The biggest impediments to widespread adoption of photovoltaic cells as a routine source of energy are the cells’ inadequate efficiency and high cost. According to EE Times, IBM has taken a major step toward removing those barriers. Critical to the new development is the devices’ cooling mechanism, which employs a liquid metal layer of gallium and indium between the chip logic and a cooling block. The technology will eventually allow constructing applications that generate much more electricity with many fewer chips. Larger lenses are increasing the concentration of solar rays by a factor of ten, raising power levels significantly.

The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory has authorized Raytheon Company to demonstrate target recognition technology designed to increase protection for ground forces without compounding risk to an aircraft stalking enemies who threaten those forces.

First in a laboratory and then aloft, the company expects to show how its Air-to-Ground Radar Imaging II program would permit aircraft at a safe distance to detect, track and target hostile forces in motion on the ground.

The laboratory demonstration is expected in autumn 2008, followed by a flight next spring aboard a Raytheon test aircraft.

Continue reading ‘Raytheon Develops Technology To Help Aircraft Protect Ground Forces’ »

Corning Glass

Corning is a world leader in delivering advanced optical solutions for a wide variety of markets. For over 150 years, Corning has solved complex material and process challenges across multiple, diverse industries. By calling upon its unmatched heritage in innovation and its unrivaled understanding of glass science, Corning enables applications for a broad array of commercial and industrial markets and sets the bar for state-of-the-art product design, superior manufacturing processes and techniques and above all, performance excellence.

Vertically Integrated Manufacturing

Corning is one of very few manufacturers with deep capabilities in materials science, optical design, shaping, coating, finishing and assembly. For customers this means reduced complexity, shortened manufacturing cycles and ultimately increased value. Corning delivers what its customers need - complete, end-to-end advanced solutions - efficiently, predictably and consistently. Continue reading ‘Corning’s Specialty Materials’ »

Founded in 1948, Andrews Glass Company has been a leader in custom glass fabrication for over fifty years. Andrews Glass Company slowly grew as its reputation for high quality standards and specialty glassware spread. Over the years, Andrews Glass has expanded its capabilities in specialty and precision glass fabrication for industrial and scientific applications and its Lab-Crest product line is highly respected for quality and precision. Andrews Glass Company has retained its unique mix of scientific and precision glassmaking capabilities, and is today counted among the USA’s top ten manufacturers in the field.

The heart of Andrews’ value to its customers lies in the skill and dedication of its employees. The average length of service is over ten years, with the average length of glassworking experience well over 15 years.

Continue reading ‘Specialty, Precision, and Electro-Optic Glass Products’ »

Cleveland Botanical Garden and Kent State University’s Liquid Crystal Institute today officially launched a pioneering research project to explore the potential of liquid crystal technology for creating more sustainable, energy-efficient greenhouses.

At an event held on Wade Oval, the Garden and the University unveiled the two greenhouses that will be used in the first phase of the project. One contains liquid crystal panels and the other, a control, has plain glass. A demonstration revealed how the panes “switch” to manage the amount of sunlight that enters the greenhouse.

Continue reading ‘Smart - Greenhouse Research Partnership Unveiled’ »

True wafer-level packaging could dramatically reduce the cost of M(O)EMS manufacturing. MOEMS packages require optical transparency at the operating wavelength of the individual sensors and actuators, in addition to the conventional packaging requirements of MEMS.

Herwig Kirchberger, EV Group, St. Florian, Austria — Semiconductor International, 4/1/2008

Packaging costs of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) still account for more than 50% of the total cost of most of these devices. Aligned wafer bonding techniques for wafer-level packaging (WLP), however, have the potential to reduce these costs, thanks to a smaller-sized total package, improved performance and shorter time to market. Continue reading ‘WLP Could Transform MOEMS, MEMS’ »

Microcantilever actuators made from carbon nanotube (CNT)-polymer composites could dramatically improve the performance of microelectromechanical systems, according to scientists in Taiwan. The researchers from National Tsing Hua University have developed an easy to actuate material that rapidly suppresses unwanted oscillations thanks to a low quality factor.

“Lightweight and highly flexible CNT-composites provide fast electrothermo-actuation at low power,” Weileun Fang told nanotechweb.org. “Moving the actuator from its original position to its pull-in position can be employed to define two different states such as 0/1 or on/off, which suits many applications in communications and displays.”

The group’s nanocomposite device has a pull-in voltage of just 50?V for a full deflection of 560?µm. As Fang explains, this value is very low compared with existing microcantilevers, which can demand at least 500?V to achieve a similar displacement. The researchers believe that CNT-based field amplification is responsible for the low pull-in voltage.

Continue reading ‘Nanocomposite offers MEMS upgrade’ »

FLIR P660

FLIR P660 - PS Enabled High Definition IR Camera

Continue reading ‘FLIR P660 - PS Enabled High Definition IR Camera’ »

Normally fragile and brittle silicon chips have been made to bend and fold, paving the way for a new generation of flexible electronic devices. The stretchy circuits could be used to build advanced brain implants, health monitors or smart clothing.

The complex devices consist of concertina-like folds of ultra-thin silicon bonded to sheets of rubber.

Writing in the journal Science, the US researchers say the chip’s performance is similar to conventional electronics. Continue reading ‘Silicon chips stretch into shape’ »

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -

Engineers have created the first “active matrix” display using a new class of transparent transistors and circuits, a step toward realizing applications such as e-paper, flexible color monitors and “heads-up” displays in car windshields.

The transistors are made of “nanowires,” tiny cylindrical structures that are assembled on glass or thin films of flexible plastic. The researchers used nanowires as small as 20 nanometers - a thousand times thinner than a human hair - to create a display containing organic light emitting diodes, or OLEDS. The OLEDS are devices that rival the brightness of conventional pixels in flat-panel television sets, computer monitors and displays in consumer electronics.

Continue reading ‘Engineers make first ‘active matrix’ display using nanowires’ »