Transistors Repurposed as Microchip Clock Address Security Flaws

A new approach uses commercial chip fab materials and techniques to fabricate specialized transistors to serve as the building block of the timing device. Read on to learn more.

Nanoscale Device Points the Way to Future Wireless Communication Channels

In a paper published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, a team of Caltech engineers reports building a metasurface patterned with miniscule tunable antennas capable of reflecting an incoming beam of optical light to create many sidebands, or channels, of different optical frequencies. Read on to learn more.

New Wearable Communication System Can Transmit Data Farther than Wi-Fi

A group of University of Arizona researchers has developed a wearable monitoring device system that can send health data up to 15 miles without any significant infrastructure. Their device, they hope, will help make digital health access more equitable. Read on to learn more.

Silicone Membrane for Wearable Devices is Comfortable and Breathable

A silicone membrane for wearable devices is more comfortable and breathable thanks to better-sized pores made with the help of citric acid crystals. The new preparation technique fabricates thin, silicone-based patches that rapidly wick water away from the skin. The technique could reduce the redness and itching caused by wearable biosensors that trap sweat beneath them. Read on to learn more.

Future Washable Smart Clothes Powered by Wi-Fi will Monitor Health

Purdue University engineers have developed a method to transform existing cloth items into battery-free wearables resistant to laundering. These smart clothes are powered wirelessly through a flexible, silk-based coil sewn on the textile. Read on to learn more.

Stretchable, Flexible Biofuel Cell Runs on Sweat

A flexible and stretchable cell has been developed for wearable electronic devices that require a reliable and efficient energy source that can easily be integrated into the human body. Read on to learn more about it.

Wearable Solar Concentrators

The novel solar concentrators can be applied to textile fibers without the textile becoming brittle and susceptible to cracking or accumulating water vapor in the form of sweat. Read on to learn more.

Electronics Finalist: Thin-Film Thermoelectric Cooling Device

The wearable Thin-Film Thermoelectric Cooling (TFTEC) device is one of the world’s lightest, thinnest, and fastest refrigeration devices. It's also the Electronics Finalist. Read on to learn more.

Battery Analysis Pioneer: North America Has Five Years to Catch China

North American automakers and EV battery firms have five years to erase China’s dominance in technology and manufacturing or they may face the reality of buying...

5Ws of the Smart Mask

Caltech engineers have developed a prototype for a high-tech paper mask that can be used to monitor a range of metabolic and respiratory conditions.

Folding NASA Experience into an Origamist’s Toolkit

How an engineer who holds dozens of patents for optoelectronics —technology that combines light and electricity — became one of world’s leading figures at the intersection of math and paper folding.

Rising Star Award Winner 2024: Electronics

Dr. La’Quata Sumter, Professor, Devry University in Leesburg, Georgia, is the 2024 Rising Star Award Winner for Electronics.

Empowering Health Professionals with On-the-Spot 3D-Printed Tests

McGill University researchers have made a breakthrough in diagnostic technology, inventing a ‘lab on a chip’ that can be 3D-printed in just 30 minutes. The chip has the potential to make on-the-spot testing widely accessible. Read on to learn more.

CAD Model Offers Robots Precise Pick-and-Place Solutions

A new paper explores pick-and-place solutions with more precision. In precise pick-and-place, also known as kitting, the robot transforms an unstructured arrangement of objects into an organized arrangement. The approach, dubbed SimPLE (Simulation to Pick Localize and placE), learns to pick, regrasp and place objects using the object’s computer-aided design model. Read on to learn more.

‘Impossible’ Millimeter Wave Sensor Has Wide Potential

Researchers at the University of California, Davis, have developed a proof-of-concept sensor that may usher in a new era for millimeter wave radars. They call its design a “mission impossible” made possible. Read on to learn more.

Wearable, Stretchable Sensor for Detection of Solid-State Skin Biomarkers

Detecting diseases early requires the rapid, continuous, and convenient monitoring of vital biomarkers. Researchers have developed a novel sensor that enables the continuous, real-time detection of solid-state epidermal biomarkers. Read on to learn more.

Simplified Motion Control

High-performance servo motion is now more affordable and accessible than ever due to integrated controllers, making the technology viable even for applications, which could not formerly support the cost or complexity of traditional implementations. Read on to learn more.

Smaller Skin-Like Stretchable Electronics for Wearables

Researchers at Stanford have been working on skin-like, stretchable electronic devices for over a decade. Recently, they presented a new design and fabrication process for skin-like integrated circuits that are five times smaller and operate at one thousand times higher speeds than earlier versions. Read on to learn more about it.

Molecular Highway for Electrons in OLEDs

Now, a team from the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research has developed a new material concept that could allow efficient blue OLEDs with a strongly simplified structure. Read on to learn more.

New Technique Could Improve GPS Navigation Devices

For the first time, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin’s Applied Research Laboratories and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center have formed a radio interferometer between a GPS antenna and receiver and a large radio telescope. Read on to learn more about the new technique.

A Powerful Vision-Based Autonomy Alternative to LiDAR, Radar, GPS

Southwest Research Institute has developed off-road autonomous driving tools with a focus on stealth for the military and agility for space and agriculture clients. The vision-based system pairs stereo cameras with novel algorithms, eliminating the need for LiDAR and active sensors. Read on to learn more.

Analysis and Simulation of Low-Light INL in CMOS Image Sensors

Conventional sources of INL are well understood, but as pixel array resolution has increased and ADC pitch has consequently been reduced, additional array sources of nonlinearity have become prominent. Read on to learn more.

Photonics-Based Wireless Link Breaks Speed Records for Data Transmission

The researchers anticipate that with multiplexing techniques (where more than one channel can be used) and more sensitive receivers, the data rate can be increased to 1 terabit per second, ushering in a new era of near-instantaneous global communication. Read on to learn more.

Rapidly Testing Stretchable Sensors

Engineers have developed a new technique for making wearable sensors that enables medical researchers to prototype and test new designs much faster and at a far lower cost than existing methods. Read on to learn more.

Wearable Sensors Detect Pathogens, Toxins

Researchers have developed a method to detect bacteria, toxins, and dangerous chemicals in the environment with a biopolymer sensor that can be printed like ink on a wide range of materials — including wearables. Read on to learn more.

3D Processors May Revolutionize Wireless Communication

Scientists have pioneered a method for using semiconductor technology to manufacture processors that significantly enhance the efficiency of transmitting vast amounts of data across the globe. The innovation is poised to transform the landscape of wireless communication. Read on to learn more.

New Transistor Could Shrink Communications Devices on Smartphones

After announcing a ferroelectric semiconductor at the nanoscale thinness required for modern computing components, a University of Michigan team has demonstrated a reconfigurable transistor using that material. Read on to learn more.

3D-Printing Flexible Devices without Mechanical Joints

Eva Baur, a Ph.D. student, used 3D-printed double network granular elastomers (DNGEs) to print a prototype ‘finger,’ complete with rigid ‘bones’ surrounded by flexible ‘flesh.’ The finger was printed to deform in a pre-defined way, demonstrating the technology’s potential to manufacture devices that are sufficiently supple to bend and stretch, while remaining firm enough to manipulate objects. Read on to learn more.