Briefs: Materials

Rhombohedron Epitaxial Growth with Molten Target Sputtering (MTS) at 500 °C Substrate Temperature

This invention applies to the field of sputtering, depositing SiGe thin films on sapphire substrates. It is a method of modifying the film...

Application Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping

Additive Manufacturing Helps Soldiers Get Parts Faster

Rize
Woburn, MA
www.rize3d.com

Headquartered at Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey, The United States Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC) is the...

Briefs: Lighting

Bendable Electronic Paper Displays a Range of Colors

The combination of conductive polymers on nanostructures was demonstrated as suited to creating electronic displays as thin as paper. The “paper” is similar to the Kindle tablet. It...

Briefs: Test & Measurement

In-Situ Characterization and Inspection of Additive Manufacturing Deposits Using Transient Infrared Thermography

Additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, is a rapidly growing field in which solid objects can be produced layer-by-layer. This...

Articles: Robotics, Automation & Control

A Guide to Collaborative Robot Safety

The ability of collaborative robots to share tasks with humans and flexibly adapt to new requirements can provide high returns on investment in a wide variety of industrial applications. Manufacturers...

Briefs: Materials

Metamaterial Mirror Reflects Sound Waves in Any Direction

Researchers have constructed a “metamirror” device capable of perfectly reflecting sound waves in any direction. The proof-of-principle demonstration is analogous to looking...

Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping

3D Printer Uses Rays of Light to Shape Objects

Most 3D printers, including light-based techniques, build up 3D objects layer by layer. This leads to a “stair-step” effect along the edges. They also have difficulties creating flexible...

Briefs: Test & Measurement

Radiometric Temperature Measurement Using a DLP-Based Pyrometer

Researchers at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center have identified and evaluated recently available miniature spectrometers that enable compact and robust pyrometry...

Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping

Material Could Make Plastic Manufacturing More Energy-Efficient

Anew material was developed that can extract the key ingredient in the most common form of plastic from a mixture of other chemicals while consuming far less energy than usual....

Application Briefs: Test & Measurement

Miniature Bearings Play a Major Role in Mars 2020 Mission

Timken
North Canton, OH
www.timken.com

As NASA prepares for the launch of its newest Mars rover in 2020, Timken engineers have designed and tested its miniature precision...

Briefs: Software

Machine Learning Tool Computes Flow Around Interactively Designable 3D Objects

When engineers want to test the aerodynamic properties of the newly designed shape of a car, airplane, or other object, they would normally model the flow of air...

Facility Focus: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

Facility Focus: NASA Marshall Space Flight Center

Founded on July 1, 1960, Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL is one of NASA’s largest field centers. Marshall engineers designed, built, tested, and helped launch the Saturn V...

Briefs: Aerospace

High-Performance, Current-Steering Digital-to-Analog Converter

A current-steering digital-to-analog converter (DAC) was developed that achieves improved switching times (up to 75% faster) in high-speed (gigahertz), high-resolution (8-14...

Briefs: Aerospace

Electron Beam Heating and Atomic Restructuring of Sapphire Surfaces

NASA’s Langley Research Center has developed a new way to reduce the high-temperature heating requirement of sapphire substrates in wafer production. The growth of...

NASA Spinoff: Lighting

LED Lighting Improves Efficiency and Imaging

Rocket engine testing requires a lot of light since all tests are filmed with high-speed cameras to monitor performance; however, those cameras have to adjust to the bright plume from a firing...

Briefs: Test & Measurement

Fast and Accurate Simulation of Manufactured Parts with Defects

Unwanted porosity is typical to many manufacturing processes — from traditional casting to additive manufacturing (3D printing) — and is difficult to avoid entirely....

Products: Software

New on the Market: May 2019

Position Sensors

Novotechnik, U.S., Southborough, MA, introduced Vert-X 2900 Series sensors that measure angular position and are available in single or redundant versions. Users can specify...

Articles: Imaging

Products of Tomorrow: May 2019

This column presents technologies that have applications in commercial areas, possibly creating the products of tomorrow. To learn more about each technology, see the contact information provided for that...

5 Ws: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

5 Ws of Foldable Mechanical Devices

Who

Manufacturers across medical, space, aviation, military, and automotive industries could use the technology to build complex machines that integrate with surfaces to be very compact, but can deploy...

Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping

Technique Reverse-Engineers Complex 3D CAD Models

Nearly all commercial products start as a CAD file — a 2D or 3D model with the product’s design specifications. One method that’s widely used to represent today’s 3D models is...

