Industry News

February 2019
A Mega-Project on Cybersecurity and Data Protection

An extensive research project on cybersecurity and data protection in Europe will be launched this week. Goethe University Frankfurt has assumed the leadership and co-ordination of the 43 total consortium partners from science, business, industry and society.

With a total grant amount of € 16 million, 'mega' is hardly an exaggerated designation for the project "CyberSec4Europe". The European Commission desires to set international standards in cybersecurity and boost the effectiveness of Europe's security capacities. The goal of the new "Horizon 2020&
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Date:
02/28/2019
Interactive Surfaces Enter a New Dimension of Flexibility

(left) System Overview, (right) Example of Displaying the Letter "S."

An "interactive surface" refers to an interface whose input and output share a common surface that can be manipulated intuitively with the fingers. However, ordinary multi-touch displays, e.g., liquid crystal displays (LCD), can only provide two-dimensional information, limiting expressions and interactions wi
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Date:
02/28/2019
Army Lab, Industry Partner to Develop New Materials

The Army and the Lockheed Martin Corporation announced a cooperative agreement to spur scientific research in the area of Self-Assembly of Nanostructures for Tunable Materials.

The Army and a major defense contractor established a new research partnership to create novel materials to further enhance the devices and technology used by warfighters. The U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command's Army Research Laboratory -- the Army's corporate research laboratory known as ARL -- a
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Date:
02/27/2019
Electrically-Heated Silicate Glass Defies Joule's First Law

Another surprising observation of electric heating of glass is that the hot spot near the positive electrode may meander around as seen in the video frames several seconds apart in the figure here. For the video and explanation of this phenomenon see the publication at: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-39431-8

Characterizing and predicting how electrically-heated silicate glass behaves is important because it is used in a variety of devices that drive technical innovations. Silicate glass is used in display screens. Glass fibers power the internet. Nanoscale glass devices are being deployed to provide breakthrough me
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Date:
02/27/2019
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Energous Corporation announced a collaboration with vivo Global to explore integrating WattUp into smartphone designs that charge wirelessly over-the-air. “We are excited to announce a collaboration with vivo, a top 6 global smartphone manufacturer, to explore the use of our WattUp wirel
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Date:
02/26/2019
EPC Publishes Reliability Report Highlighting GaN Testing
EL SEGUNDO, Calif.— EPC announces its Phase Ten Reliability Report, documenting the test results leading to the successful completion of automotive AEC-Q101 qualification. AEC-Q101 demands the highest level of reliability standards for power FETs, requiring not only zero datasheet failures, but also low parametric dr
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Date:
02/26/2019
PSD Celebrating 15 Years of Publishing

Click image to enlarge
Jim & Julia Graham

2019 has arrived and it marks a Big Anniversary for the PSD team!  PSD is celebrating our 15th year in publishing for the global power electronic engineering community.  Back in 2004, when the "big publishers" decided that they would close magazines like PCIM Europe and would serve the power com
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Date:
02/25/2019
A New Spin in Nano-Electronics

A spin wave spreading along a magnetic domain wall.

In recent years, electronic data processing has been evolving in one direction only: The industry has downsized its components to the nanometer range. But this process is now reaching its physical limits. Researchers at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) are therefore exploring spin waves or so-called ma
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Date:
02/25/2019
Faster Method to Read Quantum Memory

By using two separate microwaves, the two states of the qubit can be separated faster

The potential computing revolution that quantum computers have long promised is based on their weird property called superposition. Namely, qubits can take both logical states 0 and 1 simultaneously, on top of any value in between. By mastering superpositions of the whole quantum memory, quantum computers can qu
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Date:
02/25/2019
'Goldilocks' Thinking to cut Fuel Cell Cost in EVs

A platinum-like metal only five atomic layers thick is "just right" for optimizing the performance of a fuel cell electrode.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- The 2019 Toyota Mirai electric vehicle touts zero emissions, thanks to a fuel cell that runs on hydrogen instead of gasoline. But the Mirai has barely left California, partly because today's fuel cell electrodes are made of super expensive platinum. Cutting down on the platinum would also
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Date:
02/22/2019
How to Freeze Heat Conduction

Prof. Silke Bühler Paschen

Every day we lose valuable energy in the form of waste heat - in technical devices at home, but also in large energy systems. Part of it could be recovered with the help of the "thermoelectric effect". The heat flow from a hot device to the cold environment can be directly converted into electrical po
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Date:
02/22/2019
A Quantum Magnet With a Topological Twist

Researchers explored a material that has an internal structure, shown in 3D in left panel, that consists of triangles and hexagons arranged in a pattern similar to that of a Japanese kagome basket.

