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Question of the Week: RF & Microwave Electronics
Will Rectennas Reduce Our Need for Batteries?
Rectennas act a bit like your car antenna. Instead of picking up radio waves, however, the tiny optical devices absorb light and convert it into power. The rectenna featured in today’s top story, generated half a nanowatt – a small amount of power that its inventors hope to increase.
Special Reports: Sensors/Data Acquisition
ADAS/Connected Car - June 2021
Today's Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and connected cars are paving the way for tomorrow's automated vehicles. To help you keep pace with the latest technology developments, we present this compendium...Application Briefs: Motion Control
A valve actuator has deep-sea applications.
Articles: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Learn the distinct forms that linear bearings take, and where the bearings are being used today.
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
The system could one day replace LiDAR and cameras in automated manufacturing, biomedical imaging, and autonomous driving.
Articles: Motion Control
Designers who must sense motor position, speed, or acceleration have a lot of choices, including resolvers, optical encoders, and Hall-effect devices.
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
Biobots based on muscle cells can swim at unprecedented velocities.
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
Exoskeleton legs are capable of thinking and making control decisions on their own using artificial intelligence technology.
Articles: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Faster inline CT inspections makes it possible to inspect far greater numbers of circuit boards.
Products: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Encoders, quick disconnects, automation systems, and more.
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
A catalytic reaction causes a two-dimensional, chemically coated sheet to spontaneously morph into a three-dimensional gear.
Briefs: Motion Control
The machines fold themselves within 100 milliseconds and can flatten and refold thousands of times.
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
The walking quadruped is controlled and powered by pressurized air.
Briefs: Motion Control
The design could contribute to various applications in the robotics field such as smart prosthetics and human-robot interaction.
Application Briefs: RF & Microwave Electronics
Editor Ed Brown explores what’s ahead for MEMS automobile navigation systems.
Briefs: Energy
One of the final hurdles to hydrogen power is securing a safe method for detecting hydrogen leaks.
Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Color changes of gold nanoparticles under the skin reveal concentration changes of substances in the body.
Products: Test & Measurement
High-precision medical sensors, battery-cell mappers, signal conditioners, and more.
Technology Leaders: Test & Measurement
AI will only reach its full potential when it can be fed with a constant stream of data from a plentitude of diverse sources.
Briefs: Test & Measurement
Researchers at KU Leuven have succeeded for the first time in measuring brain waves directly via a cochlear implant.
Technology Leaders: Test & Measurement
Ultra-thin piezoresistive sensors can be used in both R&D and as embedded components to develop safer, longer-lasting lithium-ion battery technologies.
Application Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Over the last 75 years, sensors have played an increasingly significant part in the advancement of medicine.
Application Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
The MPS Flammable Gas Sensor can detect and identify the concentrations of 12 of the most common combustible gases,
Articles: Wearables
MEMS sensors have been around for a long time, but requests from the market for new applications are driving upgrades in the technology.
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Recent advances could make it feasible to deploy networks of methane sensors to detect this greenhouse gas at large facilities.
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Researchers have developed a millimeter-thick accelerometer.
Technology Leaders: Connectivity
Sensors play a pivotal role in solving critical business challenges.
Briefs: Data Acquisition
The LiDAR-based system could “see through” objects to warn of potential hazards without distracting the driver.
Briefs: RF & Microwave Electronics
Applications include remote sensing, laser spectroscopy, and gas analysis.
Briefs: Imaging
This technology bends light more efficiently, enabling more immersive augmented reality display systems.
Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
These tiny detectors could record characteristics of light such as color, polarity, and angle.
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Complete integrated circuits with more than 1,000 organic electrochemical transistors can be screen-printed.
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
The algorithm identified a new compound potentially useful for photonic devices and biologically inspired computers.
Briefs: Nanotechnology
The transistors enable power converters to perform at substantially improved efficiencies, especially in high-power applications.
Technology Leaders: Electronics & Computers
You may not be able to see them, but power anomalies that originate within your automated control system are costing you expensive downtime.
