Briefs: Propulsion
Recent technical advances have enabled flywheel energy storage systems (FESS) to become more compact and able to support higher-power applications. Due to their proven...
Briefs: Aerospace
Wearable biosensors for health monitoring lack a lightweight, long-lasting power supply. A new method was developed for making a charge-storing system that is easily integrated into...
Briefs: Materials
Growing demand for electric vehicles and more sustainable forms of transport means finding new forms of energy storage such as batteries, supercapacitors, and fuel cells. Currently, a major...
5 Ws: Energy
Millions of people who rely on pacemakers, defibrillators, and other livesaving implantable devices powered by batteries that need to be replaced every five to 10 years.
Briefs: Energy
A heat-rejecting film was developed that could be applied to a building’s windows to reflect up to 70 percent of the Sun’s incoming heat. The film remains highly transparent...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Measurement Technique for Continuous-Wave, Modulated, and Pulsed Monochromatic Radiation
In many applications, such as remote sensing of atmospheric trace gases, monochromatic radiation with multiple discrete wavelengths is required. To date, there no instrument or technique that measures the wavelength jitters and fluctuations in real time.
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Titanium is as strong as steel but about twice as light. These properties depend on the way a metal’s atoms are stacked but random defects that arise in the...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
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: Communications
nanotron, Munich, Germany, introduced 360° Edge Analytics tools and location-aware wireless sensors for manufacturing and healthcare. The products automatically extract event information in real time. Position...
Blog: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Blog: Energy
Question of the Week: Materials
Will Carbon Fibers Find a New Place in Vehicles?
In a Tech Briefs article last week, Virginia Tech professor Greg Liu spoke about his team’s newly developed porous carbon fibers, and how the material may someday change how vehicles are built and powered.
INSIDER: Power
Researchers at Rice University have made test cells for lithium metal batteries with a coat of red phosphorus on the separator that keeps the anode and cathode electrodes apart. The phosphorus...
INSIDER: Electronics & Computers
Researchers from Drexel University say that adding MXene to silicon anodes could extend the life of Li-ion batteries by as much as five times. It’s...
Question of the Week: Energy
Will ‘Structural Batteries’ Replace Conventional Ones?
Structural batteries are built into the actual configuration of battery-powered products – think the wing of a drone or the bumper of an electric vehicle. These batteries could reduce weight and extend range of a vehicle, but they're usually heavy, unsafe, or short-lived.
Articles: Energy
Additive manufacturing is poised to liven the pace and scale of manufacturing. Deploying a range of techniques that use 3-D models to print objects layer by layer, it can generate a...
Articles: Photonics/Optics
The Create the Future Design Contest, launched in 2002 by the publishers of Tech Briefs magazine, helps stimulate and reward engineering innovation. The annual event has...
Facility Focus: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Since 1967, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) has been the United States’ premier particle physics laboratory, working on the world's most advanced particle accelerators...
Briefs: Nanotechnology
Researchers have developed an imaging technique that uses a tiny, super sharp needle to nudge a single nanoparticle into different orientations and capture 2-D images to help...
Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Green Electric Monopropellant (GEM)-Fueled Pulsed Plasma Thruster
NASA required a rocket thruster able to produce a number of pulses at high specific impulse at a relatively low voltage (~300 to 400V). The key problem was that existing propellants for liquid-fueled pulsed plasma thrusters (LPPTs) required high voltages to ablate and accelerate...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
An optical setup developed by researchers at Sandia's Combustion Research Facility and the Technical University of Denmark can now quantify the formation of soot — particulate matter consisting...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Multi-Purpose, Flexible Wing Structure for Small Unmanned Aerial Systems
Small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), also known as micro air vehicles, are promising tools for a variety of military and commercial applications. Some small UAS have flexible wings and are lightweight, making them back-packable and easy to deploy. Most UAS that are...
Briefs: Materials
Heat shields are essentially used as the brakes to stop spacecraft from burning up and crashing on entry and reentry into a planet's atmosphere. Current spacecraft heat shield methods include...
Briefs: Data Acquisition
Objects in our daily lives, such as speakers, refrigerators, and even cars, are becoming “smarter” day by day as they connect to the Internet and exchange data, creating the Internet of Things (IoT)....
5 Ws: Test & Measurement
Piezoelectric materials are used in everything from cellphones and wearables, to robotics, energy harvesting, and tactile sensors.
Briefs: Energy
Fuel Cell/Fuel Cell Hybrid System
Fuel cells can deliver clean, reliable, and uninterrupted power nearly 100 percent of the time. Fuel cells offer the advantage of efficiency by converting chemical energy directly to electricity. They have no moving parts, thereby eliminating failures associated with pumps, blowers, heat exchangers, and other...
Briefs: Energy
Real-Time, Fuel-Optimal, Powered Descent Guidance Using Interpolated Time-of-Flight and Propellant Mass
Soft landing using rockets requires a trajectory to be planned for the lander from rocket ignition — typically several kilometers in altitude and moving at up to 200 m/s — to the point near the surface with near-zero velocity. The exact...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Most electronics only function within a certain temperature range but blending two organic materials together creates electronics that withstand extreme heat. The new plastic material could reliably conduct...
Briefs: Test & Measurement
A customizable nanomaterial was developed that combines metallic strength with a foam-like ability to compress and spring back. The material can store and release mechanical energy on the nanoscale, and...
Top Stories
Blog: RF & Microwave Electronics
A Hack to Trick Automotive Radar
Blog: Materials
Rapidly Printing with Liquid Metal
Blog: Materials
New Material Could Lead to Better Hydrogen-Based Batteries, Fuel Cells
Podcasts: Aerospace
Countering Illegally Operated Drones at Airports, Stadiums, and Prisons
NASA Spinoff: Design
Additive Manufacturing Subtracts from Rocket Build Time
Blog: Energy
Webcasts
Upcoming Webinars: Manufacturing & Prototyping
AI on the Ascent: Optimizing Factory Schedules for Peak Production
Webinars: Materials
Top 3 Factors Impacting the Useful Life of Medical Devices
Upcoming Webinars: Automotive
How to Safely Control the Power to Your Vehicle
Upcoming Webinars: Software
Digital Twins and Simulation for Accelerated Automotive Product...
Upcoming Webinars: Manufacturing & Prototyping
EV Bodyshop Metrology: The Same but Different
Upcoming Webinars: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Integrating Additive Manufacturing Into Aerospace Production