Category Technology/Electronics

A small, inexpensive and highly accurate gyroscope, developed at the University of Michigan, could help drones and autonomous cars stay on track without a GPS signal.

“Our gyroscope is 10,000 times more accurate but only 10 times more expensive than gyroscopes used in your typical cell phones. This gyroscope is 1,000 times less expensive than much larger gyroscopes with similar performance,” said Khalil Najafi, the Schlumberger Professor of Engineering at U-M and a professor of electrical engineering and computer science.

Scientists have made a breakthrough in the development of a new generation of electronics that will require less power and generate less heat.

It involves exploiting the complex quantum properties of electrons – in this case, the spin state of electrons.

In a world first, the researchers – led by a team of physicists from the University of Leeds – have announced in the journal Science Advances that they have created a ‘spin capacitor’ that is able to generate and hold the spin state of electrons for a number of hours.

Previous attempts have only ever held the spin state for a fraction of a second. In electronics, a capacitor holds energy in the form of electric charge...

The ‘best conversion performance in the world in a dark room’ is how the developers of a new organic PV device have described it. Such cells could be used as a wireless source of energy for IoT applications or in gadgets such as temperature-humidity and motion sensors.

Eight months ago, a state-funded French research institute and Japanese textiles company Toyobo announced they would join forces to develop superior organic solar cells for indoor applications. The partnership, the French organization said at the time, was aimed at developing thin, flexible solar cells which could function where conventional, inorganic solar cells could not.

The new energy technologies and nanomaterials (Liten) division of the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission and To...

Interconnected healthcare and many other future applications will require internet connectivity between billions of sensors. The devices that will enable these applications must be small, flexible, reliable, and environmentally sustainable. Researchers must develop new tools beyond batteries to power these devices, because continually replacing batteries is difficult and expensive.

In a study published in Advanced Materials Technologies, researchers from Osaka University have revealed how the thermoelectric effect, or converting temperature differences into electricity, can be optimally used to power small, flexible devices...