Tuesday, 27. October 2009, 11:31:37
molecular, components, Computer, semiconductor
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Recently, at Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute, N.J. Tao and collaborators have found a way to make a key electronic component on a phenomenally tiny scale. Their single-molecule diode is described in this week's online edition of Nature Chemistry.
In the electronics world, diodes are a versatile and ubiquitous component. Appearing in many shapes and sizes, they are used in an endless array of devices and are essential ingredients for the semiconductor industry. Making components including diodes smaller, cheaper, faster and more efficient has been the holy grail of an exploding electronics field, now probing the nanoscale realm.
Smaller size means cheaper cost and better performance for electronic devices. The first generation computer CPU used a few thousand transistors, Tao says noting the steep advance of silicon technology. "Now even simple, cheap computers use millions of transistors on a single chip."
Source:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091013110042.htm
Wednesday, 29. July 2009, 08:31:30
components, nanofibers, DNA, electronics
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By adding fluorescent dyes to DNA and then spinning the DNA strands into nanofibers, researchers at the University of Connecticut have made a new material that emits bright white light. The material absorbs energy from ultraviolet light and gives off different colors of light--from blue to orange to white--depending on the proportions of dye it contains.
The researchers, led by chemistry professor Gregory Sotzing, create white-light-emitting devices by coating ultraviolet (UV) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with the material. They are even able to fine-tune the white color tone to make it warm or cold, as they report in a paper published online in the journal Angewandte Chemie.
The new material could be used to make a novel type of organic light bulb. The light emitters should also be longer-lasting because DNA is a very strong polymer, Sotzing says.
Source:
http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/23042/
Monday, 27. July 2009, 08:23:07
components, graphene, photothermal, power
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The production of graphene has just become a whole lot easier. Northwestern University scientists have demonstrated that graphite oxide can be converted instantly to graphene by exposing the material to a pulse of light from an ordinary camera flash.
Laura J. Cote, Rodolfo Cruz-Silva, and Jiaxing Huang of Northwestern report an instantaneous, chemical-free way to transform graphite oxide, an electrical insulator, into graphene, a conductor, at room temperature. The photographic camera flash instantaneously triggers the deoxygenation reaction of GO by photothermal heating.
Graphene is the one atom-thick wonder material that may some day replace silicon in electronics. Until recently, it has been difficult to produce.
Source:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/emergingtech/?p=1659
Friday, 26. June 2009, 07:17:20
fashion, instrument, components, music
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Sure those name brand threads may look good, but when was the last time they allowed you to become a walking sound and light show? The Soundie, part hoodie and part electric keyboard, is a build-it-yourself project now featured on the Instructables website. By touching the Soundie at different points and with different numbers of fingers, different pitches and lights will activate. Vary the amount of contact and you change the light and sound. It turns your hoodie into a musical instrument you can wear.
The Soundie works by measuring voltage differences across special iron-on conductive fabric. All the information is processed by a special computer chip from Arduino called the LilyPad (more on this later). The chip then sends signals to a sound generator and LEDs. Just a little wiggle of your fingers, and you are on your way to becoming a hoodie virtuoso.
Source:
http://singularityhub.com/2009/06/18/clothing-gets-computerized/
Thursday, 25. June 2009, 07:15:53
integrated ciruits, components, nanotechnology, ferroeletric
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Electronic devices of the future could be smaller, faster, more powerful and consume less energy because of a discovery by researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
The key to the finding, published in Science, involves a method to measure intrinsic conducting properties of ferroelectric materials, which for decades have held tremendous promise but have eluded experimental proof. Now, however, ORNL Wigner Fellow Peter Maksymovych and co-authors Stephen Jesse, Art Baddorf and Sergei Kalinin at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences believe they may be on a path that will see barriers tumble.
"For years, the challenge has been to develop a nanoscale material that can act as a switch to store binary information," Maksymovych said. "We are excited by our discovery and the prospect of finally being able to exploit the long-conjectured bi-stable electrical conductivity of ferroelectric materials.
"Harnessing this functionality will ultimately enable smart and ultra-dense memory technology."
Source:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-06/drnl-ofc061709.php
Tuesday, 14. April 2009, 08:17:26
integrated ciruits, components, 3 D, nanotechnology
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Researchers at the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Cornell University have capitalized on a process for manufacturing integrated circuits at the nanometer (billionth of a meter) level and used it to develop a method for engineering the first-ever nanoscale fluidic (nanofluidic) device with complex three-dimensional surfaces.
As described in a paper published online recently in the journal Nanotechnology, the Lilliputian chamber is a prototype for future tools with custom-designed surfaces to manipulate and measure different types of nanoparticles in solution.
Among the potential applications for this technology: the processing of nanomaterials for manufacturing; the separation and measuring of complex nanoparticle mixtures for drug delivery, gene therapy and nanoparticle toxicology; and the isolation and confinement of individual DNA strands for scientific study as they are forced to unwind and elongate (DNA typically coils into a ball-like shape in solution) within the shallowest passages of the device.
Source:
http://www.physorg.com/news157729849.html
Thursday, 22. January 2009, 09:39:19
components, nanotechnology, electronics, plastic
The emerging field of transparent and flexible electronics not only holds the promise of a new class of device components that would be more environmentally benign than current electronics; being able to print transparent circuits on low-cost and flexible plastic substrates also opens up the possibility of a wide range of new applications, ranging from windshield displays and flexible solar cells to clear toys and artificial skins and even sensor implants.
Traditional materials used for transparent electronics include InGaO3(ZnO)5 films, indium tin oxide films, and indium oxide nanowires. In their search for materials that can offer even higher mobility and therefore even better performance, researchers have turned to single-walled carbon nanotubes
Source:
http://www.nanowerk.com/spotlight/spotid=8787.php
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