Category Technology/Electronics

An ipad that fits your pocket: introducing a roll-up tablet with flexible screen real estate. Credit: Queen’s University

A Queen’s University research team has taken a page from history, rolled it up and created the MagicScroll – a rollable touch-screen tablet designed to capture the seamless flexible screen real estate of ancient scrolls in a modern-day device. Led by bendable-screen pioneer Dr. Roel Vertegaal, this new technology is set to push the boundaries of flexible device technology into brand new territory.

The device is comprised of a high-resolution, 7.5″ 2K resolution flexible display that can be rolled or unrolled around a central, 3D-printed cylindrical body containing the device’s computerized inner-workings...

Rows of photovoltaic cells are shown atop a building on the Georgia Institute of Technology campus in Atlanta.
Credit: John Toon, Georgia Tech

A team of semiconductor researchers based in France has used a boron nitride separation layer to grow indium gallium nitride (InGaN) solar cells that were then lifted off their original sapphire substrate and placed onto a glass substrate.

By combining the InGaN cells with photovoltaic (PV) cells made from materials such as silicon or gallium arsenide, the new lift-off technique could facilitate fabrication of higher efficiency hybrid PV devices able to capture a broader spectrum of light. Such hybrid structures could theoretically boost solar cell efficiency as high as 30% for an InGaN/Si tandem device.

The technique is the third major application f...

A perovskite-CIGS solar cell developed by UCLA Samueli researchers converts 22.4 percent of incoming energy from the sun, a record for this type of cell.
Credit: UCLA Samueli Engineering

Materials scientists from the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering have developed a highly efficient thin-film solar cell that generates more energy from sunlight than typical solar panels, thanks to its double-layer design. The device is made by spraying a thin layer of perovskite – an inexpensive compound of lead and iodine that has been shown to be very efficient at capturing energy from sunlight – onto a commercially available solar cell. The solar cell that forms the bottom layer of the device is made of a compound of copper, indium, gallium and selenide, or CIGS.

The team’s new cell converts 22...

Different configurations change the adhesive effect of the silicone material, whose surface has been given a mushroom-like structure. The adhesion is best when bent concave (right).
Credit: © Emre Kizilkan

A research team has succeeded in boosting the adhesive effect of a silicone material significantly inspired by the structure of beetle feet. In addition, they found out that the adhesiveness of the structured material changes drastically, if it is bent to varying degrees. Their results could be interesting for the development of tiny robots and gripping devices.

Geckos, spiders and beetles have shown us how to do it: thanks to special adhesive elements on their feet, they can easily run along ceilings or walls...