news from the lab

Electroengineering/Microtechnics - Physics/Astronomy - 13.02
Engineers weld nanowires with light
At the nano level, researchers at Stanford have discovered a new way to weld together meshes of tiny wires. Their work could lead to innovative electronics and solar applications. To succeed, they called upon plasmonics.

Electroengineering/Microtechnics - Medicine/Pharmacology - 22.11.2011
Big step forward for safety of bionic contact lenses
For video about lenses, see link including s http://www.youtube.com/watch'v=-HD2UQ3EPXw Hands-free information could stream across your lens, in a device that came one step closer to reality this week.

Physics/Astronomy - Electroengineering/Microtechnics - 19.08.2011
New method detects emerging sunspots deep inside the sun
Sunspots spawn solar flares that can cause billions of dollars in damage to satellites, networks and power grids. But researchers have developed a way to detect incipient sunspots as deep as 65,000 kilometers inside the sun, providing up to two days' advance warning of a damaging solar flare.

Electroengineering/Microtechnics - 10.07.2011
While you re up, print me a solar cell
New MIT-developed materials make it possible to produce photovoltaic cells on paper or fabric, nearly as simply as printing a document. The sheet of paper looks like any other document that might have just come spitting out of an office printer, with an array of colored rectangles printed over much of its surface.

Electroengineering/Microtechnics - 28.06.2011
Silver pen has the write stuff for flexible electronics
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The pen may have bested the sword long ago, but now it's challenging wires and soldering irons. University of Illinois engineers have developed a silver-inked rollerball pen capable of writing electrical circuits and interconnects on paper, wood and other surfaces.

Physics/Astronomy - Electroengineering/Microtechnics - 2.06.2011
Long live the qubit!
The power of quantum computers depends on keeping them in a fragile quantum-mechanical state - which researchers have found a new way to extend. A quantum computer is a device - still largely theoretical - that could perform some types of calculations much more rapidly than classical computers.

Electroengineering/Microtechnics - Physics/Astronomy - 4.04.2011
Self-cooling observed in graphene electronics
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - With the first observation of thermoelectric effects at graphene contacts, University of Illinois researchers found that graphene transistors have a nanoscale cooling effect that reduces their temperature.

Electroengineering/Microtechnics - Physics/Astronomy - 18.08.2010
Ho-hum to high performance: A boring material, when ’stretched,’ could lead to electronics revolution
The oxide compound europium titanate is pretty boring on its own. But sliced nanometers thin and physically stretched on a specially designed template, it takes on properties that could revolutionize the electronics industry, according to Cornell-led research.

Physics/Astronomy - Electroengineering/Microtechnics - 28.03.2010
New approach to water desalination
A single unit of the new desalination device, fabricated on a layer of silicone. In the Y-shaped channel (in red), seawater enters from the right, and fresh water leaves through the lower channel at left, while concentrated brine leaves through the upper channel.

Physics/Astronomy - Electroengineering/Microtechnics - 15.02
Plasmas Torn Apart
January saw the biggest solar storm since 2005, generating some of the most dazzling northern lights in recent memory. The source of that storm—and others like it—was the sun's magnetic field, described by invisible field lines that protrude from and loop back into the burning ball of gas.

Electroengineering/Microtechnics - Physics/Astronomy - 6.02
First materials developed for new high-speed-electronic optical fibers
For the first time, a group of chemists, physicists and engineers has developed crystalline materials that allow an optical fiber to have integrated, high-speed electronic functions. The potential applications of such optical fibers include improved tele and other hybrid optical and electronic technologies, improved laser technology, and more-accurate remote-sensing devices.

Electroengineering/Microtechnics - 29.11.2011
A smarter way to make ultraviolet light beams
ANN ARBOR, Mich. - Existing coherent ultraviolet light sources are power hungry, bulky and expensive. University of Michigan researchers have found a better way to build compact ultraviolet sources with low power consumption that could improve information storage, microscopy and chemical analysis.

Computer Science/Telecom - Electroengineering/Microtechnics - 22.11.2011
Structured English brings robots closer to everyday users
Move over, Jetsons. A humanoid robot named Mae is traipsing around Cornell's Autonomous Systems Lab, guided by plain-English instructions and sometimes even appearing to get frustrated. Mae understands and executes English commands, thanks to algorithms and a software toolkit called Linear Temporal Logic Mission Planning (LTLMoP) being developed in the lab of Hadas Kress-Gazit, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering.

Physics/Astronomy - Electroengineering/Microtechnics - 7.11.2011
Nanowires could be solution for high- performance solar cells
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Tiny wires could help engineers realize high-performance solar cells and other electronics, according to University of Illinois researchers. The research group, led by electrical and computer engineering professor Xiuling Li, developed a technique to integrate compound semiconductor nanowires on silicon wafers, overcoming key challenges in device production.

Physics/Astronomy - Electroengineering/Microtechnics - 27.10.2011
Graphene grows better on certain copper crystals
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - New observations could improve industrial production of high-quality graphene, hastening the era of graphene-based consumer electronics, thanks to University of Illinois engineers. By combining data from several imaging techniques, the team found that the quality of graphene depends on the crystal structure of the copper substrate it grows on.