Category Technology/Electronics

A research team lead by Osaka University demonstrated how information encoded in the circular polarization of a laser beam can be translated into the spin state of an electron in a quantum dot, each being a quantum bit and a quantum computer candidate. The achievement represents a major step towards a “quantum internet,” in which future computers can rapidly and securely send and receive quantum information.

Quantum computers have the potential to vastly outperform current systems because they work in a fundamentally different way...

Researchers are using liquid-metal particles to print electronic lines and traces on rose petals, leaves, paper, gelatin – on all kinds of materials. The technology creates flexible electronics that could have many applications such as monitoring crops, tracking a building’s structural integrity or collecting biological data.

Martin Thuo of Iowa State University and the Ames Laboratory clicked through the photo gallery for one of his research projects. How about this one? There was a rose with metal traces printed on a delicate petal.
Or this? A curled sheet of paper with a flexib...

Researchers turned to biology to help in the design of next-generation computers. Moore’s law – which says the number of components that could be etched onto the surface of silicon wafer would double every two years – has been the subject of recent debate. The quicker pace of computing advancements in the past decade have led some experts to say Moore’s law, the brainchild of Intel co-founder Gordon Moore in the 1960s, no longer applies...

The next big miniaturization step in microelectronics could soon become possible — with so-called 2D materials. With the help of a novel insulator made of calcium fluoride, scientists have created an ultra-thin transistor, which has excellent electrical properties and, in contrast to previous technologies, can be miniaturized to an extremely small size.

For decades, the transistors on our microchips have become smaller, faster and cheaper. Approximately every two years the number of transistors on commercial chips has doubled – this phenomenon became known as “Moore’s Law...