Technology Leaders: Design

Better Solutions for Testing and Measuring Compression and Extension Springs

Learn about the latest measurement technology designed to ensure accurate testing of helical compression and extension springs.

NASA Spinoff: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Biofeedback Loops Aim to Enhance Combat and Sports Training

Research in astronaut monitoring leads to virtual reality spinoffs.

Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Augmented Reality System Lets Smartphone Users Interact with Virtual Objects

This system places virtual objects within real-world backgrounds on cellphone screens and lets people interact with those objects by hand as if they were really there.

Briefs: Electronics & Computers

Transistors Both Process and Store Information

The functional transistors are integrated with ferroelectric RAM.

Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping

Process Synthesizes Carbon Nanotubes Using Carbon Dioxide

This process turns carbon dioxide into carbon nanotubes with small diameters.

Briefs: Photonics/Optics

Low-Energy Device Rapidly Reroutes Light in Computer Chips

The switch is a major new step toward building a computer that uses light instead of electricity to process information.

Briefs: Power

“Smart” Frequency-Sensing Charge Controller for Electric Vehicles

This controller minimizes the burden on the power grid.

Briefs: Test & Measurement

Portable Sample Preparation for Chemical and Biological Analysis

This system autonomously prepares samples for online automated analysis.

Briefs: Materials

Bomb Detection Method Detects Peroxide-Based Explosives

The ultra-fast method analyzes a wider range of materials than current thermal-based detection systems.

Articles: Sensors/Data Acquisition

5G in Manufacturing: What’s Here and What’s to Come

5G has the potential to provide connectivity for a range of different uses in manufacturing.

Articles: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Products of Tomorrow: February 2020

Life-saving sensors, soft hearing implants, and a new water-decontamination method

Facility Focus: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Facility Focus: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Explore Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA's first space flight complex.

Briefs: Materials

Silicon Carbide Fiber Tows

This rapid processing method produces stronger materials and heals lower-quality fibers.

Briefs: Materials

Polymer Coating Cools Down Buildings

This coating acts as a spontaneous air cooler and can be fabricated, dyed, and applied like paint.

Briefs: Electronics & Computers

3D Printing of Plastics with Electrical Circuits

This innovation could lead to better drones, satellites, and biomedical devices.

Briefs: Electronics & Computers

Enhancing Materials for High-Resolution Patterning

Hybrid organic-inorganic materials transfer ultra-small, high-aspect-ratio features into silicon for next-generation electronic devices.

Briefs: Electronics & Computers

Multimaterial Fiber “Ink” for 3D-Printed Devices

Filaments with embedded circuitry can be used to print complex shapes for biomedical and robotic devices.

Briefs: Test & Measurement

Ultrasensitive Vapor Detection System

This technology quickly and accurately identifies explosives, deadly chemicals, and illicit drugs.

Briefs: Materials

Thermally Conductive Polymer Films

These materials may replace metals as lightweight, flexible heat dissipators in cars, computers, cellphones, and refrigerators.

Briefs: Aerospace

Estimated Spectrum Adaptive Postfilter (ESAP)

This program enhances images and videos for smartphones, tablets, and PCs.

Briefs: RF & Microwave Electronics

3D-Printed Structures Morph from Flat Layers into Predetermined Shapes

The flat structure morphs into another shape when temperature changes, enabling self-deploying tents or adaptive robotic fins.

Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Long-Distance LADAR System and Method

The system provides three-dimensional imagery of potential threats at closer ranges.

Briefs: Photonics/Optics

Underwater Telecom Cables Used as Seismic Network

Fiber-optic cables could help scientists study offshore earthquakes and the geologic structures hidden deep beneath the ocean surface.

Q&A: Semiconductors & ICs

Q&A: Electrically Conductive Coated Yarn for Wearable, Washable Fabrics

Drexel Professor Genevieve Dion is coating yarn with the highly conductive, two-dimensional material MXene.

5 Ws: Materials

5 Ws of Microlattice Pads for Improved Helmets

With the new microlattice pads, players will have greater protection from both single hits and a series of impacts.

Briefs: Imaging

Technique Creates Transparent Polythene Films as Strong as Aluminum

The films could be used in impact-resistant glazing, windscreens, and displays.

Briefs: Communications

Atoms Can Receive Common Communications Signals

This atom-based receiver has the potential to be smaller and work better in noisy environments than conventional radio receivers.

Briefs: Test & Measurement

Wireless Movement-Tracking System Uses Low-Power Radio Frequency Signals

In some cases, radio frequency signals may be more useful for caregivers than cameras or other methods to collect health and behavioral data.

Products: Materials

New on the Market: February 2020

Low-viscosity plastic; coin cell holders; oxidation-resistant coatings; and more.

Briefs: Imaging

Threads Detect Gases When Woven into Clothing

Equipment-free textile detectors could be used in public health, workplace safety, military, and rescue applications.

Briefs: Imaging

Smartphone System Tests for Lead in Water

This inexpensive system can detect lead levels below EPA standards.

Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Modern Software Links Legacy Systems

Software portal solutions can connect legacy control systems and field devices to the cloud.

Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

Welding Ceramics with Lasers

This technology could be used to create smartphones that don't scratch or shatter, metal-free pacemakers, and electronics for space and other harsh environments.

