A company seeks alternative ways of preparing crucibles for the vapor deposition process. Currently, up to a kilogram of an alkalihalide salt is melted electrically in a tantalum crucible within a vacuum chamber, and the vapor is deposited on a metal substrate. The...

New home-use and point-of-care diagnostic medical technologies are needed. The diagnostics kits should monitor diseases not easily measured. Testing may be done within the device, or the device may be a tethered testing head that reports to a central diagnostics facility. The product can be...

A process to enhance the electron-hole wave functions overlap – resulting in high-efficiency quantum well light-emitting diodes (LEDs) emitting in the green and yellow wavelengths – has been developed. This proposed technique changes the polarity of the structure and diminishes the piezoelectric effect. It is...

Sam Ortega, manager of the NASA Centennial Challenges Program, leads progressive aerospace initiatives, encouraging the participation of independent teams, individual inventors, student groups, and private companies. Most recently, the program’s...

Engineers at the University of Southampton have designed and flown the world's first "printed" aircraft, which could revolutionize the economics of aircraft design. The wings, integral control surfaces, and access hatches of the unmanned air vehicle (UAV) were printed on an EOS EOSINT P730 nylon...

Lawrence Livermore researchers have developed a nanosensor that relies on semiconductor nanowires rather than traditional batteries as a power source. The device overcomes the power requirement of traditional sensors and is simple, highly sensitive, and can detect various molecules...

A new antibody-based biosensor developed by researchers at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science processes samples in less than 10 minutes and detects pollutants at levels as low as just a few parts per billion, at the cost of pennies per sample. The device is small and sturdy enough to be...

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) developed a lightweight, inexpensive alternative to existing batteries for electric vehicles and the power grid. The new battery relies on an architecture called a semi-solid flow cell, in which solid particles are suspended in a...

Scientists at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) developed a composite material based on graphite that is as thin as paper and 10 times stronger than steel. This material has the potential to revolutionize the automotive, aviation, electrical, and optical industries.Graphite paper is a...