Electronics & Software

Here are innovative solutions for your biggest challenges in Electronics and Software - Power Supplies and Management, Board-Level Electronics, Components and Batteries. You’ll find applications essential to military, aviation, medical and automotive design engineering.

Stories

INSIDER: Electronics & Computers

New Type of Wireless Charger Can Charge Multiple Devices Simultaneously

While researchers around the globe are working on free-position wireless charging — which would unchain devices from set charging points — the most common solutions...

INSIDER: Electronics & Computers

More Efficient Electricity Distribution Thanks to New Insulation Material

If we are to transition to a world powered by renewable energy, efficient long-distance transport of electricity is essential, since the supply — renewable energy...

Question of the Week: Electronics & Computers

Will ‘Charging Rooms’ Catch On?

Our Question of the Week focuses on today’s lead story – the creation of an aluminum test area that wirelessly powered lamps, fans, and cell phones.

Articles: RF & Microwave Electronics

Inside Story: Keith Moore, CEO of Pickering Interfaces

CEO Keith Moore tells Tech Briefs about the unique challenges facing testing engineers in aerospace.

Blog: Power

A New Way to Launch Rockets: Microwave Power

A team at the University of Tsukuba used a beam of microwave radiation to a launch a drone into the air. Can this type of propulsion take off?

Blog: Energy

A 'Charging Room' Powers Devices Through the Air

Prof. Alanson Sample and his team want to turn entire buildings into wireless charging zones. Learn how their system delivers electricity over the air.

Special Reports: Electronics & Computers

Test & Measurement - September 2021

An automated CT system “sees” deep inside electronics to spot hidden defects...a NASA moon mission spinoff now monitors forest fire emissions...a novel way to test bonded structures in critical aerospace...

Technology Leaders: Aerospace

The Problem of Obsolete Avionics

Learn different strategies for addressing outdated avionics, like adding in commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products.

Application Briefs: Software

BioPod Takes One Step Closer to Life on Mars

Interstellar used Dassault’s 3DEXPERIENCE platform on the cloud to design and develop its first prototype: BioPod.

NASA Spinoff: Data Acquisition

Microphone Detects Turbulence Hundreds of Miles Away

A NASA microphone that detects unseen air turbulence is lofted to high heights aboard a stratospheric glider.

Briefs: Green Design & Manufacturing

Technology Converts Waste Plastics to Jet Fuel

The reaction converts 90% of plastic to jet fuel and other valuable hydrocarbon products within an hour at moderate temperatures.

Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control

Imitating Human Hands to Make Better Sensors

This work could help severely injured people, such as soldiers, regain the ability to control their movements.

Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Universal Tactile Sensing with Electromechanically Coupled Conductors

These tactile imaging sensors can measure pressure distribution without using pressure-sensitive materials.

5 Ws: Electronics & Computers

5 Ws of Puncture-Proof Soft Electronics

The durable soft electronics could be used in wearable electronics and soft robotics and could someday be part of a stretchable smartphone.

Briefs: Propulsion

Fuel Cell Boosts Electric-Powered Vehicles

This fuel cell could power a variety of transportation modes such as unmanned underwater vehicles, drones, and eventually electric aircraft.

Briefs: Photonics/Optics

Programmable Fiber Provides Power and Transmits Data

Designed for soldier uniforms, the fiber can sense, store, analyze, and infer activity when sewn into a piece of clothing.

Briefs: Electronics & Computers

Chemistry Approach for More Robust Soft Electronics

The approach could lead to more flexible health monitors, wearable devices, sensors, optical communication systems, and soft robotics.

Briefs: Aerospace

Fiber-Metal Laminate Manufacturing Technique

Synthesis of fiber-metal laminates is performed using RF plasma spray deposition.

Briefs: Materials

Origami Solves Challenge of Storing and Moving Rocket Fuel

A folded plastic bladder could store and pump the fuel.

Briefs: RF & Microwave Electronics

Atom-Based Radio Communications

An atom-based sensor can determine the direction of an incoming radio signal.

UpFront: Aerospace

UpFront: September 2021 Tech Briefs

NASA Washing Machine Designs Go for a Spin Right now, there is no laundry service in space. Astronaut garments aren’t washed. They are put onto ships that burn up in the atmosphere. At NASA Glenn,...