Category Technology/Electronics

This is a schematic diagram (left) and electron microscope image (right) of a stacked set of semiconductor films, made using the Park lab’s new technique.
Credit: Park et. al./Nature

A new study describes an innovative method to make stacks of semiconductors just a few atoms thick. The technique offers scientists and engineers a simple, cost-effective method to make thin, uniform layers of these materials, which could expand capabilities for devices from solar cells to cell phones. Over the past half-century, scientists have shaved silicon films down to just a wisp of atoms in pursuit of smaller, faster electronics. For the next set of breakthroughs, though, they’ll need novel ways to build even tinier and more powerful devices.

“The scale of the problem we’re looking at is, imagine trying ...

A new paper-based sensor patch developed by researchers at Binghamton University, State University of New York could allow diabetics to effectively measure glucose levels during exercise. Credit: Binghamton University Electrical and Computer Science Assistant Professor Seokheun Choi

A new paper-based sensor patch developed by researchers at Binghamton University, State University of New York could allow diabetics to effectively measure glucose levels during exercise. Today’s most widespread methods for glucose self-testing involve monitoring glucose levels in blood. Conventional measurements, however, are not suitable for preventing hypoglycemia during exercise.

“This is because 1) the underlying process relies on invasive and inconvenient blood sampling, causing the possibility of sample ...

Molybdenum telluride (MoTe2) polymorphism. Metallic (right) and semiconducting (left) MoTe2 crystals are obtained side by side on the same plane. Rectangular crystals represent metal MoTe2, while hexagonal crystals are the characteristic feature of semiconducting MoTe2.

Researchers produced the first 2D field-effect transistor (FET) made of a single material. Modern life will be almost unthinkable without transistors. They are the ubiquitous building blocks of all electronic devices: each computer chip contains billions of them. However, as the chips become smaller and smaller, the current 3D field-electronic transistors (FETs) are reaching their efficiency limit...

Computer renderings illustrating the design of micro-structured patchy particles. These tiny objects (1/4th of the size a red blood cell) are first created inside a computer using simulations and then fabricated in the laboratory. Image courtesy of Theodore Hueckel.

Playdough and Legos are among the most popular childhood building blocks. But what could you use if you wanted to create something really small – a structure less than the width of a human hair? It turns out, a team of chemists has found, this can be achieved by creating particles that have both playdough and Lego traits. These “patchy particles,” described in the latest issue of the journal Nature, are 1/200th the width of a human hair and can form endless architectures from a handful of basic pieces...