Taking their name from an intricate Japanese basket pattern, kagome magnets are thought to have electronic properties that could be valuable for future quantum devices and applications. Theories predict that some electrons in these materials have exotic, so-called topological behaviors and others behave somewhat li
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Date:
02/22/2019
Navy Files for Patent on Room-Temperature Superconductor

Illustration of the room-temperature superconductor design described in the U.S. Navy's patent application.

A scientist working for the U.S. Navy has filed for a patent on a room-temperature superconductor, representing a potential paradigm shift in energy transmission and computer systems. Salvatore Cezar Pais is listed as the inventor on the Navy's patent application made public by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Thursday.
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Date:
02/22/2019
Graphene is a material made of a single layer of carbon atoms. It is closely related to carbon nanotubes, which are used as reinforcing agents for durable products such as wind turbine parts, spaceship components, smart paints and sports equipment. According to a recent doctoral dissertation in physics and nanoscience, co
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Date:
02/21/2019
The Holy Grail of Nanowire Production

EPFL researchers have found a way to control and standardize the production of nanowires on silicon surfaces. This discovery could make it possible to grow nanowires on electronic platforms, with potential applications including the integration of nanolasers into electronic chips and improved energy conversion in solar panels.

Nanowires have the potential to revolutionize the technology around us. Measuring just 5-100 nanometers in diameter (a nanometer is a millionth of a millimeter), these tiny, needle-shaped crystalline structures can alter how electricity or light passes through them. They can emit, concentrate and absorb li
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Date:
02/20/2019
Superconduction: Why Does it Have to be so Cold?

Karsten Held (l.) and Motoharu Kitatani.

Why does it always have to be so cold? We now know of a whole range of materials that - under certain conditions - conduct electrical current entirely without resistance. We call this phenomenon superconduction. All these materials do nonetheless experience a common problem: they only become superconducting at
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Date:
02/20/2019
Rice University Researchers Unveil IoT Security Feature

Rice University integrated circuit designer Kaiyuan Yang with a prototype of a new device that is 10 times more reliable than current methods of producing unclonable digital fingerprints for Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Rice University integrated circuit (IC) designers are at Silicon Valley's premier chip-design conference to unveil technology that is 10 times more reliable than current methods of producing unclonable digital fingerprints for Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Rice's Kaiyuan Yang and Dai Li
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Date:
02/20/2019
Spherical Display Brings Virtual Collaboration Closer
Virtual reality can often make a user feel isolated from the world, with only computer-generated characters for company. But researchers at the University of British Columbia and University of Saskatchewan think they may have found a way to encourage a more sociable virtual reality. The researchers have deve
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Date:
02/19/2019
Porous Carbon Fiber Research Closer for Automotive Industry

This figure shows the synthesis of porous carbon fibers and loading of MnO2. (a) A diblock copolymer of polyacrylonitrile-block-polymethyl methacrylate (PAN-b-PMMA) is spun into a polymer fiber mat. In the magnified view, the block copolymer microphase separates into a bicontinuous network structure. (b) After pyrolysis, the block copolymer fibers are converted to porous carbon fibers (black) with continuous and uniform mesopores (white channels), which afford high loadings of transition metal oxides. (c) The porous carbon fibers are loaded with manganese oxide (magenta). In the magnified view, the continuous carbon fiber matrix and partially filled mesopores provide effective expressways for electron conduction and ion diffusion, respectively.

An update on recently reported research on porous carbon fibers shows how this material can be used in an industrial setting, marking an important step from the theoretical to application. Guoliang "Greg" Liu, an assistant professor of chemistry in the College of Science and a member of the Macromolecules Innovation Institute
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Date:
02/19/2019
Breakthrough in the Search for Graphene-Based Electronics

Danish researchers just solved one of the biggest challenges of making effective nano electronics based on graphene: to carve out graphene to nanoscale dimensions without ruining the electrical properties. This allows them to achieve electrical currents orders of magnitude higher than previously achieved for such structures. The work shows that the quantum transport properties needed for future electronics can survive scaling down to 10 nanometer dimensions.

