Articles
The mad man behind the company name
The award-winning Tesla Model S car is built by a company whose aim is to accelerate the world’s transition to affordable electric mobility. However, the man behind the company name was basically a mad scientist. Interesting, prolific, but pretty nuts. [ + ]
Making fast transistors from graphene
By fabricating graphene structures atop nanometre-scale ‘steps’ etched into silicon carbide, researchers have for the first time created a substantial electronic bandgap in the material suitable for room-temperature electronics. Use of nanoscale topography to control the properties of graphene could facilitate fabrication of transistors and other devices, potentially opening the door for developing all-carbon integrated circuits. [ + ]
Virus power
Rather than just being something that can infect you, your dog or your computer and make you all sick, a new breed of viruses is able to generate harnessable electricity. [ + ]
Ear power - medical devices powered by the ear itself
For the first time, researchers have powered an implantable electronic device using an electrical potential - a natural battery - deep in the inner ear. [ + ]
Carbon devices are poised to replace and outperform silicon
Ten thousand working transistors placed on a single chip using standard semiconductor processes. [ + ]
Stretchable electronics
Sensors and other electronics are usually made of rigid and stiff material such as metals and plastics - they cannot be stretched, twisted or thrown and should be handled with care. But that is about to change with the advent of stretchable electronics. [ + ]
The first all-carbon solar cell
Researchers have developed a solar cell made entirely of carbon, an inexpensive substitute for the pricey materials used in conventional solar panels. [ + ]
Spray-on lithium-ion batteries
Researchers at Rice University in the US have developed a lithium-ion battery that can be spray painted onto virtually any surface. [ + ]
Aegis Software enables paperless defect mapping
Sechan Electronics is a contract manufacturing services company committed to developing, testing and manufacturing military electronics systems and subsystems for the US Department of Defense and Prime Contractors. When Sechan need a replacement for its paper-based defect mapping process, it chose Aegis’s Quality System - a decision that has paid off handsomely for the company. [ + ]
Hybrid electronics: low-resistance carbon-IC interconnect fabrication
Using a new method for precisely controlling the deposition of carbon, researchers have demonstrated a technique for connecting multiwalled carbon nanotubes to the metallic pads of integrated circuits without the high interface resistance produced by traditional fabrication techniques. [ + ]
Women in electronics - making a difference
Using an outdated mobile phone and a simple sensor to measure respiration rates, an Australian student is showing how electronic engineers can contribute to society. [ + ]
Faster, smaller electronics
The dilute magnetic semiconductor gallium manganese arsenide could open up an entirely new class of faster, smaller devices based on ‘spintronics’. Materials of this type might be used to read and write digital information, not by using the electron’s charge, as is the case with today’s electronic devices, but by using its ‘spin’. [ + ]
ISO26262 compliance for automotive ICs and semiconductor devices
The adoption of the ISO standard initially gave rise to major concerns about an increase in development costs and device die sizes within the semiconductor industry. [ + ]
Grumpy chats about hybrid cars
I don’t know about you but I am mightily underwhelmed by hybrid cars. True, they are full of sophisticated electronics and true they do go some way towards satisfying the consciences of greenies. But, on the down side, they are expensive, they are complex, they have limited range in their electrical mode and there are few places to charge the batteries other than in your own garage. To me they are bisexual products of a motor industry that has reluctantly pandered to ill-conceived demands from governments intent on being seen to be saving the planet. [ + ]
Developing the next generation of microsensors
To move to the next level of personal navigators electronics engineers need the next generation of microsensors. [ + ]