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    Category Technology/Electronics

    Integrating Micro Chips for Electronic Skin

    January 25, 2020, Categories  Biology/Biotechnology, Technology/Electronics, Health/Medical

    Flexible electronic skin equipped with an array of giant magneto resistance sensors and complex electronics circuit designed and developed for sensing distribution of magnetic field. Photo: Masaya Kondo

    Researchers present the first fully integrated flexible electronics made of magnetic sensors and organic circuits which opens the path towards the development of electronic skin. Human skin is a fascinating and multifunctional organ with unique properties originating from its flexible and compliant nature. It allows for interfacing with external physical environment through numerous receptors interconnected with the nervous system. Scientists have been trying to transfer these features to artificial skin for a long time, aiming at robotic applications...

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    Well-designed Substrates make Large Single Crystal Bi-/Tri-Layer Graphene Possible

    January 22, 2020, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics, Chemistry/Nanotechnology

    Figure 1. Preparation and characterization of Cu/Ni(111) foils.
    Preparation and characterization of Cu/Ni(111) foils. (a) Schematic of the preparation of the Cu/Ni(111) foils shows that Ni films are electroplated on both sides of a Cu(111) foil, which is followed by heating in a chemical vapor deposition chamber at 1050 oC for 5-7 hours to obtain the Cu/Ni(111) foil. By controlling the concentration of nickel (Ni), IBS researchers could obtain bilayer and trilayer graphene with the desired stacking order and large area. (b) A photograph of a piece of Cu/Ni(111) alloy foil (3 cm × 5 cm in size). (c) X-ray pattern taken from different regions across the whole sample (3 cm × 5 cm). (d) Electron backscatter diffraction map indicating the uniform (111) orientation of the prepared Cu foils.

    IBS researchers fabricate single crystal copper nickel alloy...

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    Billions of Quantum Entangled Electrons found in ‘Strange Metal’

    January 17, 2020, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics

    Former Rice University graduate student Xinwei Li in 2016 with the terahertz spectrometer he later used to measure entanglement in the conduction electrons flowing through a “strange metal” compound of ytterbium, rhodium and silicon. (Photo by Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

    In a new study, U.S. and Austrian physicists have observed quantum entanglement among “billions of billions” of flowing electrons in a quantum critical material.

    The research, which appears this week in Science, examined the electronic and magnetic behavior of a “strange metal” compound of ytterbium, rhodium and silicon as it both neared and passed through a critical transition at the boundary between two well-studied quantum phases.

    The study at Rice University and Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien...

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    Toward Safer Disposal of PCBs

    January 17, 2020, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics, Environment/Geology

    Researchers have developed a new, safer method to dispose of printed circuit boards.
    Credit: junpiiiiiiiiiii/Shutterstock.com

    Printed circuit boards are vital components of modern electronics. However, once they have served their purpose, they are often burned or buried in landfills, polluting the air, soil and water. Most concerning are the brominated flame retardants added to printed circuit boards to keep them from catching fire. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering have developed a ball-milling method to break down these potentially harmful compounds, enabling safer disposal.

    Composed of 30% metallic and 70% nonmetallic particles, printed circuit boards support and connect all of the electrical components of a device...

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