Briefs: Defense

Insect-Inspired Motion Sensing

This mechanical gyroscope can advance motion sensing capabilities in consumer-sized applications.

Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping

Shape-Shifting Robot Uses New Locomotion Strategy

The robot is built entirely from smaller robots and can form a robophysical system that can move by itself.

Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

Dynamic Gripper Mimics Adjustable Grip of the Human Hand

Such grippers would be suited for human-robot partnership in assembly lines in the automotive, electronic packaging, and other industries.

Products: Motion Control

New Products: February 2020 Motion Design

Encoder

The AI25 hazardous series AI25 encoder from Dynapar (Gurnee, IL) is suited for Class 1 Division 2 applications where a Zone 1 or Division 1 encoder may have previously been...

Articles: Robotics, Automation & Control

Smart Manufacturing Control

Today's advanced smart CNC controls allow manufacturers to optimize the manufacturing process right on the factory floor

Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

Flexure for Self-Assembly

Conventional fastening mechanisms like nails, bolts, and welds are subject to manufacturing and inspection tolerances, differential thermal growth, and other sources of error that lead to over-constraint, among...

Briefs: Transportation

Soft, Skin-Like Structures for Robotic Locomotion and Transportation

These soft robots can be rolled up and carried in a pocket.

Application Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

Modified Fittings Enhance Industrial Safety

NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida is home to one of the largest buildings in the world — the massive Vehicle Assembly Building — and also hosts a number of one-of-a-kind facilities. The...

Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping

Robots Assemble Large Structures from Little Pieces

Systems of tiny robots could build high-performance structures, from airplanes to space settlements.

Articles: Communications

Going Beyond the Basics: Innovative Step Motor Designs Give Machine Designers More Options for Motion Control

Machine and system designers now have greater options in choosing a motor to meet motion control requirements.

Briefs: Electronics & Computers

Robot Circulating Liquid Stores Energy and Provides Power

This robot “blood” stores energy, transmits force, operates appendages, and provides structure, all in an integrated design.

Briefs: Motion Control

Intelligent Microrobots

Such machines, only a few tens of micrometers across, could be used in the human body to perform small operations.

Articles: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

Valves for Pneumatic Cylinders and Actuators

Know your valve options.

Products: Software

Product of the Month: February 2020 Tech Briefs

Varjo™ Technologies announced a 2D/3D immersive "Workspace."

INSIDER: Manufacturing & Prototyping

Method Detects Defects in 2D Materials for Future Electronics and Sensors

To further shrink electronic devices and to lower energy consumption, the semiconductor industry is interested in using 2D materials, but manufacturers need a...

INSIDER: Power

New Method Gives Robust Transistors

Scientists at Linköping University (Linköping, Sweden) have described a method to manufacture transistors using gallium nitride and aluminum nitride that have the ability to withstand voltages as...

INSIDER: Medical

Laser Diode Emits Deep UV Light

Nagoya University scientists have succeeded in designing a laser diode that emits deep-ultraviolet light. It emits the world's shortest lasing wavelength, at 271.8 nanometers, under pulsed electric current...

INSIDER: Semiconductors & ICs

Microchip Capability Expanded with New 3D Inductor Technology

A team of engineers at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has boosted the performance of its previously developed 3D inductor technology by adding as much as three...

Blog: Automotive

How to Design an Airless Car Tire? Start with Simulation

Researchers from the University of Illinois are looking at all the different ways to create a non-pneumatic automotive tire.

Blog: Photonics/Optics

SPIE Photonics West 2020 – Sights from Day 1

See what caught Bruce A. Bennett's eye during Day 1 of Photonics West 2020 in San Francisco.

Blog: Photonics/Optics

SPIE Photonics West 2020, Day 2: Sensing LiDAR's Rise

Editor Bruce A. Bennett shares his observations from SPIE Photonics West, including the emergence of LiDAR.

INSIDER: Manufacturing & Prototyping

Robot and Software Create Advanced Materials

Rutgers University engineers have developed an automated way to produce polymers, making it much easier to create advanced materials aimed at improving human health. While a human researcher...

INSIDER: Manufacturing & Prototyping

“Pop-Up” Technique Fabricates Microrobots

A bulk-machined “Pop-Up” MEMS process was developed for creating mesoscale machines up to several centimeters in dimension.

Blog: Manufacturing & Prototyping

New Discoveries, From Just a Grain of Moon Dust

“We’re analyzing rocks from space, atom by atom,” says researcher Jennika Greer.

Blog: Robotics, Automation & Control

NASA's SuperCam Set to Look for Evidence of Life On Mars

See what the SuperCam will do when it arrives on Mars in 2021.

Blog: Energy

Rain Power: Droplet-Based Energy Generator Lights Up 100 LEDs

An energy breakthrough from the City University of Hong Kong finds power in a single drop of water – up to 140 volts, in fact.

Blog: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

Inspection and Simulation Methods: Powdered Metal and Additive Manufacturing

How does testing a metal 3D-printed part compare to testing a casted one? That's the elephant in the room, says industry pro Kevin Brigden.

Blog: Aerospace

Researcher Finds Promising Patterns in ‘Explosive’ Rotating Detonation Engine

University of Washington engineer James Koch observed patterns in a promising, but often-unpredictable rocket part: The rotating detonation engine.