Briefs: Materials

Singlet-Based Magnet for Enhanced Data Storage

Anew type of magnet — called a singlet-based magnet — was discovered that differs from conventional magnets in which small magnetic constituents align with one another to create a strong...

Q&A: Electronics & Computers

Q&A: NASA's Dr. Mahmooda Sultana Makes Multifunctional Sensors

Dr. Sultana won funding to advance a nanomaterial-based detector platform that can sense environmental parameters from minute concentrations of target gases and vapors, to...

Briefs: Test & Measurement

S-Curve Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer

Time-of flight mass spectrometers are commonly used in analytical chemistry and many other applications. They contain a region where ions travel toward a detector. A new geometry was developed that...

Technology Leaders: Manufacturing & Prototyping

Changing the Automation Conversation

With advancements in manufacturing processes and materials, components in many industries are more precise with a new level of complex shapes. There is significant demand to create parts and assemblies...

Briefs: Medical

Method Shrinks Objects to the Nanoscale

Existing techniques for creating nano-structures are limited in what they can accomplish. Etching patterns onto a surface with light can produce 2D nano-structures but doesn’t work for 3D structures....

Briefs: Automotive

Coating Prevents Fogging on Transparent Surfaces

Anyone who skis, wears glasses, uses a camera, or drives a car is familiar with the problem: Coming into a humid environment from the cold causes eyewear, camera lenses, or windshields to...

Briefs: Electronics & Computers

Medium-Frequency Transformer Transitions from AC to DC

Traditionally, electronics are cooled using a heat sink that transfers the heat generated by the electronic system into the air or a liquid coolant. For the heat sink to work, it has to...

Briefs: Transportation

Novel Techniques Trick Object Detection Systems

New adversarial techniques developed by engineers at Southwest Research Institute can make objects “invisible” to image detection systems that use deep-learning algorithms. These techniques...

Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Pocket-Sized Imaging Device Improves Accuracy Of Epidural Placement

A team of bioengineers supported through a Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) has...

Application Briefs: Imaging

Improving Vehicle Fuel Economy with ADAS

Fuel economy is a key factor in worldwide energy-consumption. One way to improve fuel economy is using driver feedback to promote efficient habits (eco-driving). Emerging research is looking into...

Articles: Manufacturing & Prototyping

Industrial Blue Lasers

What Does It Takes to Change the Game?

Industrial lasers are integrated into manufacturing and fabrication facilities around the world. Every moment, there is an industrial laser somewhere that is cutting, etching,...

Articles: Imaging

An Introduction to Time of Flight Imaging

Three-dimensional (3D) imaging applications are used in many different industries ranging from industrial pick and place, palletization/depalletization, warehouse, robotics, and metrology to...

Products: Test & Measurement

New Products: May 2019 Photonics & Imaging Technology

Sony Pregius Sensor

FRAMOS (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) now offers the Sony IMX392, a 1/2.3 type of imager with a square 1920 (h) × 1200 (v) active pixel array. The sensor has a...

Briefs: Imaging

Detect Ultra Rare Proteins in Blood Using a Cellphone Camera

One of the frontiers of medical diagnostics is the race for more sensitive blood tests. The ability to detect extremely rare proteins could make a life-saving difference for many...

Briefs: Materials

Tiny Optical Elements Could One Day Replace Traditional Refractive Lenses

A Northwestern University research team has developed tiny optical elements from metal nanoparticles and a polymer that one day could replace traditional refractive...

Articles: Materials

Advances in Laser Welding Technology

There have been many changes in laser technology over the past 30 years. With each advancement comes new challenges and opportunities. The CO₂ laser with 10-micron wavelength was king for many...

Briefs: Photonics/Optics

Researchers Create Smartphone System to Test for Lead in Water

Researchers at the University of Houston have created an inexpensive system that can detect lead in tap water at levels commonly accepted as dangerous, using a lens made with an...

Articles: Software

Live Cell Imaging Using Holotomography

Since Robert Hooke's microscopic observations of cork cells in the 17th century, optical imaging has proven an indispensable technique in elucidating the pathophysiology of diseases. Perhaps the real...

Application Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping

Lighting the Gas Monkey Garage

Gas Monkey Garage (GMG) is arguably America's most recognized hot rod shop. Founded in 2004 by charismatic serial entrepreneur Richard Rawlings, the Dallas, Texas garage is a state-of-the-art restoration and...

