Electronics & Software

Energy

Your destination for advances in renewable energy, energy storage technologies, and trends in portable solar power, energy harvesting, wind power, and alternative energy. Design engineers will find the latest applications and multimedia resources including videos, white papers, webinars, and technical briefs.

Stories

Blog: Materials

What Role Will Plastics Play in Battery Electric Vehicles?

Tech Briefs readers ask a series of questions about the future of plastics in battery electric vehicles.

Blog: Electronics & Computers

A New Aluminum Anode Leads to Error-Free Rechargeable Batteries

Researchers from Cornell University have redesigned the battery so that aluminum more easily integrates into a battery's electrodes.

Question of the Week: Energy

Will Underwater Exploration Go Battery-Free?

A Tech Brief featured in our April issue highlighted a battery-free pinpointing system from MIT called Underwater Backscatter Localization. Rather than emitting its own acoustic signals, the “UBL” reflects modulated signals from its environment. The reflections provide researchers with positioning...

Briefs: Energy

Polymer/Ceramic Composite as a Thin-Film Solid Electrolyte

This composite can be used in lithium metal batteries.

Briefs: Electronics & Computers

Supercapacitors for Wearable Devices

These robust supercapacitors still work when stretched to eight times their original size.

Briefs: Energy

Extracting Bioproducts from Plants for Biofuels

Biofuels can achieve cost parity with petroleum fuels.

Briefs: Imaging

Using Solar Panel Technology to Create Ultrahigh-Resolution OLED Display

The micro-display could enable smartphones and televisions with resolutions of more than 10,000 pixels per inch.

Briefs: Energy

Active Photonic Wireless System Powers Medical Implants

The device recharges the internal battery of implants without invasive surgery.

Briefs: Photonics/Optics

Optimized Wavelength-Tuned, Nonlinear, Frequency Conversion Using a Liquid Crystal Clad Waveguide

Applications include spectroscopy and LiDAR.

Facility Focus: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

Facility Focus: Cornell University College of Engineering

See the advanced materials, complex systems, and bioengineering technologies being created at Cornell.

Briefs: Materials

Lightweight Green Supercapacitors Could Quickly Charge Devices

The energy storage device can store a charge up to 900 times greater than state-of-the-art supercapacitors.

Briefs: Energy

Turning Carbon Dioxide into Liquid Fuel

A new electrocatalyst efficiently converts carbon dioxide into ethanol.

Briefs: Energy

High-Temperature Ni-Based Superalloy Composition

The alloy has applications in jet turbine disks and other high-stress and/or high-temperature environments.

Products: Manufacturing & Prototyping

New on the Market: April 2021

Displacement sensors, metal 3D printers, shielding materials, and more.

Q&A: Electronics & Computers

Q&A: Electricity-Free Cooling

Professor Qiaoqiang Gan of the University at Buffalo (NY) and his team developed a unique two-in-one system that uses solar energy for simultaneously cooling and heating — without electricity.

Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control

Materials Capable of Self-Propulsion

Shape and environment can cause materials to move without motors or hands.

Blog: Energy

A 'Wearable Microgrid' Powers Your Devices

You have the power. That's the idea behind a "wearable microgrid" from the University of California San Diego that harvest and stores energy from your body to power electronics.

INSIDER: Energy

Luminescent Windows Generate Energy From Inside and Out

Rice University engineers have suggested a colorful solution to next-generation energy collection: Luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) in your windows. The team designed and built...

INSIDER: Energy

New Wearable Device Turns the Body Into a Battery

Researchers at CU Boulder have developed a new, low-cost, wearable device that transforms the human body into a biological battery. The device is stretchy enough that you can wear it like a...

INSIDER: Electronics & Computers

A Fluid Solution to Dendrite Growth in Batteries

Scientists at University of California, Davis, have proposed a solution to dendrite growth in rechargeable lithium metal batteries using microfluidics. The group proved that flowing ions near...

INSIDER: Green Design & Manufacturing

Inexpensive Battery Charges Rapidly for Electric Vehicles

Range anxiety, the fear of running out of power before being able to recharge an electric vehicle, may be a thing of the past, according to a team of Penn State engineers who are...

Special Reports: Aerospace

Unmanned Systems - March 2021

Drones that swarm and change shape mid-flight... autonomous combat vehicles on the battlefield...the latest in counter-UAS technology. Read about new advances in air and ground unmanned systems in this report from...

Special Reports: Photonics/Optics

Rugged Computing - March 2021

From the battlefield to the oceans to the extremes of space, electronics and computing advances enable missions in the harshest conditions. To help you keep pace with the latest developments, we present this...