Electronics & Software

Sweat-Powered Wearable Akin to Wearing a Band-Aid

A sweat-powered wearable has the potential to make continuous, personalized health monitoring as effortless as wearing a Band-Aid. Read on to learn more.

Wireless Transceiver Rivals Fiber-Optic Speed

A new transceiver invented by electrical engineers at the University of California, Irvine boosts radio frequencies into 140-gigahertz territory, unlocking data speeds that rival those of physical fiber-optic cables and laying the groundwork for a transition to 6G and FutureG data transmission protocols. Read on to learn more about it.

Resilient Nylon Device Creates Electricity Under Tons of Pressure

Researchers have developed a flexible nylon-film device that generates electricity from compression and keeps working even after being run over by a car multiple times, opening the door to self-powered sensors on our roads and for other electronic devices. Read on to learn more.

Humidity-Resistant Hydrogen Sensor Can Improve Safety for Large-Scale Clean Energy

It's a challenge that today’s sensors do not work optimally in humid environments. Now, researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, are presenting a new sensor that is well suited to humid environments — and actually performs better the more humid it gets. Read on to learn more about it.

Finding Hidden Damage in Cold-Formed Steel with Radar and AI

A University of Houston engineer has developed a method to detect possible damage in concealed cold-formed steel construction framing materials hidden behind walls, without having to tear the walls open. Read on to learn more.

Porous Radical Organic Framework Improves Lithium-Sulfur Batteries

A team led by Professor Yan Lu, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, and Professor Arne Thomas, Technical University of Berlin, has developed a material that enhances the capacity and stability of lithium-sulfur batteries. Read on to learn more.

A Fully Autonomous Robotic System Measures Key Properties of New Materials

Scientists are striving to discover new semiconductor materials that could boost the efficiency of solar cells and other electronics. But the pace of innovation is bottlenecked by the speed at which researchers can manually measure important material properties. A fully autonomous robotic system developed by MIT researchers could speed things up. Read on to learn more.

Magnetocaloric Heat Pumps: The Future of Sustainable Cooling and Heating

A team of researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy Ames National Laboratory developed a magnetocaloric heat pump that matches current vapor-compression heat pumps for weight, cost, and performance. Read on to learn more about it.

Obtaining 6G Edge Intelligence

The race to develop sixth-generation (6G) mobile networks is accelerating, with commercialization expected by 2030. Read on to learn how some researchers are exploring the integration of edge AI and space–ground integrated networks (SGINs) to extend AI services globally.

A Blueprint for a 6G Core Network

A research team from Huawei’s advanced wireless labs in Canada and China has published a blueprint for a 6G core network that can generate, update, and execute its own control procedures without human intervention. Read on to learn more.

The Rise of the Integrated Battery Large Model

A research team innovatively proposed the “Integrated Battery Large Model,” establishing the first AI-driven paradigm covering the entire lifecycle of the Li-ion battery industry, providing a novel technological path for the industry’s intelligent upgrade. Read on to learn more about the Battery Large Model system.

The Next Step in Wireless Cellular Technology: 6G

Researchers from the University of Tokyo, as part of a multi-institution team, have created an electromagnetic wave absorber for waves between 0.1–1 terahertz (THz). This greatly expands the range of the terahertz frequency which could be commercially used in the future. Read on to learn more.

Ultrasound as a New Wireless Power Transfer Technology

A research team led by Dr. Sunghoon Hur of the Electronic and Hybrid Materials Research Center at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology and Professor Hyun-Cheol Song of Korea University has developed a biocompatible ultrasonic receiver that maintains its performance even when bent. Read on to learn more.

Electric Eel Biology Inspires Powerful Gel Battery

Power sources used in devices found in or around biological tissue must be flexible and non-toxic, while still powerful enough to support demanding technologies such as medical devices or soft robotics. To achieve this balance, researchers at Penn State are taking inspiration from electric eels. Read on to learn more.

Breakthrough in Carbon-Based Battery Materials Improves Safety, Durability, and Power

This research demonstrates a new way to make carbon-based battery materials much safer, longer lasting, and more powerful by fundamentally redesigning how fullerene molecules are connected. Read on to learn more.

Supercapacitors That Rival Batteries

In a study published in Nature Communications, a team reveals a new kind of carbon-based material that allows supercapacitors to store as much energy as traditional lead-acid batteries, while delivering power far faster than conventional batteries can manage. Read on to learn more.

Research Upturns Assumptions About Battery Failure

New research from Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering has solved a major battery mystery that has led to capacity degradation, shortened lifespan and, in some cases, fire. Read on to learn more.

Building an Affordable Grid-Scale Alternative to Batteries

Researchers at Rice University have found a new way to improve a key element of thermophotovoltaic systems, which convert heat into electricity via light. Read on to learn more about it.

Anode-Free Battery Doubles Electric Vehicle Driving Range

A joint research team led by Professor Soojin Park and Dr. Dong-Yeob Han of the Department of Chemistry at POSTECH, together with Professor Nam-Soon Choi and Dr. Saehun Kim of KAIST, and Professor Tae Kyung Lee and researcher Junsu Son of Gyeongsang National University, has successfully achieved a volumetric energy density of 1270 Wh/L in an anode-free lithium metal battery. This value is nearly twice that of lithium-ion batteries currently used in electric vehicles, which typically deliver around 650 Wh/L. Read on to learn more.

New Protective Layer Boosts Lithium Metal Battery Performance

The coating toughens the surface of the electrolyte fivefold against fracturing from mechanical pressure. It also makes existing imperfections much less vulnerable to lithium burrowing inside, especially during fast recharging. Read on to learn more.

ARC ANGEL Reduces Gravity’s Effect on Arms

Innovators at NASA Johnson Space Center have developed an Earthbound robotic training system called “ARGOS” for short. It can actively simulate an astronaut’s weightlessness in space by using an overhead runway and bridge drive system to partially or fully offload their weight using attached cables, effectively suspending them off the ground. Read on to learn more.

New Electronic “Skin” Could Enable Lightweight Night-Vision Glasses

MIT engineers have developed a technique to grow and peel ultrathin “skins” of electronic material. The method could pave the way for new classes of electronic devices, such as ultrathin wearable sensors, flexible transistors and computing elements, and highly sensitive and compact imaging devices. Read on to learn more.

First Electronic-Photonic Quantum Chip Created in a Commercial Foundry

In a milestone for scalable quantum technologies, scientists from Boston University, UC Berkeley, and Northwestern University have reported the world’s first electronic–photonic–quantum system on a chip, according to a study published in Nature Electronics. Read on to learn more about it.

Using ‘Doughnut’ Beams to See Incredibly Small Objects

In a new study, researchers at CU Boulder have used doughnut-shaped beams of light to take detailed images of objects too tiny to view with traditional microscopes. The new technique could help scientists improve the inner workings of a range of “nanoelectronics,” including the miniature semiconductors in computer chips. Read on to learn more.

A Smart Sensor Performs AI Tricks While Capturing Spectral Images

By folding AI algorithms into a camera’s sensor itself, researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have now eliminated a data-processing bottleneck that has long plagued the performance of spectral imaging technology. The result is an intelligent sensor capable of identifying chemicals and characterizing materials quickly and efficiently. Read on to learn more.

Harvesting Water from Air

Even in arid parts of the world, there is usually moisture in the air. This moisture could provide much-needed water for drinking and irrigation, but extracting water out of air is difficult. A new technology developed by KAUST researchers can consistently extract liters of water out of thin air each day without needing regular manual maintenance. Read on to learn more.