Category Technology/Electronics

New MIT research could offer a way of making tiny movable parts with no solid connections between the pieces, potentially eliminating a major source of wear and failure in microelectromechanical machines. The new system uses a layer of liquid droplets to support a tiny, movable platform. Credit: Daniel Preston/Device Research Lab

A platform floating on tiny droplets, using hydrophobic and hydrophilic surfaces, could provide precise motion control for optical devices, MEMS and other systems. Microelectromechanical systems, or MEMS, are tiny machines fabricated using equipment and processes developed for the production of electronic chips and devices...

Schematic diagram of the oxygen reduction reaction (reduction of O2 into H2O) on the Pt(110) surface of the PtPb/Pt nanoplates, with purple representing Pt atoms and orange representing Pb atoms. Credit: Brookhaven National Laboratory

New platinum-based catalysts with tensile surface strain could improve fuel cell efficiency. Fuel cells are a promising technology for clean and efficient electrical power generation, but their cost, activity, and durability are key challenges to commercialization. Today’s fuel cells use expensive platinum (Pt)-based nanoparticles as catalysts to accelerate the reactions involved in converting the chemical energy from renewable fuels -such as hydrogen, methanol, and ethanol – into electrical energy...

This tiny radio — whose building blocks are the size of two atoms — can withstand extremely harsh environments and is biocompatible, meaning it could work anywhere from a probe on Venus to a pacemaker in a human heart. Credit: Eliza Grinnell/Harvard SEAS

Harvard engineers have made the world’s smallest radio receiver – built out of an assembly of atomic-scale defects in pink diamonds. This tiny radio—whose building blocks are the size of two atoms—can withstand extremely harsh environments and is biocompatible, meaning it could work anywhere from a probe on Venus to a pacemaker in a human heart. The research was led by Marko Loncar, Tiantsai Lin Professor of Electrical Engineering at SEAS, and his graduate student Linbo Shao.

This tiny radio — whose building blocks are the size of two ...

Intricately-shaped pulses of light pave a speedway for the accelerated dynamics of quantum particles, enabling faster switching of a quantum bit. Credit: Image courtesy Peter Allen

Speeding up control over quantum states in atomic and nanoscale systems could lead to leaps for the emerging field of quantum technology. An international collaboration between physicists recently demonstrated a new framework for faster control of a quantum bit. Their experiments on a single electron in a diamond chip could create quantum devices that are less prone to errors when operated at high speeds.

To understand their experiment, one can look to the ultimate setting for speed in classical dynamics: the oval racetracks at the Indianapolis or Daytona 500...