New Products

Read about the new products for October 2022, including rotary encoders, precision gearboxes, a brushless servo motor, and more.

New Automation Technology Helps High-Precision Telescope Observations

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) continues to enable exciting scientific advances that help us better understand the universe.

Machine Learning and Sensor Technology Unlock Predictive Maintenance Insights

More than 80 percent of manufacturers experienced at least one instance of unplanned downtime during the past three years, and a single factory can lose $2.3 million annually due to unplanned stoppages.

Sensor Breakthrough Paves the Way for a Map of the World Under Earth’s Surface

The sensor works by detecting variations in microgravity using the principles of quantum physics, which is based on manipulating nature at the sub-molecular level.

Future Wearable Health Tech Could Measure Gases Released from Skin

Some wearable devices are already capable of measuring pulse rates or temperatures, but this team’s method would allow the technology to sense biomarkers related to metabolic disorders, like heart disease or diabetes.

New Products

The new products for October 2022, including silicon diode thermometry, a current sensor simulator, and more.

The Role of Compound Semiconductors in the IoT

Compound semiconductors will play an ever more important role in the expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT) into 5G territory.

Printed Rechargeable Batteries for the IIoT

Wireless sensors are critical for the IIoT, but they need long-term, reliable battery power.

Perfecting a Comprehensive Design Process

This article looks at two real-world applications in which machine vision and motion control work in harmony to solve different manufacturing challenges.

Optical Strain for Precision Measurements and Certification

Optical strain is material independent and measures the response of the integrated system, so designers can get a measure of the true response and strength of their designs.

Biofilm Harvests Energy in Evaporation

The biofilm has the potential to revolutionize the world of wearable electronics, powering everything from personal medical sensors to personal electronics.

Light-Emitting Tattoo

The OLEDs are fabricated onto temporary tattoo paper and transferred to a new surface by being pressed onto it and dabbed with water.

Automated Fabric Circuit and Antenna Fabrication

The technology allows for higher surface conductivity, improved impedance control, expanded design and application potential, and greater choice of materials for optimized performance.

Method Miniaturizes Light-Based Chips

But they’re not yet small enough to compete in computing and other applications where electric circuits continue to reign.

Printable IoT Sensor Development Platform

To benchmark performance of printed sensors against the state of the art, NASA has developed a low-power flexible sensor platform.

Pulsed 2-Micron Laser Transmitter

The design produces a compact, efficient, long-lifetime laser transmitter as needed for use in space, while also having potential applications as an airborne or ground-based wind measurement tool.

Let’s Get Small: New Argonne Method Greatly Improves X-Ray Nanotomography Resolution

A group of scientists led by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory has created a new method for improving the resolution of hard X-ray nanotomography.

Making Measurements with a Fine-Toothed Comb

Enter the frequency comb, a Nobel Prize-winning device and the result of decades of research from NIST and others. The comb generates a billion pulses of light per second, which bounce back and forth inside an optical cavity.

5G Strobe Light: NIST Imaging System Spotlights the Tiny Mechanical Hearts at the Core of Every Cellphone

The new NIST instrument captures waves in action by relying on a device known as an optical interferometer.

An Accurate and Inexpensive COVID-19 Testing Device

The device could transform public health officials’ ability to quickly detect and respond to the coronavirus — or the next pandemic.

RFID-Enabled Wireless Instrumentation

The sensor tags, which are embedded with a processor and memory bank for acquired data, are placed about the vehicle and stream data only when queried by a fixed-location RFID interrogator.

Nano-Thermometers for Temperature Imaging

The final product could make temperature measurements that are 10 times more precise than state-of-the-art techniques, acquired in one-tenth the time in a volume 10,000 times smaller.

COVID-19 Test Uses Smartphone Cameras to Spot Virus RNA

Unlike other tests, this test gives an estimate of viral load or the number of virus particles in a sample, which can help doctors monitor the progression of a COVID-19 infection and estimate how contagious a patient might be.

Smartphone-Powered Microchip Enables At-Home Medical Diagnostic Testing

The innovation opens the door for faster and more affordable at-home medical testing.

Flexible Backing Improves Brain-Computer Interface

Adding a flexible backing to this kind of brain-computer interface allows the device to more evenly conform to the brain’s complex curved surface and to more uniformly distribute the microneedles that pierce the cortex.

Recyclable Feedstocks for Additive Manufacturing

One common limitation of AM has been that produced articles cannot be recycled without substantial energy costs.

A New Fabrication Process Produces Smart Textiles

By incorporating a special type of plastic yarn and using heat to slightly melt it — a process called thermoforming — the researchers were able to greatly improve the precision of pressure sensors woven into multilayered knit textiles, which they call 3DKnITS.

A Semiconductor Material with Superior Performance

Cubic boron arsenide provides high mobility to both electrons and holes, and it has excellent thermal conductivity. It is, according to the researchers, the best semiconductor material ever found.