Stories

An improved ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) for industrial proximity sensor applications provides ease of programmability, embedded trimming capability, and dual slope temperature compensation. This ASIC design enables inductive proximity sensor/switches to be easily programmed after full assembly in production or...

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have successfully fabricated high- performance field effect transistors using thin films of Carbon 60, also known as fullerene. The new devices - which have electron- mobility values higher than amorphous silicon, low threshold voltages, large on-off ratios, and high operational...

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An international team of researchers, led by Professor Akintundle Ibitayo Akiniwande, are developing a tiny sensor that could be used to detect minute quantities of hazardous gases, including toxic industrial chemicals and chemical warfare agents, more quickly than current devices. A key factor in the team's success is their ability to...

A company is looking for technologies to prevent garbage bags from falling into garbage cans during usage. The technology should be economical and appropriate for a low-cost, high-volume consumer product. Possible approaches include adhesives that do not leave behind residue, electrostatic approaches, frames at the top of the...

Magnetic therapy is an alternative method for treating multiple conditions. Thomas Skalak, a biomedical engineering professor at the University of Virginia, has been researching its effectiveness. Skalak's lab focuses on microcirculation research - the study of blood flow through the body's tiniest blood vessels. Skalak set out to...

Researchers at the University of Minnesota Center for Drug Design and Minneapolis VA Medical Center have discovered a fast-acting antidote to cyanide poisoning that can potentially save the lives of firefighters, industrial workers, and others exposed to the chemical. Developed by Steven Patterson, principal investigator and...

Memory capacity has undergone impressive advances in recent years, but could take a quantum leap thanks to advanced nanolasers now under development in laboratories such as at the University of California in Riverside. Led by associate professor of engineering Sakhrat Khizroev, the research team is exploring using tiny lasers...

An embedded passive integration technology allows the integration of passive components into the printed circuit board (PCB). Applied for power converters, these embedded passive integrated circuits reduce size and thus improve power density. It comprises several layers of passive functions to achieve a highly automated, low-cost...

Purdue University researchers have developed a modeling technique to study and design miniature biosensors, which could help industry perfect lab-on-a-chip technology for uses ranging from medical diagnostics to environmental monitoring. Biosensors represent a class of portable sensors designed to capture and detect specific...

Using concentrated solar energy, researchers at Sandia National Laboratories are building a prototype device that can chemically re-energize carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide. The carbon monoxide can then be used to produce hydrogen or help synthesize a liquid combustible fuel such as methanol, gasoline, diesel, or jet...

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a method to detect and destroy proteins, including dangerous ones such as anthrax, using light. The process exposes the proteins to invisible, near-infrared light, rendering them harmless. The technique lends itself to creating new antibacterial and...

A GPS receiving technology can take any signals from both GPS and GLONASS, besides European Satellites such as WAAS and EGNOS. Called ARGO-16, the GPS technology has 16 universal channels in ARGO-16 that can receive and process either GPS or GLONASS satellite signals. It produces high performance with satellite coverage for...

Anyone who has worked with programs such as Linux, Firefox, and Open Office is familiar with the concept of open-source software. Essentially, open-source software distributes programs and all of the underlying code for free. It's an interesting concept that has become quite popular in the engineering world but, until now, is...

Software is currently being developed at Ohio State University that will one day help scientists operate big-budget research instruments, such as high-powered microscopes and telescopes, over the Internet. The need for such capability, which is being driven by the high cost of doing research, is growing rapidly. By using...

The John H. Glenn Research Center introduces the Portable Unit for Metabolic Analysis (PUMA), an instrument that measures quantities indicative of human metabolic function. The PUMA makes time-resolved measurements of temperature, pressure, flow, and the partial pressures of oxygen and carbon dioxide in breath during inhalation and...

Abdominal obesity is a known independent risk factor for heart disease. Based on results of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer cohort study (Epic-Norfolk), researchers have found that using the waist-hip ratio rather than waist measurement alone is a better predictor of heart disease risk. The research was based on...

A company is seeking a powder slurry coating technology, where substrates are coated with powder slurry in an organic binder and then heat treated to diffuse the coating onto the substrates. Any proposed powder slurry coating technology should involve a powder composition based on Co-based or Ni-based alloys. It should be a...

Researchers from Johns Hopkins and the University of Pennsylvania have uncovered another reason why the Myc protein - one of the most commonly activated proteins in cancer - is so dangerous. Myc can stop the production of at least 13 microRNAs, small pieces of nucleic acid that help control which genes are turned on and off. A...

High-performance, single photon sources are closer to reality. A single photon can be used to implement secure optical communication, also known as quantum cryptography. According to scientists, a single photon signature that took eight hours five years back can now be achieved on a millisecond time scale. This was achieved...

An optical device that peers through the eyes of a mouse enables scientists to monitor the cells passing through its bloodstream, holding hope for researchers treating cancer and other diseases. The device, developed by researchers from the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical...

A method to detect image position errors includes forming a first pattern with a symbol embedded therein and a second pattern which, when positioned on the first pattern, exposes the symbol if the misalignment between the first and second patterns exceeds a position error tolerance. The symbol is perceivable with the unaided eye,...

Finding the source of pollutant emissions is no easy task when one has to look inside a dirty combustion chamber. But an Iowa State University researcher may have a solution. Terry Meyer, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Iowa State, is using laser-based sensors to capture images at upwards of thousands of...

Each month, NTB highlights tech briefs related to a particular area of technology in a special section called Technology Focus. Here are some of the technologies featured in the December issue focus on Data Acquisition.

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The world's most powerful medical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine at the University of Illinois at Chicago has passed safety tests and will soon offer doctors a real-time view of biological processes in the human brain. The MRI, called the 9.4 Tesla (9.4T), will allow physicians to observe metabolic processes in real...

Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) courses often employ graphs, diagrams, and figures, putting students with visual disabilities at a significant disadvantage. The company Livescribe has created a smartpen and paper technology that aims to bring these subjects to life for blind students. Andy Van Schaack, a lecturer at...

Technology is required to enable real-time detection of defects during the welding process. This could be achieved by a system that monitors parameters during the welding process and then analyzes changes, ascertains the presence and location of a weld defect, and if possible, its nature. Potential solutions should be...