an unconventional superconductor by a RIKEN-led research team provides clues about the superconducting mechanism in this material
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,
By combining imec patented stretch technology with our expertise in active-matrix backplanes and integrating electronics into fabrics
and Holst Centre to link standard (rigid) LEDS into a flexible and stretchable display. The LED displays are fabricated on a polyimide substrate
Smaller LEDS are mounted now on an amorphous indium-gallium-zinc oxide (a-IGZO) TFT backplane that employs a two-transistor
and one capacitor (2t-1c) pixel engine to drive the LEDS. These second-generation displays offer higher pitch and increased, average brightness.
"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,
who is also the Samsung Distinguished Professor of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at the University of California Berkeley,
and cadmium sulfide (Cds) shells that increase the Stokes shift while reducing photon re-absorption, says Bronstein.
The success of this Cdse/Cds nanoparticle-based LSC system led to a partnership between Berkeley Lab, the University of Illinois, Caltech and the National Renewable energy Lab (NREL) on a new solar
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,
and theye being eyed for use as building blocks in hybrid structures with unique properties for electronics,
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,
The findings promise a new generation of powerful, energy-efficient electronics, and have been published in the leading British journal Nature Nanotechnology("Evolution of a Designless Nanoparticle Network into Reconfigurable Boolean logic").
Current transistors consist of only a handful of atoms. 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. It is obvious that one has to look for alternative directions
and it is interesting to see what we can learn from nature. Natural evolution has led to powerful omputerslike the human brain,
Contrary to conventional electronics, they have moved away from designed circuits. By using'designless'systems costly design mistakes are avoided.
The evolutionary approach works around-or can even take advantage of-possible material defects that can be fatal in conventional electronics.
Powerful and energy-efficient It is the first time that scientists have succeeded in this way in realizing robust electronics with dimensions that can compete with commercial technology.
The researchers anticipate a wide range of applications, for example in portable electronics and in the medical world l
and heat flow in electronic and semiconductor systems. It has application in devices with high requirements for efficient dissipation and homogenous thermal expansion
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,
which are controlled semiconductor heat pumps by an external input voltage, around a 62-millimeter diameter air hole in a carbon steel plate just 5 mm thick.
that can be used to shield sensitive electronic components from heat dissipation. Additionally, the researchers found that their active thermal cloaking was limited not by the shape of the object being hidden.
Looking ahead, Zhang and his colleagues plan to apply the thermal cloaks in electronic systems, improving the efficiency of heat transfer,
#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
flexible electronics and engineered tissue replacements, but advances have been challenged by the inherent complexity of integrating multiple materials.
For example, to print a functional"wearable device including its electronic components, a 3d printer would need to seamlessly transition from the flexible material that moves with the wearer joints to the rigid material that holds the electronic components.
It would also need to embed electrical circuitry with multiple inks of varying conductivity and resistivity,
These structures may find potential application in flexible electronics, wearable devices, and soft robotics. They also printed reactive materials,
This is a crucial step in creating a new generation of foldable electronics-think a flat-screen television that can be rolled up for easy portability-and implantable medical devices.
and biocompatible metal electrodes"),pairs gold nanomesh with a stretchable substrate made with polydimethylsiloxane, or PDMS.
flexibility and transparency-all three are needed for foldable electronics-wear out too quickly to be practical,
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.
explains that this novel signaling mechanism produces sufficient change in current to be measured using inexpensive electronics similar to those in the home glucose test meter used by diabetics to check their blood sugar.
#Quantum dots light up under strain Semiconductor nanocrystals, or quantum dots, are sized tiny, nanometer particles with the ability to absorb light
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.
"said senior author Holger Schmidt, the Kapany Professor of Optoelectronics at UC Santa cruz.""We're detecting the nucleic acids directly,
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.
The nanoparticle hydrophilic layer essentially locks in the active ingredient, a hydrophobic chemical called padimate O. Some sunscreen solutions that use larger particles of inorganic compounds, such as titanium dioxide or zinc oxide,
the team's manufacturing method aims to construct disposable tattoo-like health monitoring patches for the mass production of epidermal electronics,
Reliable, ultrathin wearable electronic devices that stick to the skin like a temporary tattoo are a relatively new innovation.
"One of the most attractive aspects of epidermal electronics is their ability to be said disposable,
and portable process for producing these electronics, which, unlike the current method, does not require a clean room, wafers and other expensive resources and equipment.
the electronics are printed onto any polymer adhesives, including temporary tattoo films. The cutter is programmable so the size of the patch and pattern can be customized easily.
"We are trying to add more types of sensors including blood pressure and oxygen saturation monitors to the low-cost patch
which includes a photovoltaic cell using a high-quality semiconductor crystal similar to the ones for lasers
and LEDS operating under the focal point of an optical lens. The solar-to-electricity conversion efficiency of this CPV module is as high as 31%.
These attributes should lead to new LEDS and display devices not only with precisely matched colors--better color accuracy and brightness--but also with improved performance lifetime and improved ease of manufacturing."
Amazon Kindle and a new Samsung TV
#Physicists succeed in direct detection of vacuum fluctuations What are the properties of the vacuum, the absolute nothingness?
are markedly faster than electronic circuits. Unfortunately, they're also bigger. It's difficult to localize visible light below its diffraction limit, about 200-300 nanometers,
and as components in electronic semiconductors have shrunk to the nanometer scale, the photonic circuit size limitation has given electronic circuits a significant advantage,
despite the speed discrepancy. Now researchers at the University of Rochester have demonstrated a key achievement in shrinking photonic devices below the diffraction limit--a necessary step on the road to making photonic circuits competitive with today's technology.
"said Kenneth Goodfellow, a graduate student in the laboratory of the Quantum Optoelectronics and Optical Metrology Group, The Institute of Optics, University of Rochester, New york."
Future work for the group includes reducing potential contamination in device assembly by transitioning to a complete dry transfer of wires and Mos2 onto prefabricated electrodes,
About the Presentation The presentation,"Detection of Optical Plasmons Using an Atomically-Thin Semiconductor, "by Kenneth Goodfellow, will take place from 15:30-17:00, Thursday, 22 october 2015,
#A quantum logic gate in silicon built for the for the first time (w/video) The significant advance, by a team at the University of New south wales (UNSW) in Sydney appears today in the international journal Nature("A two-qubit logic gate in silicon"."
"We've demonstrated a two-qubit logic gate-the central building block of a quantum computer-and, significantly, done it in silicon.
Because we use essentially the same device technology as existing computer chips, we believe it will be much easier to manufacture a full-scale processor chip than for any of the leading designs,
which rely on more exotic technologies.""This makes the building of a quantum computer much more feasible,
-and thereby create a logic gate-using silicon. But the UNSW team-working with Professor Kohei M. Itoh of Japan's Keio University-has done just that for the first time.
A key advantage of the UNSW approach is that they have reconfigured the'transistors'that are used to define the bits in existing silicon chips,
"The silicon chip in your smartphone or tablet already has around one billion transistors on it, with each transistor less than 100 billionths of a metre in size,"said Dr Menno Veldhorst,
a UNSW Research Fellow and the lead author of the Nature paper.""We've morphed those silicon transistors into quantum bits by ensuring that each has only one electron associated with it.
We then store the binary code of 0 or 1 on the'spin'of the electron,
"He said that a key next step for the project is to identify the right industry partners to work with to manufacture the full-scale quantum processor chip.
the development of new, lighter and stronger materials spanning consumer electronics to aircraft; and faster information searching through large databases s
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