Category Technology/Electronics

The human brain is the ultimate supercomputer. It uses a highly branched and interconnected network of neurons and synapses to achieve massive computational power with extreme efficiency. In the age of AI, the brain, a paradigm of efficient neuromorphic computing, is providing inspiration for scientists.

Ionic computing—which uses ions to compute instead of the electrons in typical devices—could provide a path forward for neuromorphic technology that rivals the brain’s efficiency. But the field is only a few years old, and many challenges remain before it moves beyond proof of principle and toward real-world deployment.

To bring neuromorphic ...

If we’re to reach another star, chemical propulsion will not get us there in any reasonable time frame. We’re going to need a different propulsion technology, and one of the most promising seems to be a solar sail. These giant reflective surfaces form the basis of many interstellar mission concepts. Combined with giant lasers pushing them, they can be accelerated to speeds unreachable by any other current technologies.

However, according to a new paper posted to the arXiv preprint server by Chao Shen and Jiaze Li of the Harbin Institute of Technology, once those missions start reaching a significant percentage of the speed of light, they’re going to run into a drag force from the light itself.

The paper ...

AI data centers are power-hungry. Not only do artificial intelligence computations consume enormous amounts of electricity, but a significant amount of energy is also required to cool the semiconductor chips that heat up during operation. As AI chips continue to deliver higher performance, the amount of heat they generate increases rapidly. As a result, conventional air cooling and external copper heat spreaders are approaching their practical limits. To address this challenge, a KAIST research team has developed an ultra-high-efficiency liquid-cooling technology that cools semiconductor chips from within.

A joint research team led by Professor Sung Jin Kim of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Professor Ikjin Lee of the School of AI and Computing has developed a highly e...

Seoul National University College of Engineering announced that a research team led by Prof. Yongtaek Hong from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering has developed a high-performance transparent organic light-emitting diode (OLED) incorporating highly conductive transparent metal mesh top electrodes fabricated using a selective metal deposition technique. The research was published in the journal Materials Horizons and was selected as the outside front cover image for the issue.

Transparent OLEDs have attracted signifi...