Category Technology/Electronics

Researchers demonstrate a solution to a 40-year problem. A stable, lithium-metal solid state battery has been designed that can be charged and discharged at least 10000X — far more cycles than have been previously demonstrated — at a high current density. The battery technology could increase the lifetime of electric vehicles to that of the gasoline cars — 10 to 15 years — without the need to replace the battery...

Researchers at North Carolina State University have made what is believed to be the smallest state-of-the-art RFID chip which should drive down the cost of RFID tags. In addition, the chip’s design makes it possible to embed RFID tags into high value chips, such as computer chips, boosting supply chain security for high-end technologies.

“As far as we can tell, it’s the world’s smallest Gen2-compatible RFID chip,” says Paul Franzon, corresponding author of a paper on the work and Cirrus Logic Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at NC State.

Gen2 RFID chips are state of the art and are already in widespread use. One of the things that sets these new RFID chips apart is their size. They measure 125 by 245 micrometers.

Manufacturers were able to make s...

The findings could lead to faster, more secure memory storage, in the form of antiferromagnetic bits. When you save an image to your smartphone, those data are written onto tiny transistors that are electrically switched on or off in a pattern of “bits” to represent and encode that image. Most transistors today are made from silicon, an element that scientists have managed to switch at ever-smaller scales, enabling billions of bits, and therefore large libraries of images and other files, to be packed onto a single memory chip.

But growing demand for data, and the means to store them, is driving scientists to search beyond...

Michigan State researchers are building tougher circuits to help withstand the grueling demands of energy production, space exploration and more. Tomorrow’s cutting-edge technology will need electronics that can tolerate extreme conditions. That’s why a group of researchers led by Michigan State University’s Jason Nicholas is building stronger circuits today.

Nicholas and his team have developed more heat resilient silver circuitry with an assist from nickel...