Products: Test & Measurement

Product of the Month: May 2019 Tech Briefs

S. Himmelstein and Company, Hoffman Estates, IL, announced Model 700+ Series signal conditioners that are flexible, one- or two-channel signal conditioners/displays. They feature...

Blog: Aerospace

AUVSI XPONENTIAL 2019: Air Force Technology

As always, the Air Force Research Laboratory had a huge presence at AUVSI’s XPONENTIAL show in Chicago.

Blog: Transportation

AUVSI XPONENTIAL 2019: A Flying Sea Glider

A Navy Sea Glider can look for a target in mid-air or underwater.

News: Propulsion

AUVSI XPONENTIAL 2019: Helicopter Drones

Three new unmanned helicopters were unveiled at AUVSI’s XPONENTIAL show in Chicago.

INSIDER: Imaging

New Products: May 2019 Photonics & Imaging Insider

Software for Enhanced Laser Processing

Prima Power Laserdyne (Champlin, MN) released of the FASTTRIM™ CAD/CAM software for use with its multi-axis precision laser processing...

INSIDER: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Ghostly X-Ray Images Could Assist in Analyzing X-Ray Laser Experiments

X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) produce incredibly powerful beams of light that enable unprecedented studies of the ultrafast motions of atoms in matter. To...

INSIDER: Electronics & Computers

Researchers 3D Print Metamaterials with Novel Optical Properties

A team of engineers at Tufts University has developed a series of 3D printed metamaterials with unique microwave or optical properties that go beyond what is possible using...

INSIDER: Materials

Chirality Yields Colossal Photocurrent

An international team led by a group of Boston College researchers reported that a recently discovered Weyl semimetal delivers the largest intrinsic conversion of light to electricity of any...

Blog: Test & Measurement

A New Idea for Putting Out Fires in Space: The Vacuum Cleaner?

If a short circuit starts a fire up on the International Space Station, Dr. Yuji Nakamura has an idea to extinguish it: The vacuum.

Blog: Robotics, Automation & Control

Answering Your Questions: How Do Medical Robots Help Surgeons?

A reader asks: "With medical robots, what's in it for surgeons?"

Blog: Manufacturing & Prototyping

Want a Magnetized Medical Robot? Just 3D Print It

A microrobot can take up to 8 hours to make. With the help of a 3D printer, University of Toronto engineers got the process down to 20 minutes

Articles: Test & Measurement

The Inside Story of Pico's 9400 SXRTO

Pico’s RF Business Development Manager Mark Ashcroft introduces the company's SXRTO Sampler Extended Real Time Oscilloscope.

News: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Beyond Just Gesture, A Modified Smartwatch Detects 25 Specific Hand Activities

Your smartwatch can count your steps, but can it tell if you’re typing on a keyboard? Or chopping a vegetable?

Blog: Manufacturing & Prototyping

HP’s Digital Disruption

On the opening day of the RAPID + TCT Show in Detroit, HP introduced the new Jet Fusion 5200 Series 3D printing solution – an industrial 3D printing system – and the Digital Manufacturing Network, a new...

Blog: Manufacturing & Prototyping

Markforged Helps Factories Fix Themselves

At RAPID + TCT in Detroit today, Markforged introduced Blacksmith artificial intelligence-powered software that makes manufacturing machines “aware” so they can automatically adjust programming...

Blog: Motion Control

A Leech-Like Robot Climbs Up the Walls

Doctoral Programs student Ayato Kanada came up with his leech-like robot in a place you’d least expect it: His bathroom.

Blog: Communications

NIWeek 2019: What Will Slow Down 5G? ‘Nothing,’ Says Panel

“Nothing is going to slow 5G down. I mean nothing," said one NIWeek panelist.

INSIDER: Motion Control

“Knitting” Soft Actuators

Carnegie Mellon University researchers used computationally controlled knitting machines to create knitted objects that are actuated by tendons. The objects emerge from the knitting machines in their desired...

INSIDER: Motion Control

Changing How Sound Moves Particles

Researchers at Aalto University have discovered a surprising phenomenon that changes how we think about how sound can move particles. Their experiment is based on an experiment in which particles move...

Blog: Energy

A Better Battery Offers ‘All-Renewable’ Promise for the Power Grid

An Ohio State researcher shares with Tech Briefs the promise of potassium-oxygen batteries.