COSMIC Impact: Next-Gen X-Ray Microscopy Platform

A next-generation X-ray beamline now operating at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) brings together a unique set of capabilities to measure the...

Advanced Materials Help Lasers Beat the Heat

Laser diodes are one of a number of different types of electronic devices that generate heat during normal operation. Some power applied to such devices is lost as heat energy. To ensure stable...

A Paper-Like LCD — Thin, Flexible, Tough, and Cheap

Optoelectronic engineers in China and Hong Kong have manufactured a special type of liquid crystal display (LCD) that is paper-thin, flexible, light, and tough. With this, a daily newspaper...

Researchers Create Precision Optical Components with Inkjet Printing

Researchers have developed an inkjet printing technique that can be used to print optical components such as waveguides. Because the printing approach can also fabricate...

Three Popular Machine Vision Standards

Advancements in machine vision have augmented industrial automation and provided a platform to advance imaging-based automatic inspection and analysis applications. This technology, however, comes with its...

Product of the Month

Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence, North Kingstown, RI, announced a new release of HxGN SMART Quality software that combines connectivity, statistical evaluation, and resource management tools to help manufacturers...

Intelligent Machines: Can You Build a Robot You Can Trust?

For social robots to become commonplace in clinical settings, engineers will need to build both technology improvements as well something slightly more complicated: Trust.

Cageless Bearing Design Reduces Friction

A cageless bearing with rolling separator elements was developed for applications including portable medical devices, toys, and robotic applications with medium force requirements. The normal...

“Actuated” Paper Bends, Folds, or Flattens on Command

A thin layer of conducting thermoplastic, applied to common paper with an inexpensive 3D printer or even painted by hand, serves as a low-cost, reversible actuator. When an...

How to Authenticate a 3D-Printed Part: ‘Explode’ and Embed a QR Code

Researcher Nikhil Gupta tells Tech Briefs why "exploding" a QR code inside a 3D-printed part makes counterfeiting practically impossible.

How to Simulate an Avalanche – And All Its Subtle Mechanics

Simulation is a helpful go-to tool for assessing risk, but what if the event being simulated is an avalanche – a complex event with countless parameters and physical variables?

How to Power Robots with Popcorn

Cornell researchers have discovered a novel – and delicious – way to power simple robots: Popcorn.

Scientists Serve Up New Spins on Whiskey, Wine, and Beer

In this episode of “Here’s an Idea," we look at how vineyard owners, distillers, and brewers are finding small ways to innovate and make better beer, wine, and spirits.

Functional Fabric Brings Semiconductors Directly to the Fiber

Instead of attaching semiconductors to fabric, an MIT team has found a way to add the technology right into the fiber themselves.

Tiny Defects in Semiconductors Created ‘Speed Bumps’ or Electrons. UCLA Researchers Cleared the Path

UCLA scientists and engineers have developed a new process for assembling semiconductor devices. The advance could lead to much more...

Trapping Light that Doesn't Bounce Off Track for Faster Electronics

Replacing traditional computer chip components with light-based counterparts will eventually make electronic devices faster due to the wide bandwidth of light. Because...

Merging Antenna and Electronics Boosts Energy and Spectrum Efficiency

By integrating the design of antenna and electronics, researchers have boosted the energy and spectrum efficiency for a new class of millimeter wave transmitters,...

Semiconductor Quantum Transistor Opens the Door for Photon-Based Computing

Transistors, the tiny switches that form the bedrock of modern computing—billions of them — route electrical signals around inside the circuitry of our devices....

A New Way to Replace Plastic Packaging: Crab Shells and Tree Fibers

Georgia Tech researchers have created a sustainable plastic packaging material, using two ingredients you might not expect in a snack machine: crab shells and tree fibers.