Magazine

Perfecting a Comprehensive Design Process

This article looks at two real-world applications in which machine vision and motion control work in harmony to solve different manufacturing challenges.

Optical Strain for Precision Measurements and Certification

Optical strain is material independent and measures the response of the integrated system, so designers can get a measure of the true response and strength of their designs.

Biofilm Harvests Energy in Evaporation

The biofilm has the potential to revolutionize the world of wearable electronics, powering everything from personal medical sensors to personal electronics.

Light-Emitting Tattoo

The OLEDs are fabricated onto temporary tattoo paper and transferred to a new surface by being pressed onto it and dabbed with water.

Automated Fabric Circuit and Antenna Fabrication

The technology allows for higher surface conductivity, improved impedance control, expanded design and application potential, and greater choice of materials for optimized performance.

Method Miniaturizes Light-Based Chips

But they’re not yet small enough to compete in computing and other applications where electric circuits continue to reign.

Printable IoT Sensor Development Platform

To benchmark performance of printed sensors against the state of the art, NASA has developed a low-power flexible sensor platform.

Pulsed 2-Micron Laser Transmitter

The design produces a compact, efficient, long-lifetime laser transmitter as needed for use in space, while also having potential applications as an airborne or ground-based wind measurement tool.

Let’s Get Small: New Argonne Method Greatly Improves X-Ray Nanotomography Resolution

A group of scientists led by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory has created a new method for improving the resolution of hard X-ray nanotomography.

Making Measurements with a Fine-Toothed Comb

Enter the frequency comb, a Nobel Prize-winning device and the result of decades of research from NIST and others. The comb generates a billion pulses of light per second, which bounce back and forth inside an optical cavity.

5G Strobe Light: NIST Imaging System Spotlights the Tiny Mechanical Hearts at the Core of Every Cellphone

The new NIST instrument captures waves in action by relying on a device known as an optical interferometer.

An Accurate and Inexpensive COVID-19 Testing Device

The device could transform public health officials’ ability to quickly detect and respond to the coronavirus — or the next pandemic.

RFID-Enabled Wireless Instrumentation

The sensor tags, which are embedded with a processor and memory bank for acquired data, are placed about the vehicle and stream data only when queried by a fixed-location RFID interrogator.

Nano-Thermometers for Temperature Imaging

The final product could make temperature measurements that are 10 times more precise than state-of-the-art techniques, acquired in one-tenth the time in a volume 10,000 times smaller.

COVID-19 Test Uses Smartphone Cameras to Spot Virus RNA

Unlike other tests, this test gives an estimate of viral load or the number of virus particles in a sample, which can help doctors monitor the progression of a COVID-19 infection and estimate how contagious a patient might be.

Smartphone-Powered Microchip Enables At-Home Medical Diagnostic Testing

The innovation opens the door for faster and more affordable at-home medical testing.

Flexible Backing Improves Brain-Computer Interface

Adding a flexible backing to this kind of brain-computer interface allows the device to more evenly conform to the brain’s complex curved surface and to more uniformly distribute the microneedles that pierce the cortex.

Recyclable Feedstocks for Additive Manufacturing

One common limitation of AM has been that produced articles cannot be recycled without substantial energy costs.

A New Fabrication Process Produces Smart Textiles

By incorporating a special type of plastic yarn and using heat to slightly melt it — a process called thermoforming — the researchers were able to greatly improve the precision of pressure sensors woven into multilayered knit textiles, which they call 3DKnITS.

A Semiconductor Material with Superior Performance

Cubic boron arsenide provides high mobility to both electrons and holes, and it has excellent thermal conductivity. It is, according to the researchers, the best semiconductor material ever found.

New Imaging Technology Reduces Need for Skin Biopsies

Instead of surgically removing a sample of skin, sending it to a lab, and waiting several days for results, your dermatologist takes pictures of a suspicious-looking lesion and quickly produces a detailed, microscopic image of the skin. This could become routine in clinics.

Miniature Optical Fiber Treatment Device Offers More Effective Cancer Immunotherapy

Cancer immunotherapy, one of the most important and promising therapies for cancer treatments, is being used by oncologists to treat patients suffering from many different cancers including breast, cervical, colon, stomach, and skin.

Smart Skin Mimics the Sensing Capabilities of Natural Skin

Study confirms that hydrogels work in a similar way to how humans detect pressure, paving the way for more ionic devices.

Using AI to Improve 3D Printing

Simulations teach a neural network how to adjust printing parameters to minimize error, and then apply that controller to a real 3D printer. The system printed objects more accurately than all the other 3D-printing controllers they compared it to.

X-Ray Crack Detectability

The models allow users to optimize X-ray radiography setups, for the detection of crack and crack-like flaws, to penetrate various materials to show internal structures of parts.

Artificial Intelligence Tech Set to Transform Heart Imaging

The team compared its AI approach, known as virtual native enhancement, with contrast-enhanced CMR scans now used to monitor hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, the most common genetic heart condition.

New on the Market: October 2022

See the new products on the market in October 2022, including harsh duty photoelectric sensors, oil temperature sensors, aquatic pumps, and more.