Q&A: Unmanned Systems
New autonomous robotic devices can survey hazardous or difficult-to-reach sites faster than humans.
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
This tool could help surgeons better treat tumors and brain diseases.
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
The software could help reduce cost and waste for companies using additive manufacturing to mass-produce parts in factories.
Briefs: Automotive
Movements of individual particles of light are reconstructed to see through clouds, fog, and other obstructions.
Products: Electronics & Computers
Vision systems, signal generators, AC-DC converters, and more.
Application Briefs: Automotive
The SuperElastic Tire — a NASA Glenn innovation — can be used on both Earth and Mars.
Facility Focus: Photonics/Optics
Berkeley’s academic research reflects pressing global challenges in the areas of health, energy, and the environment.
Briefs: Materials
The new material could help put more power in smaller microchips.
Briefs: Materials
Thanks to its flexibility and adhesion, the biodegradable display can be worn directly on the hand.
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
The technology could boost quantum computers and other superconducting electronics.
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
New high bus voltage stepper motor systems avoid the complexity and expense of servo motors.
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Using gold nanomaterials, this disk can hold data securely for more than 600 years.
Briefs: Test & Measurement
The device uses load frames to test bonded structures in aerospace, automotive, defense, and energy storage applications.
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Applications include portable aerospace structures and terrestrial structures such as cleanrooms and field hospitals.
Briefs: Motion Control
This work could lead to much more robust devices that continue to operate in spite of damage.
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
The software automatically checks mission operations logs.
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
The technology could help computers process visual information more like the human brain.
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
The reusable mask would include a heated copper mesh powered by a battery and surrounded by insulating neoprene.
Technology Leaders: Energy
Learn about the properties of each capacitor option, and their ideal applications.
Briefs: Test & Measurement
Mobile radar devices could replace standard stethoscopes.
Briefs: Imaging
The inexpensive cameras are easy to produce.
5 Ws: Materials
The invention could help solve the problem of providing clean water off the grid or where low-cost, non-powered water purification is needed.
Briefs: Test & Measurement
A smartphone, combined with nanoscale porous silicon, enables inexpensive, simple, home diagnostics.
Articles: Software
See how simulation software is being used to is automate the test process for vehicle rotors.
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Artificial intelligence is used to decode X-ray images faster, which could aid innovations in medicine, materials, and energy.
Briefs: Materials
Due to the chemical stability and durability of industrial polymers, plastic waste does not easily degrade in landfills and is often burned, which produces carbon dioxide and other hazardous gases. In order...
Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
The promise of personalized medicine involves a simple device that keeps each person apprised of their level of health, identifies even trace amounts of undesirable biomarkers in...
Articles: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Head-up displays, health-monitoring sensors from NASA, and a pollen sponge.
Briefs: Nanotechnology
Nearly 100% of all-carbon-based transistors are reclaimed while retaining future functionality of the materials.
Briefs: Communications
The device, powered by ultrasound waves, could help doctors monitor the health of transplanted organs and provide early warning of potential transplant failure.
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
The new photonic architecture could transform digital communications, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing.
Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
This software could also be used for indoor navigation assistance for the visually impaired.
NASA Spinoff: Aerospace
The interface enables one person to accomplish tasks that previously required two sets of hands.
Application Briefs: Aerospace
The Cold Operable Lunar Deployable Arm (COLDArm) is a first-of-its-kind robotic technology.
Products: Imaging
A new power supply from Bicker Elektronik has a backup battery that bridges power failures, brownouts, and flicker.
Special Reports: Internet of Things
Smart Factory/IIoT - June 2021
Factories are getting "smarter" and more automated by the day, thanks to advances in AI, connectivity, controls, and sensors. In this compendium of recent articles from the editors of Tech Briefs and Sensor...Blog: Energy
A "self-aware," self-powering material can be used in heart stents, bridges, and even space.
Blog: Sensors/Data Acquisition
The technology uses tactile sensing to identify objects underground.
Question of the Week: Electronics & Computers
Will Recyclable Electronics Catch On?
