Tag Archives: electronics

Promising new material: Electronic and optically active photonic crystals

News: Photonics    August 1, 2011
Although it’s not as tricky as producing new drugs for medicine, developing new materials for commercial electronics is usually no sure thing. There is a long path of testing and development between the first prototype material and something that can be manufactured in large quantities and used in a variety of products. On top of [...]
Posted in News: Photonics | Also tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Graphene transistor: Two layers may be better than one

News: Nanotechnology    May 2, 2011
One of the characteristics of clever science is to look at a new material from every which way. So it is with graphene. Graphene is a sheet of carbon atoms, in a layer one atom thick, arranged in the pattern of a honeycomb. It sounds simple, and is anything but. Its super-thinness in this precise [...]
Posted in News: Nanotechnology | Also tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The MIM diode: Another challenger for the electronics crown

News: Quantum Physics    November 19, 2010
Sometimes good ideas in technology languish because of serious implementation hurdles. The MIM diode (Metal-Insulator-Metal) was one of those technologies. Note the past tense. Essentially, a diode conducts an electrical current in only one direction. Like a check valve with water, it won’t allow back flow. However, more sophisticated diodes do more than act like [...]
Posted in News: Quantum Physics | Also tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Graphene oxide memristors combine cheap and flexible

News: Nanotechnology    October 14, 2010
In electronics graphene is quickly becoming the great hope for replacing and improving upon silicon semiconductors. Since silicon semiconductors are the basis of much commercial electronics (especially computing), we’re talking the Big Time here. This attracts a lot of research money, which in turn attracts researchers to probe opportunities in a number of directions. One [...]
Posted in News: Nanotechnology | Also tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Graphene: Diverse advances

News: Nanotechnology    September 11, 2010
Scientists thought they understood carbon, until nanotechnology came along. Working with carbon at the atomic level (the nanoscale) has revealed many surprising properties. In particular, graphene, a sheet of carbon one atom thick with the atoms arranged in a lattice of hexagons like a honeycomb, has proven to be astonishingly versatile. For example, two recent [...]
Posted in News: Nanotechnology | Also tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Smoke runs electronics…

Funnybone: November 20, 2009
Kids these days are smart. Or at least they have more familiarity with electronics. Yesterday a boy and girl from the 2nd grade approached me after a science class. They looked very pleased with themselves. The girl said, “We know what makes these electronic things run…” She paused. Then the boy said, “Smoke!” They looked [...]
Posted in Funnybone | Also tagged | Leave a comment

Implant electronics with silicon on silk

News: Body Implants    November 5, 2009
Implant anything large (that is, as large as a human hair) in the body and there will be problems such as irritation or outright rejection. However if you implant something very very small – nanoscale silicon wiring – it’s too small for the immune system to notice it. Do another clever thing; lay out the [...]
Posted in News: Body Implants | Also tagged , , | Leave a comment