Category Technology/Electronics

Screen-Printing Method can make Wearable Electronics Less Expensive

A blue-gloved hand holding a clear sheet containing 12 small, golden square electrode patterns.
A set of screen-printed electrodes

A new study demonstrates that electrodes can be made using just screen printing, creating a stretchable, durable circuit pattern that can be transferred to fabric and worn directly on human skin. Such wearable electronics can be used for health monitoring in hospitals or at home. Current commercial manufacturing of wearable electronics requires expensive processes involving clean rooms. While some use screen printing for parts of the process, this new method relies wholly on screen printing, which can make manufacturing flexible, wearable electronics much easier and less expensive.

The glittering, serpentine structures that power wearable electronics can be created with the same technology used to print rock concert t-shirts, new research shows.

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The Optical Fiber that Keeps Data Safe even after being Twisted or Bent

A collection of optical fibres with light running through them
Optical fibres developed by physicists at Bath will make communications networks more robust

An optical fiber that uses the mathematical concept of topology to remain robust, thereby guaranteeing the high-speed transfer of information, has been created by physicists.

Optical fibres are the backbone of our modern information networks. From long-range communication over the internet to high-speed information transfer within data centres and stock exchanges, optical fibre remains critical in our globalised world.

Fibre networks are not, however, structurally perfect, and information transfer can be compromised when things go wrong...

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Deep Learning-designed Diffractive Processor Computes Hundreds of Transformations in Parallel

Massively parallel universal linear transformations using a wavelength-multiplexed diffractive deep neural network. Image courtesy of Ozcan Research Group, UCLA.

In today’s digital age, computational tasks have become increasingly complex. This, in turn, has led to an exponential growth in the power consumed by digital computers. Thus, it is necessary to develop hardware resources that can perform large-scale computing in a fast and energy-efficient way.

In this regard, optical computers, which use light instead of electricity to perform computations, are promising. They can potentially provide lower latency and reduced power consumption, benefiting from the parallelism that optical systems have. As a result, researchers have explored various optical computing designs.

For instan...

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Electronic Bridge allows Rapid Energy Sharing between Semiconductors

Artistic depiction of electron transfer driven by an ultrashort laser pulse, across an interface between two atomically-thin materials.
Artistic depiction of electron transfer driven by an ultrashort laser pulse, across an interface between two atomically-thin materials. This transfer is facilitated by an interlayer ‘bridge’ state that electrons are able to access due to lattice vibrations in both materials. (Credit: Gregory M. Stewart/SLAC)

As semiconductor devices become ever smaller, researchers are exploring two-dimensional (2D) materials for potential applications in transistors and optoelectronics. Controlling the flow of electricity and heat through these materials is key to their functionality, but first we need to understand the details of those behaviors at atomic scales.

Now, researchers have discovered that electrons play a surprising role in how energy is transferred between layers of 2D semiconductor m...

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