For 15 years, scientists have tried to exploit the "miracle material" graphene to produce nanoscale electronics. On paper, graphene should be great for just that: it is ultra-thin - only one atom thick in fact and therefore two-dimensional, it is excellent for conducting electrical current and should be
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Date:
02/19/2019
Firefly-Inspired Surfaces for Efficiency of LED Lightbulbs

Saphire surface with asymmetrical pyramids to produce more light in LEDs.

A new type of light-emitting diode lightbulb could one day light homes and reduce power bills, according to Penn State researchers who suggest that LEDs made with firefly-mimicking structures could improve efficiency. "LED lightbulbs play a key role in clean energy," said Stuart (Shizhuo) Yin, prof
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Date:
02/19/2019
Miniature, Low-Cost Transceiver for Reliable Communications

The proposed chip, fabricated in a standard 65-nanometer CMOS process, takes up a total area of just 12 mm2.

Researchers at Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) have designed a 28 GHz transceiver that integrates beamforming with dual-polarized multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) technology. Measuring just 3 mm by 4 mm, this tiny transceiver could help improve performances of fifth-generation cellular network (5
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Date:
02/18/2019
5TONIC Lab Showcases Progress on EU 5G Project
Earlier this month, the 5TONIC co-creation laboratory played hosts to the members of the EU's 5G-EVE project team when the group met in Madrid for its first plenary meeting. The 5G-EVE project looks to deliver a European Validation platform for Extensive 5G trials. Launched in July 2018, the project will see t
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Date:
02/15/2019
Using Blockchain Technology to Verify Natural Diamonds
Members of the Russian startup Bitcarat.com, graduates of the National University of Science and Technology "MISIS", commercialize a unique technology, aimed at verifying and tracing natural diamonds. The method is based on modern IT-technologies, blockchain technology in particular. In a situation wh
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Date:
02/15/2019
Discovering Anti-Laser Masquerading as Perfect Absorber

This is a picture of the actual metamaterial consisting of a field of specifically tailored cylinders.

DURHAM, N.C. -- Researchers at Duke University have discovered that a perfect absorber of electromagnetic waves they described in a 2017 paper can easily be tweaked into a sort of "time-reversed laser" known as a coherent perfect absorber (CPA). The research appeared online on January 28 in the jo
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Date:
02/15/2019
Ultrasmall, Light-Activated Electrode for Neural Stimulation

A laser shining onto an untethered, ultrasmall carbon fiber electrode to stimulate neurons via the photoelectric effect.

PITTSBURGH - Neural stimulation is a developing technology that has beneficial therapeutic effects in neurological disorders, such as Parkinson's disease. While many advancements have been made, the implanted devices deteriorate over time and cause scarring in neural tissue. In a recently published paper, the Uni
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Date:
02/15/2019
Graphene-Based Wearables for Health Monitoring

ICFO's fitness band is being developed to measure heart rate, hydration, oxygen saturation, breathing rate and temperature.

The first of ICFO's devices on display will allow customers to monitor their level of exposure to sunlight through a UV sensor. Designed as a flexible, transparent and disposable patch, it connects to a mobile device and alerts the user once he or she has reached a defined threshold of sun exposure. Using the same c
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Date:
02/15/2019
AVX Supports GEOX DRAGON All-Electric Formula-E Racing Team
FOUNTAIN INN, S.C. – AVX Corporation is sponsoring the GEOX DRAGON Formula-E racing team in partnership with Mouser Electronics, TTI, Inc., and Molex. The world’s first and only racing series with all-electric vehicles, the ABB FIA Formula-E Championship is a fusion of engineering, technology, sport, science, de
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Date:
02/14/2019
Better Red Than Dread: Barrier Keeps Batteries Safe

A layer of red phosphorus in rechargeable lithium metal batteries can signal when damaging dendrites threaten to create a short circuit. The technique developed at Rice University could lead to more powerful lithium metal batteries.

HOUSTON - Rice University scientists have taken the next step toward the deployment of powerful, rechargeable lithium metal batteries by making them safer and simpler to manufacture. The Rice lab of chemist James Tour made test cells with a coat of red phosphorus on the separator that keeps the anode and catho
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Date:
02/14/2019
Carbon Gas Storage Cavern to Obtain Clean Fossil Fuel Energy
A set of technologies that is expected to have its first results four years from now is designed to resolve one of the world's greatest oil and gas exploration challenges today: carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) emission in the atmosphere. The innovation, the result of a patent deposited in 2018, consists of injecting the CO2 and CH4 that comes from wells dur
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Date:
02/13/2019
A Glimpse into the Future
Ten years into the future. That's about how far UC Santa Barbara electrical and computer engineering professor John Bowers and his research team are reaching with the recent development of their mode-locked quantum dot lasers on silicon. It's technology that not only can massively increase the data transmission capa
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Date:
02/13/2019
Bigger Teams Aren't Always Better in Science and Tech

A forest of trees where each tree is a project and a person supports the kind of deep searching (roots) and highly disruptive (branches) work produced by small teams.

