Magazine

5Ws of the ‘Enchilada’ Trap

A new ion trap developed by Sandia National Labs enables scientists to build more powerful machines to advance the experimental but potentially revolutionary field of quantum computing.

Fully Stretchable Fabric-Based Lithium-Ion Battery

The future of wearable technology just got a big boost thanks to a team of University of Houston researchers who designed, developed, and delivered a successful prototype of a fully stretchable fabric-based lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery.

A Solvent-Free Process to Make Better, Cheaper Li-ion Battery Electrodes

A team Led by Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) researcher Yan Wang has developed a solvent-free process to manufacture Li-ion battery electrodes that are greener, cheaper, and charge faster than electrodes currently on the market.

Advancing High-Energy-Density Devices

In critical applications such as electric vehicles, there is a growing demand for a device that can efficiently produce both high power and high energy over a significant number of cycles.

An Energy-Storing Concrete-Based Supercapacitor

Two of humanity’s most ubiquitous historical materials, cement, and carbon black may form the basis for a novel, low-cost energy storage system, according to a new study by MIT researchers.

New Products

See the new products, including a battery tester, battery test solution, a battery monitoring system, battery chargers, and more.

Advanced Electrical Architectures Demand New Developmental Strategies

As the need for sophisticated functionality increases, high-performance computers and zone controllers could be the heart of next-generation vehicle electrical platforms.

Pratt & Whitney, Virginia Tech Pioneer Laser-Optical Approach for Turbofan Engine Thrust Measurement

A longstanding partnership between Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) and Pratt & Whitney has resulted in a new laser-optical technology that aims to revolutionize in-flight thrust measurement.

Clean Technology Lasers: The New Tool in Surface Pre-Treatment for Superior Coating Adhesion

Given its effectiveness pretreating metal surfaces, industrial laser systems are increasingly being used in manufacturing facilities. The systems can be integrated into automated inline processing lines, or technicians can use mobile handheld units.

Quality Check for OLED and μ-LED Displays Amid the Race for Ever Higher Resolution

The race for very high resolutions places increased demands not only on display manufacturers, but also on the suppliers of light measurement technology.

Novel Light-Field Sensor for 3D Scene Construction Has Unprecedented Angular Resolution

A research team has developed a 3D imaging sensor that has an extremely high angular resolution — it can distinguish points of an object separated by an angular distance, of as little as 0.0018°. The sensor operates on a unique angle-to-color conversion principle.

Photonic Integrated Circuit Testing: Accelerating R&D From Lab to Fab

While the promise of smaller, better, faster, lighter devices enabled by integrated photonics technologies is indeed the ultimate goal for AIM Photonics, the actual path to high-volume manufacturing isn’t necessarily a smooth ride for PIC designers, developers, and engineers.

NeuWS Camera Overcomes Light Scattering With Full-Motion Video

Engineers have created full-motion video technology that could potentially be used to make cameras that peer through fog, smoke, driving rain, murky water, skin, bone, and other media that reflect scattered light and obscure objects from view.

Transferring Data with Many Colors of Light Simultaneously

Researchers have demonstrated an energy-efficient method for transferring larger quantities of data over the fiber-optic cables that connect the nodes. This new technology improves on previous attempts to transmit multiple signals simultaneously over the same fiber-optic cables.

A First-Of-Its-Kind Integrated Optical Isolator

A team of researchers led by electrical engineer Marko Lončar at SEAS has developed a method for building a highly efficient integrated isolator that’s seamlessly incorporated into an optical chip made of lithium niobate.

Detecting Threats Beyond the Limits of Human, Sensor Sight

A new patented software system can find the curves of motion in streaming video and images from satellites, drones, and far-range security cameras and turn them into signals to find and track moving objects as small as one pixel.

New Products

See the new products, including a handheld NIR spectrometer, a Boson+ thermal camera module, next-generation pump laser diode, and much more.

Infrared Technology for Chamber Clean Endpoint Detection

Efficient and complete chamber cleaning processes are critical for the success of CVD/ALD processes.

Leveraging Virtual Twins for Manufacturing Excellence

CenterLine’s successful adoption of the virtual twin showcases the technology’s tremendous potential for the automation industry. As virtual twin technology continues to evolve, it will disrupt industries even further.

An Effective Roadmap to Mobile Automation

To achieve the numerous benefits of mobile automation, manufacturers must take some key implementation considerations into account and follow essential guidelines. Doing so ensures that they apply the right mobile automation solution.

Quantum Computing Architecture May Enable High-Fidelity Communication

MIT researchers have developed a quantum computing architecture that aims to enable extensible, high-fidelity communication between superconducting quantum processors.

Future-Proofing Applications with Industrial Ethernet

While there may still be times when proprietary or serial communications are useful, the wide availability and low cost of high-performance industrial-specific devices and installation media are making industrial Ethernet the best approach for future-proofing applications and operating most efficiently.

New Wireless System for Greater 5G Access

A new paper on wireless connectivity from researchers at the lab of Dinesh Bharadia, an affiliate of the UC San Diego Qualcomm Institute (QI), introduces a new technique for increasing access to the 5G-and-beyond millimeter wave (mmWave) network.

Lightweight, Self-Deployable Helical Antenna

NASA's newly developed antenna is lightweight (at or below 2 grams), low volume (at or below 1.2 cm3), and low stowage thickness (approx. 0.7 mm), all while delivering high performance (at or above 10 dBi gain).

SkinKit Offers Versatile, Wearable On-Skin Computing

The next generation of wearable computing technology will be even closer to the wearer than a watch or glasses: It will be affixed to the skin.

Wearable RFID Sensor Tags Yield Extended Operational Times

The technology exploits the inherently passive nature of RFID to approximate the services provided by traditional active Internet of Things (IoT) protocols like ZigBee and Bluetooth.

RFID Slot Antenna Offers Big Performance, Small Form Factor

Innovators at NASA Johnson Space Center have developed a quarter-wavelength RFID slot antenna that provides polarization diversity and employs dual resonances, but in a form factor that is much smaller than other RFID antennas that provide similar functionality.