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INSIDER: Government
The days and weeks following a natural disaster are a critical time for residents, emergency response teams, and government entities to recover and rebuild infrastructure....
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INSIDER: Electronics & Computers
A novel system developed by MIT researchers automatically “learns” how to schedule data-processing operations across thousands of servers — a task traditionally...
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INSIDER: Electronics & Computers
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 —...
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INSIDER: Electronics & Computers
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 batteries:...
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Blog: Regulations/Standards
Two industry experts respond to a Tech Briefs reader question.
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Blog: Electronics & Computers
Stanford Professor Eric Pop learned a valuable electronics lesson from his early days as a radio DJ.
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Question of the Week: Electronics & Computers
Does Snow Have Power Potential?
A 2019 Tech Briefs story demonstrated a plastic-like, flexible nanongenerator that creates electricity from falling snow.
Blog: Materials
A new NASA challenge asks university teams to find new ways to drill down to the ice on the Moon and Mars.
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Blog: Materials
How do thermoplastic composites compare to the thermoset composites already in use for several decades? A Tech Briefs reader asks.
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Question of the Week: Manufacturing & Prototyping
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: Manufacturing & Prototyping
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...
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Briefs: Materials
Different instruments are needed to study the interaction of contact surfaces at different length scales. Tribometers measure the coefficient of friction but they cannot...
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Articles: Electronics & Computers
Your new industrial electronic product has been designed and the board components specified. It has been prototyped, either on a development board to check functionality...
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Articles: Transportation
Semi-Liquid Metal Anode for Next-Generation Batteries Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University have developed a semi-liquid lithium metal-based anode. Lithium batteries made using this new electrode type could have a...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
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 the...
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Briefs: Materials
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...
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Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
Robotics has traditionally focused on industrial applications in which robots require strength and precision to carry out repetitive tasks. These robots flourish in highly...
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Briefs: Materials
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 the...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
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. the...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
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...
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Briefs: Aerospace
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
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 processes,...
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Briefs: Materials
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 as...
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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: 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 according...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
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 device...
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Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
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...
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Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
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...
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