Recent Headlines:

Nanofabrication:

Creating Atomic Scale Nanoribbons – Beckman Institute

Silicon crystals are the semiconductors most commonly used to make transistors, which are critical electronic components used to carry out logic operations in computing. However, as faster and more powerful processors are created, silicon has reached a performance limit: the faster it conducts electricity, the hotter it gets, leading to overheating.

Rebooting the Molecular Computer – C&EN

The fuzzy sound of a distorted electric guitar is, for rock fans, a thing of beauty. It has been a staple of music since the early 1950s, when guitarists strained the vacuum tubes inside their amplifiers to match the raw voices of blues singers. Later generations relied on digital devices: “effects pedals” with circuits built from silicon diodes and transistors.

Nano Dimension’s New PCB 3D Printing Method Improves Reliability, Eliminates Soldering – 3ders

Printed circuit board (PCB) 3D printer manufacturer Nano Dimension has announced a successful proof of concept for a new inkjet PCB 3D printing method. The method improves PCB reliability, eliminates soldering, and supports the creation of thinner, better protected PCBs.

Photonics:

Self-assembling Particles Brighten Future of LED Lighting – EurekAlert!

Just when lighting aficionados were in a dark place, LEDs came to the rescue. Over the past decade, LED technologies — short for light-emitting diode — have swept the lighting industry by offering features such as durability, efficiency and long life.

Professors Majumdar and Xu Discover an Important First Step Towards Building Electrically Pumped Nano-Lasers – Electrical Engineering University of Washington

When an individual uses Facebook or searches Google, the information processing happens in a large data center. Short distance optical interconnects can improve the performance of these data centers. Current systems utilize electrons, which could cause overheating and wastes power. However, utilizing light to transfer information between computer chips and boards can improve efficiency.

Flat Lens Opens a Broad World of Color – Harvard

Last summer, researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) announced a new, flat lens that could focus light with high efficiency within the visible spectrum. The lens used an ultrathin array of nanopillars to bend and focus light as it passed.

Materials:

Microbiologists Make Big Leap in Developing ‘Green’ Electronics – EurekAlert!

Microbiologists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst report that they have discovered a new type of natural wire produced by bacteria that could greatly accelerate the researchers’ goal of developing sustainable “green” conducting materials for the electronics industry. The study by Derek Lovley and colleagues appears this week in mBio, the American Society of Microbiology’s premier journal.

Nanotechnology Could Bring us a Whole New “Power Suit” – C&EN

Thanks to the work of some scientists and ­engineers, we may soon see literal “power suits” in fashion departments. Clothing, shoes, and other wearable devices could collect energy from movement—such as walking, running, or biking—allowing us to charge sensors, lights, smartphones, and even medical implants simply from our daily activity. Think of it as fashion for the fidgety.

Sensors:

Real-time Scans of Self-healing Nanoparticles Show Their Energy Storage Potential – Stanford

In a lab 18 feet below the Engineering Quad of Stanford University, researchers in the Dionne lab camped out with one of the most advanced microscopes in the world to capture an unimaginably small reaction.

Researchers Develop Wearable, Low-Cost Sensor to Measure Skin Hydration – NC State News

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a wearable, wireless sensor that can monitor a person’s skin hydration for use in applications that need to detect dehydration before it poses a health problem. The device is lightweight, flexible and stretchable and has already been incorporated into prototype devices that can be worn on the wrist or as a chest patch.

Highly Sensitive and Reliable SERS Probes Based on Nanogap Control of a Au–Ag Alloy on Silica Nanoparticles – Royal Society of Chemistry

We developed highly sensitive surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) probes based on SiO2@Au@Ag nanoparticles (NPs) using the Ag growth onto Au NP seeds method. The SiO2@Au@Ag NPs were synthesized by reducing Ag ions under mild conditions (ascorbic acid) and using the structure-directing agent polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP).