INSIDER: Power
New Power Supply Control Method Significantly Increases the Service Life of End Devices
From the charging unit for a smartphone to the power supply of a laptop or washing machine to LED lights or the charging station for an electric car...
INSIDER: Electronics & Computers
A New Electrolyte for Lithium-Metal Batteries
Improvements to a class of battery electrolyte first introduced in 2017 — liquefied gas electrolytes — could pave the way to a high-impact and long-sought advance for rechargeable...
Blog: FDA/Regulatory
Answering Your Questions: What Makes Some Cameras 'ITAR' vs 'ITAR-Free?'
White Papers: Medical
Advanced Polymers: Get to Know Grilamid TR
Healthcare environments impose a wide range of challenges on product developers, who must select materials that are strong, stable, resistant, and easy to manufacture. See how one advanced polymer...
Blog: Electronics & Computers
A New Heat Shield for Electronics – Just 10 Atoms Thick
Question of the Week: Energy
Does Snow Have Power Potential?
A 2019 Tech Briefs story demonstrated a plastic-like, flexible nanongenerator that creates electricity from falling snow.
White Papers: Manufacturing & Prototyping
The Additive and Traditional Parts Manufacturing Capabilities of 3D Systems on Demand
Additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, is fast becoming an essential part of the modern manufacturing toolkit because of the powerful advantages it...
Blog: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Prospecting for Ice: NASA Challenges Students to Find Ways to Drill Down on Mars
Blog: Automotive
Answering Your Questions: Thermosets or Thermoplastic Composites?
A novel imaging technique that uses a synthesized form of scorpion venom to light up brain tumors has shown promise in a clinical trial. The imaging system enables...
Question of the Week: Robotics, Automation & Control
Have You Considered Using Collaborative Robots?
Collaborative robots are part of Ford Motor Company’s assembly line. One cobot performs the greasing of the camshaft followers, another fills the engine oil, and a third uses a camera and UV light to check for leaks.
Briefs: Materials
Magnetic Metamaterial Amplifies MRI
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) uses magnetic fields and radio waves to create images of organs and tissues in the human body, helping doctors diagnose potential problems or diseases. Doctors use MRI to...
Briefs: Test & Measurement
Simultaneous Imaging and Friction Measurement with an In-Situ Tribometer
Different instruments are needed to study the interaction of contact surfaces at different length scales. Tribometers measure the coefficient of friction but they...
Articles: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
10 Things to Consider When Specifying Small Metal and Plastic Enclosures
Your new industrial electronic product has been designed and the board components specified. It has been prototyped, either on a development board to check...
Articles: Aerospace
Products of Tomorrow: September 2019
Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University have developed a semi-liquid lithium metal-based anode. Lithium batteries made using this new...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Measuring Stickiness of Microscale Surfaces
At the scale of bridges or buildings, the most important force that engineered structures need to deal with is gravity. But at the scale of microelectro-mechanical systems (MEMS) — devices like...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Low-Cost Thermoelectric Material Works at Room Temperature
The widespread adoption of thermoelectric devices that can directly convert electricity into thermal energy for cooling and heating has been hindered, in part, by the lack of materials that are both inexpensive and highly efficient at room temperature. A new material was developed that...
Robotics has traditionally focused on industrial applications in which robots require strength and precision to carry out repetitive tasks. These robots flourish in highly...
Briefs: Materials
Origami-Inspired Material Softens Impact Forces
Landing is stressful on a rocket’s legs because they must handle the force from the impact with the landing pad. One way to combat this is to build legs out of materials that absorb some of...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Organic Carbon-Nitride Semiconductor
Some organic materials cannot be utilized similarly to silicon semiconductors in optoelectronics. Whether in solar cells, light-emitting diodes, or in transistors, what is important is the bandgap, i.e....
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Ultra-Clean Fabrication Platform for 2D Transistors
Recently discovered two-dimensional (2D) materials with superlative properties have the potential to advance semiconductors but creating 2D devices with both good electrical contacts and...