In today's science and business worlds, it's increasingly common to hear that solving big problems requires a big team. But a new analysis of more than 65 million papers, patents and software projects found that smaller teams produce much more disruptive and innovative research. In a new paper published by Nature,
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Date:
02/13/2019
Laser-Induced Graphene Gets Tough, With Help

Rice University scientists have combined laser-induced graphene with a variety of materials to make robust composites for a variety of applications.

HOUSTON - Laser-induced graphene (LIG), a flaky foam of the atom-thick carbon, has many interesting properties on its own but gains new powers as part of a composite. The labs of Rice University chemist James Tour and Christopher Arnusch, a professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, introduce
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Date:
02/13/2019
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Hyperbolic metamaterials are artificially made structures that can be formed by depositing alternating thin layers of a conductor such as silver or graphene onto a substrate. One of their special abilities is supporting the propagation of a very narrow light beam, which can be generated by pl
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Date:
02/12/2019
Electrocatalyst Outperforms Platinum in Hydrogen Production

The novel catalyst is a nanostructured composite material composed of carbon nanowires with ruthenium atoms bonded to nitrogen and carbon to form active sites within the carbon matrix. Electron microscopy of carbon nanowires co-doped with ruthenium and nitrogen showed ruthenium nanoparticles decorating the surface of the nanowires.

A novel ruthenium-based catalyst developed at UC Santa Cruz has shown markedly better performance than commercial platinum catalysts in alkaline water electrolysis for hydrogen production. The catalyst is a nanostructured composite material composed of carbon nanowires with ruthenium atoms bonded to nitrogen an
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Date:
02/07/2019
Scientists Discover New Type of Magnet

In a normal magnetic material, dense magnetic moments try to align with their neighbors (left). By contrast, in a singlet-based material, unstable magnetic moments pop in and out of existence, and stick to one another in aligned clumps (right).

A team of scientists has discovered the first robust example of a new type of magnet--one that holds promise for enhancing the performance of data storage technologies. This "singlet-based" magnet differs from conventional magnets, in which small magnetic constituents align with one another to create
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Date:
02/07/2019
Smart Lighting Control Systems Can Save 400€ a Year
A group of researchers at the Higher Technical School of Architecture at the University of Seville have developed a predictive method for quantifying, by means of simulations of new dynamic metrics, the potential energy and economic saving that using smart lighting control systems brings. These smart systems ar
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Date:
02/06/2019
6.7 Million Euros for Microsystems Engineering Project

PROMYS project researchers are developing new microsystem concepts for use in medical monitoring.

Germany's Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is providing more than 6.7 million euros to support the "Processes and Materials for More-than-Moore Electronic Systems" (PROMYS) project until 2021. PROMYS research is aimed at developing particularly small microsystems that are mainly intended for
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Date:
02/05/2019
Learning Transistor Mimics the Brain

Simone Fabiano and Jennifer Gerasimov have developed a learning transistor that mimics the way synapses function.

A new transistor based on organic materials has been developed by scientists at Linköping University. It has the ability to learn, and is equipped with both short-term and long-term memory. The work is a major step on the way to creating technology that mimics the human brain. Until now, brains have been uniq
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Date:
02/05/2019
Observing Hydrogen's Effects in Metal
Hydrogen, the second-tiniest of all atoms, can penetrate right into the crystal structure of a solid metal. That's good news for efforts to store hydrogen fuel safely within the metal itself, but it's bad news for structures such as the pressure vessels in nuclear plants, where hydrogen uptake eventually makes the v
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Date:
02/05/2019
Ferroelectric Polymers Made More Versatile

A block copolymer of PVDF (black) and an insulating polymer chain (blue) form a block copolymer. Through phase separation, the blocks assemble in films. The dielectric properties can be tuned by varying composition and length of the blocks.

The ferroelectric polymer PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride) has interesting properties and could be used to store information or energy. One of the main drawbacks of PVDF is that if you add extra functional groups to improve certain properties, this also interferes with its ferroelectricity. To solve this, scientists fr
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Date:
02/05/2019
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