Recent Headlines:

Nanofabrication:

Stanford Engineers Create Prototype Chip Just Three Atoms Thick – Stanford

Ever since scientists discovered that atomically thin materials could have useful electronic properties, engineers have been seeking ways to mass-produce so-called single-layer chips. A new technique shows how it might be done.

Flexible Device Captures Energy From Human Motion – PHYS

The day of charging cellphones with finger swipes and powering Bluetooth headsets simply by walking is now much closer.

Ultrathin High-resolution Flexographic Printing Using Nanoporous Stamps – Science Advances

Since its invention in ancient times, relief printing, commonly called flexography, has been used to mass-produce artifacts ranging from decorative graphics to printed media. Now, higher-resolution flexography is essential to manufacturing low-cost, large-area printed electronics. However, because of contact-mediated liquid instabilities and spreading, the resolution of flexographic printing using elastomeric stamps is limited to tens of micrometers.

Method to Dissipate Heat in Electronic Devices – Engineering 360

Controlling the flow of heat through semiconductor materials is a challenge in developing smaller and faster computer chips, high-performance solar panels and better lasers, and biomedical devices.

TSMC Plans New Fab for 3nm – EE Times

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) said that it plans to build its next fab for chips made at the 5-nm to 3-nm technology node as early as 2022 as it aims for industry leadership.

Particles Self-assemble into Archimedean Tilings – PHYS

For the first time, researchers have simulated particles that can spontaneously self-assemble into networks that form geometrical arrangements called Archimedean tilings. The key to realizing these structures is a strategy called minimal positive design, in which both the geometry and the chemical selectivity of the particles is taken into account. The process has applications in molecular self-assembly, which could one day be used to build a variety of nanoscale technologies.

Photonics:

ANU Invention to Inspire New Night-vision Specs – Australian National University

ANU scientists have designed a nano crystal around 500 times smaller than a human hair that turns darkness into visible light and can be used to create light-weight night-vision glasses.

Silicon Nanoantennas Turn Light Around – Photonics Media

Light is rather hard to control, as photons have neither mass nor electric charge. Devices such as nanoantennas can control the propagation of electromagnetic waves, but only to a certain degree.

New Material Could Lead to Erasable and Rewriteable Optical Chips – PHYS

A military drone flying on a reconnaissance mission is captured behind enemy lines, setting into motion a team of engineers who need to remotely delete sensitive information carried on the drone’s chips. Because the chips are optical and not electronic, the engineers can now simply flash a beam of UV light onto the chip to instantly erase all content. Disaster averted.

Bio-Medical:

Patterned Photostimulation via Visible-wavelength Photonic Probes for Deep Brain Optogenetics – Spie

Optogenetic methods developed over the past decade enable unprecedented optical activation and silencing of specific neuronal cell types. However, light scattering in neural tissue precludes illuminating areas deep within the brain via free-space optics; this has impeded employing optogenetics universally. Here, we report an approach surmounting this significant limitation.

Nano Factories to Prevent Bacterial Colonization – EurekAlert!

The award ceremony will take place on Wednesday, 30 November 2016 at 16:00 in the university’s Senatssaal. The funding from the Dr. Karl Helmut Eberle foundation will be used to support innovative and bold research projects at the University of Konstanz. From 2018 onwards, the annual funding will increase to 500,000 euros.

Laboratory-on-a-Chip Technique Simplifies Detection of Cancer DNA Biomarkers – News Wise

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the U.S., making early, reliable diagnosis and treatment a priority for researchers. Genomic biomarkers offer great potential for diagnostics and new forms of treatment, such as immunotherapy. Miniaturized lab-on-chip approaches are prime candidates for developing viable diagnostic tests and instruments because they are small, need only limited test volumes, and can be cost-effective.

Materials:

Fish DNA-modified clays: Towards Highly Flame Retardant Polymer Nanocomposite with Improved Interfacial and Mechanical Performance – Scientific Reports

Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) has been recently found to be an efficient renewable and environmentally-friendly flame retardant. In this work, for the first time, we have used waste DNA from fishing industry to modify clay structure in order to increase the clay interactions with epoxy resin and take benefit of its additional thermal property effect on thermo-physical properties of epoxy-clay nanocomposites.

Machine Learning Enables Predictive Modeling of 2-D Materials – PHYS

Machine learning, a field focused on training computers to recognize patterns in data and make new predictions, is helping doctors more accurately diagnose diseases and stock analysts forecast the rise and fall of financial markets. And now materials scientists have pioneered another important application for machine learning—helping to accelerate the discovery and development of new materials.

Researchers Explore New 2D Materials That Could Make Devices Faster, Smaller, and Efficient – News Wise

A new study by an international team of researchers led by the University of Minnesota highlights how manipulation of 2D materials could make our modern day devices faster, smaller, and better.

New Diamond Harder Than Ring Bling – News Wise

The Australian National University (ANU) has led an international project to make a diamond that’s predicted to be harder than a jeweller’s diamond and useful for cutting through ultra-solid materials on mining sites.

Sensors:

Graphene-spiked Silly Putty picks up human pulse – Nature

A dash of graphene can transform the stretchy goo known as Silly Putty into a pressure sensor able to monitor a human pulse or even track the dainty steps of a small spider.

Nano-calligraphy on Graphene – PHYS

Scientists at The University of Manchester and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology have demonstrated a method to chemically modify small regions of graphene with high precision, leading to extreme miniaturisation of chemical and biological sensors.

Engineers Develop a New Noninvasive Method to Detect Infections in Prostheses – Nanowerk

Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a new non-invasive method to detect infections in prostheses used for amputees, as well as for knee, hip and other joint replacements. The method, which is at the proof of concept stage, consists of a simple imaging technique and an innovative material to coat the prostheses.

New Robot Has a Human Touch – News Wise

Most robots achieve grasping and tactile sensing through motorized means, which can be excessively bulky and rigid. A Cornell University group has devised a way for a soft robot to feel its surroundings internally, in much the same way humans do.