Our June issue of Tech Briefs features a completely recyclable transistor from Duke University. The fully functional semiconductor is made out of three carbon-based inks that can be easily printed onto paper or other flexible, environmentally friendly surfaces.
INSIDER: Energy
A collaboration led by Cornell University (Ithaca, NY) used X-ray nanoimaging to gain an unprecedented view into solid-state electrolytes, revealing previously undetected crystal...
INSIDER: Electronics & Computers
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (Richland, WA) have shown that low-cost organic compounds hold promise for...
INSIDER: Power
North Carolina State University engineers continue to improve the efficiency of a flexible device worn on the wrist that harvests heat energy from the human body to monitor health.
INSIDER: Electronics & Computers
A sustainable, powerful micro-supercapacitor may be on the horizon. Until now, these high-capacity, fast-charging energy storage devices have been limited by the...
Blog: Data Acquisition
The Prediction Model for Flashover, or P-Flash, estimates where flashover explosions could occur.
INSIDER: Electronics & Computers
Physicists from the University of Sussex have developed an extremely thin, large-area semiconductor surface source of terahertz, composed of just a few...
INSIDER: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Atomically thin materials are a promising alternative to silicon-based transistors; now researchers can connect them more efficiently to other chip elements.
INSIDER: Sensors/Data Acquisition
After the optical frequency comb made its debut as a ruler for light, spinoffs followed, including the “astrocomb” to measure starlight and a radar-like comb system to detect...
INSIDER: Wearables
Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a soft, stretchy skin patch that can be worn on the neck to continuously track blood pressure and heart...
Podcasts: Robotics, Automation & Control
In this episode of Here’s an Idea, we speak to three researchers who are finding ways to automate surgical tasks, from suturing,to spotting tumors.
Question of the Week: Power
Will Better Sensors Lead to Greater Adoption of Hydrogen Power?
One of the final hurdles to hydrogen power is securing a safe method for spotting hydrogen leaks. A sensor, featured in the June issue of Sensor Technology, has a greater sensitivity than other detectors.
Blog: Materials
By introducing nanoparticles into ordinary cement, Northwestern University researchers have formed a smarter, more durable, and highly functional building material.
Blog: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering used a Computational Fluid Dynamics model to find ways to decrease cost and increase usage of cooler surfaces.
Question of the Week: Test & Measurement
Will Mobile Radar Replace the Stethoscope?
Our June issue of Tech Briefs highlighted a radar system that enables touch-free monitoring of heart sounds. A significant advantage offered by radar, according to the system’s inventors, is the fact that the values are recorded digitally and are thus not subjective, allowing human error to be...
INSIDER: Motion Control
Researchers from the University of Houston have demonstrated “giant flexoelectricity” in soft elastomers that could improve robot movement range and make self-powered pacemakers a real possibility....
Blog: Aerospace
A reader asks a Space Force expert about new markets, including data transport, traffic management, and advanced power.
Blog: Electronics & Computers
Could a tool from the dentist's office lead to better recycling of lithium-ion batteries?
Top Stories
INSIDER: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Aya Durbin of Boston Dynamics on Why Humanoids Are the Future of...
Podcasts: RF & Microwave Electronics
Engineering Spacecraft Components at Scale for Commercial Space Growth
INSIDER: Motion Control
NVIDIA Announces Industry’s First Full-Stack Safety System for Physical...
Blog: Design
NASA Marches Toward Artemis III Mission in 2027
Articles: RF & Microwave Electronics
Blog: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Meet AutoLabs: The New Generative AI Automating Multi-Step Laboratory...
Webcasts
Webinars: AR/AI
From Grid to GPU: Validating Next-Gen AI Data Center Power Infrastructures
Summits: Power
Hydrogen & Alternative Fuels Summit 2026
Webinars: Automotive
Engineering Extended-Range Hybrid Systems
Editorial Webinars: Medical
Design for Miniaturization: Meeting the Demand for Smaller,...
Webinars: AR/AI
Why Your Integration Stack Is Blocking Your AI Roadmap
Editorial Webinars: Automotive
