TechBlog

In a revolutionary leap that could transform solar power from a marginal, boutique alternative into a mainstream energy source, MIT researchers have overcome a major barrier to large-scale solar power: storing energy for use when the sun doesn’t shine.

Until now, solar power has been a daytime-only energy source, because storing extra solar energy for later use is prohibitively expensive and grossly inefficient. With this announcement, MIT researchers have hit upon a simple, inexpensive, highly efficient process for storing solar energy.

Continue reading ‘Major Discovery - From MIT Primed To Unleash Solar Revolution’ »

The recent energy crisis and soaring oil prices have compelled the human race to look for alternate energy sources, such solar, wind, geothermal, nuclear and bio fuels. Harnessing of nuclear power is getting new impetus.

Continue reading ‘Solar Cell Growth Flaring’ »

Acoustic waves play many everyday roles – from communication between people to ultrasound imaging. Now the highest frequency acoustic waves in materials, with nearly atomic-scale wavelengths, promise to be useful probes of nanostructures such as LED lights.

However, detecting them isn’t so easy.

Continue reading ‘Visualizing Atomic-Scale Acoustic Waves In Nanostructures’ »

The new NIR / Red Enhanced 6mm² ODA-6W-500M Photodetector-Preamplifier from Opto Diode Corporation is a photodiode preamplifier combination device that features higher gain in lower light environments. The low light, high sensitivity component has a large active area that operates in the NIR wavelength with response at 940 nm (typically 315 V/µW, min. 290). The standard 6mm² ODA-6W-500M offers 500 Mohm gain with custom gains also available, per customer specifications. Opto Diode’s new component is based on their proprietary shielded amplifier electronics, featuring extremely low noise and high sensitivity in the red enhanced preamp combination detector.

Smaller and more compact than discrete solutions, the hermetically-sealed TO-39 can is highly suitable for assembly in confined spaces. Ideal for applications such as fluorescence, microscopy and analytical chemistry, the detector is designed for easy integration into new and existing systems. Storage and operating temperature ranges from -25 degrees C to +100 degrees C.

Nanophotonics is living up to the hype. The study of light on the nanoscale might have been a ‘buzzword’ within optics circles a couple of years ago, but this tiny science is now moving away from the world of theoretical science and new research facilities are popping up in laboratories around the world.

And, with it, nanophotonics brings a myriad of new nano-prefixed buzzwords, including nanocapacitors, nanoforests, nanorice and nanoshells. But the real buzz is around the applications that using light as a tool on the submicron scale could open up.

Continue reading ‘Nanophotonics is moving out of the computational simulations and taking over the labs’ »

 Fig. 1. Partially NSTT-treated (2/3 from bottom)

OEM bars for suspension coil spring

Continue reading ‘NSTT – A Promising Tool for Properties Enhancement of Heat-Treated Steels’ »

Researchers at Northwestern University and Princeton University have created a new kind of polymer that, because of its extraordinary thermal and mechanical properties, could be used in everything from airplanes to solar cells.

The polymer, a nanocomposite that incorporates functionalized, exfoliated graphene sheets, even conducts electricity, and researchers hope to use that property to eventually create thermally stable, optically transparent conducting polymers.

Continue reading ‘By Adding Graphene, Researchers Create Superior Polymer’ »

Gnat-sized robots, microscopic gyroscopes, television beamed directly onto your retina. This may sound like a grocery list for a crazed sci-fi visionary. But all these projects are in the works today, thanks to an emerging chip technology known as microelectromechanical systems. While magical microbots may still be a few years away, MEMS are already a multibillion-dollar business in the car, printer, and display-projection industries.

Traditional chips are flat, static structures. MEMS, by contrast, are silicon wafers packed with kinetic, three-dimensional gizmos: laboratories, laser-guided mirrors, canals flowing with chemicals. An offshoot of the semiconductor industry, MEMS benefit from the well-known peculiarities of the silicon universe - every year chips get tinier, cheaper, and faster.

Continue reading ‘As the MEMS Revolution Takes Off, Small Is Getting Bigger Every Day’ »

SiC MEMS Pressure Sensors: Technology, Applications and Markets

Silicon Carbide: Material Platform for Harsh Environment Solutions Silicon carbide (SiC) has been used for many conventional applications that require mechanical and chemical stability at high temperatures. Mechanical stability is defined as the ability of a particular material to preserve its mechanical properties – elasticity, fracture toughness, hardness – at temperatures below and above room temperature.

Chemical stability is similarly defined as the ability of a particular material to preserve its composition at temperatures below and above room temperature. For high temperature applications, mechanical properties tend to deteriorate and chemical stability is compromised as corrosion processes occur.

Any material that can overcome these mechanical and chemical limitations becomes a candidate for what are called “harsh environment” applications. Harsh environment means a combination of media properties that can interact with the exposed material and alter its originally intended behavior. Harsh environments can be classified in three broad categories: 1) mechanically aggressive: high loads, vibration, shock; 2) thermally aggressive: high temperature; and 3) chemically aggressive: corrosive media.

Continue reading ‘SiC MEMS Pressure Sensors: Technology, Applications and Markets’ »

White organic light-emitting diodes offer a power efficiency, lifetime, and brightness that together constitute a significant advance toward viable devices for lighting.

Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are used in both displays and illumination applications because they are small, robust, and potentially very efficient. Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) continue to gain attention from the scientific and industrial community. In contrast to their inorganic counterpart, OLEDs are flat and diffuse area light sources with the device thickness being in the range of 1–2mm. Thus far, OLED development has been triggered mainly by applications in the display segment, starting with applications for MP3 music players, mobile phones, and other portable devices. Recently, Sony brought to market the first OLED TV, which indicates that a more general penetration of the display market is close at hand.

OLEDs have not yet entered the lighting market, but that will probably change soon. Already most of the big players in the field are preparing for OLEDs to become ‘the next big thing.’ However, several critical problems need to be solved before widespread use for lighting becomes feasible. Specifically, the lifetimes, power efficiencies, reliability, and cost-effectiveness of white OLEDs must be able to compete with existing lighting technologies.

Continue reading ‘Making highly efficient white light-emitting diodes’ »