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: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Prospecting for Ice: NASA Challenges Students to Find Ways to Drill Down on Mars
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: Transportation
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...
Different instruments are needed to study the interaction of contact surfaces at different length scales. Tribometers measure the coefficient of friction but they...
Articles: Materials
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: Photonics/Optics
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: Test & Measurement
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...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Low-Cost, Human-Friendly Robot Designed with Artificial Intelligence
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: Transportation
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: Electronics & Computers
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: Semiconductors & ICs
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: RF & Microwave Electronics
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: Manufacturing & Prototyping
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: Test & Measurement
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: Aerospace
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: Wearables
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: Robotics, Automation & 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...
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
Soft, Multi-Functional Robots
In the future, soft, animal-inspired robots may be safely deployed in difficult-to-access environments in which rigid robots cannot currently be used such as inside the human body or in spaces that are too...
Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Precise Temperature Measurements with Invisible Light
A portable, stable, standards-quality radiation thermometer was invented that can measure temperatures between -50 °C (-58 °F) to 150 °C (302 °F). The corresponding infrared...
Briefs: Test & Measurement
Miniature Spring Performance Tester
In order to qualify miniature springs, manufacturers of these systems rely on commercially available testers that are designed for large-scale springs (>0.5" diameter). Commercially available spring...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Portable Electrochemical Sensing System
An electrochemical sensing system that significantly improves the ability to rapidly and accurately detect heavy metals in biological and environmental samples was developed. Using a simple blood...
Facility Focus: Test & Measurement
Facility Focus: Georgia Tech Research Institute
The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is the nonprofit applied research division of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) in Atlanta, GA. Founded in 1934 as the Engineering...
Briefs: Communications
Terahertz Data Links Without Direct Line of Sight
Today’s cellular networks and Wi-Fi systems rely on microwave radiation to carry data but the demand for more bandwidth is quickly becoming more than microwaves can handle. That has...
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Question of the Week
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Webcasts
On-Demand Webinars: Electronics & Computers
Contactless Position, Torque, and Force Sensing for Today’s and Tomorrow’s...
Upcoming Webinars: Automotive
How to Achieve Multidisciplinary, Collaborative, Concurrent...
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Ultra-High Purity Silicone in Aerospace and Defense Product Design
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A Four-Pillar Approach to Driving Greater Efficiency ePowertrain...
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Confident TCU Connectivity Through Efficient Functional Testing
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