Briefs: Imaging
Multi- and Wide-Band Single-Feed Patch Antenna
A novel patch antenna technology was developed that provides significant benefits to NASA satellite communication applications, offering a unique wide-band/multi-band operating capability. For other non-space applications, the antenna design also offers broadband capability with high gain for...
Briefs: Materials
Surface Treatment Could Improve Refrigeration Efficiency
Unlike water, liquid refrigerants and other fluids that have a low surface tension spread quickly into a sheet when they come into contact with a surface. For many industrial...
Briefs: Materials
Fiber-Based Artificial Muscles
While different approaches have been used to create artificial muscles — including hydraulic systems, servomotors, shape-memory metals, and polymers that respond to stimuli — they all have limitations such...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Virtual MIL-STD-1553B Remote Terminals
For complex boards with multiple FPGAs, each FPGA can implement its own remote terminal (RT) core and present itself logically to the bus as a remote terminal while sharing the RT’s hardware. This simplifies the design since commands and telemetry do not have to be distributed and collected by user logic;...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Antenna Near-Field Probe Station Scanner
Antenna characterization techniques are often expensive and time-consuming. NASA’s Glenn Research Center developed a highly versatile and automated system to perform characterization of single or multiple small circuit antennas, printed on-wafer or on other substrates, by measuring the antenna’s...
Briefs: Communications
Self-Configurable Radio Receiver System and Method
A self-configurable radio receiver system was developed for relaying communication signals from multiple deep space assets. Most conventional radio receivers are hardwired to receive a specific type of signal and are incapable of receiving other types of signals without preconfiguration...
Briefs: Test & Measurement
Soft, Wearable Health Monitor with Stretchable Electronics
A soft and conformable health monitor can broadcast electrocardiogram (ECG), heart rate, respiratory rate, and motion activity data as much as 15 meters to a portable recording...
Briefs: Motion Control
Software Enables Robots to Self-Right After Overturning
The Advanced Explosive Ordnance Disposal Robotic System (AEODRS) features a modular open systems architecture that enables the robot to be self-righting after a fall. The self-righting...
Top Stories
Blog: AR/AI
Can We Trust A.I.? Modeling Tool Quantifies How Much a Machine Doesn't Know
Podcasts: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Here's an Idea: An ‘Aerodrome’ Testing Ground for Unmanned Aircraft
INSIDER: Energy
Biomorphic Batteries Could Provide 72 Times More Energy for Robots
Videos: Sensors/Data Acquisition
SQUID 2.0: Autonomously-Stabilizing, Ballistically Launched Drone
Blog: RF & Microwave Electronics
What's Best for Autonomous Cars: LiDAR vs Radar vs Cameras
Videos: Defense
Question of the Week
Will 'Biomorphic' Batteries Support a Future of Tiny Robots?
Webcasts
Upcoming Webinars: Medical
Making Medical Device Designs Possible with Innovative Silicone...
Upcoming Webinars: Motion Control
High-Voltage Arteries: How Connectivity Gives Life to Electric...
Upcoming Webinars: Medical
Upcoming Webinars: Automotive
The Power of the Hollow: Using Hollow Aluminum Extrusions to Meet...
Upcoming Webinars: Automotive
Helping HEV/EV Batteries Go the Distance and Stay Cool Under...
Upcoming Webinars: Test & Measurement
Standardization for Automated-Vehicle Testing and Simulation
Trending Stories
5 Ws: Wearables
5 Ws of the Sign-to-Speech Translation Glove
Briefs: Materials
A Technique for Injecting Ag+ Ions as Biocide into H2O
Articles: Robotics, Automation & Control
Metallic Glass Shatters Gear Limitations
Articles: Photonics/Optics
Snapshot High-resolution Hyperspectral Imaging
Articles: Motion Control
The Modern Industrial Workhorse: PID Controllers
