Articles: Test & Measurement
Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Apollo 11: On to Mars
Just 54 years ago, the first photograph of Mars from a passing spacecraft appeared to show a hazy atmosphere. Now, decades of exploration on the planet itself has shown it to be a...
Briefs: Communications
Sensor Network for Air Vehicles
Aircraft currently fly based on coarse estimations of environment and aircraft state. Real-time measurements are traditionally restricted to laboratory environments (e.g. wind tunnel) due to the size and...
Articles: Aerospace
Products of Tomorrow: July 2019
This column presents technologies that have applications in commercial areas, possibly creating the products of tomorrow. To learn more about each technology, see the contact information provided for that...
Briefs: Test & Measurement
Integrated Silicon Photonic Switch Demonstrates Lowest Signal Loss Ever in High-Speed Data Transmission
Experimental photonic switches developed at UC Berkeley have shown promise toward the goal of fully optical, high-capacity switching for...
News: Manufacturing & Prototyping
LASER World of PHOTONICS 2019
Question of the Week: Test & Measurement
Will 5G Impact How You Test and Design?
We see a huge ‘Fear of Missing Out’ as companies, or even nations, become the first to release new 5G technologies and products,” said National Instruments’ Charles Schroeder during last month’s NIWeek event.
Application Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Cross-Training Made Possible by Common Control Platform
EMAG L.L.C. is the U.S. subsidiary of a major German machine tool builder that specializes in machine tools for the production of automotive, off-highway, agricultural, and oil field...
Articles: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Sensors Expo Preview 2019
The 2019 Sensors Expo and Conference will be held at the McEnery Convention Center, San Jose, CA from June 25 – 27. Both the expo and conference are excellent opportunities to get a good sense of important sensor trends. Among the wide variety of themes at the conference, some strike me as being very significant for...
Briefs: IoMT
New Electromyography Biofeedback Device
Anew electromyography biofeedback device that is wearable and connects to novel smartphone games may offer people with incomplete paraplegia a more affordable, self-controllable therapy to enhance...
Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Single-Photon Detector for Potential Encryption and Sensing
Light is widely used for communications, carrying phone conversations and video signals through fiber optic cables around the world in pulses composed of many photons. Single...
Briefs: Software
Algorithm Predicts How Electromagnetic Waves Interact with Materials at the Smallest Scales
Magnetic materials can attract or repel each other based on their polar orientation — positive and negative ends attract each other, while two positives or two negatives repel. When an electromagnetic signal like a radio wave passes through such...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Graphene-Silicon Devices for Optoelectronics Applications
Silicon is a naturally occurring material commonly used as a semiconductor in electronic devices; however, researchers have exhausted the potential of devices with semiconductors made...
Articles: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Key Factors to Consider When Designing a Smart Factory
In recent years, the emergence of Industry 4.0 has been steadily transforming the manufacturing sector into an ultra-high-tech industry. Innovative smart technologies such as robotics,...
Briefs: Test & Measurement
Monitor Babies in the NICU Without Wires
An interdisciplinary Northwestern University team has developed a pair of soft, flexible wireless sensors that replace the tangle of wire-based sensors that currently monitor babies in hospitals’...
Blog: Internet of Things
NIWeek 2019: What Will Slow Down 5G? ‘Nothing,’ Says Panel
Briefs: Communications
High-Performance, Current-Steering Digital-to-Analog Converter
A current-steering digital-to-analog converter (DAC) was developed that achieves improved switching times (up to 75% faster) in high-speed (gigahertz), high-resolution (8-14...
Q&A: Test & Measurement
Q&A: NASA's Dr. Mahmooda Sultana Makes Multifunctional Sensors
Dr. Sultana won funding to advance a nanomaterial-based detector platform that can sense environmental parameters from minute concentrations of target gases and vapors, to...
Products: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Product of the Month: May 2019 Tech Briefs
S. Himmelstein and Company, Hoffman Estates, IL, announced Model 700+ Series signal conditioners that are flexible, one- or two-channel signal conditioners/displays. They feature...
INSIDER: Electronics & Computers
Miniature, High-Performance, Low-Cost 5G Transceiver Design
Researchers at the Tokyo Institute of Technology have devised a strategy to support high-speed mobile data access using the millimeter-wave spectrum for a fifth-generation (5G)...
Ordinary WiFi can easily detect weapons, bombs, and explosive chemicals in bags at museums, stadiums, theme parks, schools, and other public venues using a low-cost suspicious...
Briefs: Communications
Wearable Devices Allow Direct Communication by Touch
Emergency situations such as trying to escape heavy smoke from fire could leave the sense of touch as the only way to find an exit. Rather than trying to look at a smartphone screen, a...
Briefs: Communications
Multiplexing of Wireless Surface Acoustic Wave Sensors
The traditional approach for wireless sensors involves interrogators that communicate with each other (i.e., the two boxes “talk” to each other). In contrast, surface acoustic wave...
Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Quantum Radio Aids Communications and Mapping
GPS signals do not penetrate very deeply or at all in water, soil, or building walls, and therefore can’t be used by submarines or in underground activities such as surveying mines. GPS also...
Briefs: RF & Microwave Electronics
System Enables Direct Data Transmission Between Underwater and Airborne Devices
Today, underwater sensors cannot share data with those on land, as both use different wireless signals that only work in their respective mediums. Radio signals that travel through air die very rapidly in water. Acoustic signals, or sonar, sent by underwater devices...
Briefs: RF & Microwave Electronics
Signal Combiner for Wideband Communication
NASA’s Glenn Research Center has devised an efficient new method of combining primary and secondary signals with minimal loss and noise. With its ability to reduce system noise, this novel signal combiner delivers the best opportunity to receive a desired signal not easily distinguished from...
Briefs: Communications
Passive RFID Tag with Long Range and Wide Coverage Capabilities
Researchers at NASA Johnson Space Center have developed the RFID Tag with Long Range and Wide Coverage Capabilities technology that allows a RFID tag to direct a RFID reader beam signal back in the direction of arrival. This technology requires no added power to provide telemetry...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
The Teletenna — a Hybrid Telescope Antenna System
Innovators at NASA’s Glenn Research Center have developed a hybrid telescope antenna system — Teletenna — to deliver high-data-rate communication over great distances. Teletenna has...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Chip Measures Quantities with Quantum Precision
Many devices use light to probe the quantum states of atoms in a vapor confined in a small cell. Atoms can be highly sensitive to external conditions, and therefore make superb detectors....
Products: RF & Microwave Electronics
Product of the Month: April 2019 Tech Briefs
nanotron, Munich, Germany, introduced 360° Edge Analytics tools and location-aware wireless sensors for manufacturing and healthcare. The products automatically extract event information...
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