Showing Spotlights 33 - 40 of 240 in category All (newest first):
New research demonstrates the integration of synthetic biology with electronic circuitry through engineered population dynamics that regulate the accumulation of charged metabolites. The resulting sensor devices can detect changes in bacterial population in response to the presence of chemicals, light or pH. Connecting bacterial gene expression to electrodes is an appealing approach to interface genetic circuits with microelectronics for multiple applications. In this work, researchers engineered bacterial circuits capable of controlling the conductivity of the media via cell growth and death. Therefore, the electronic output is controlled by a killing gene.
May 26th, 2020
Miniaturized needle-like carriers in high aspect ratio structures are a novel class of implantable electronic devices. They are used to deliver tiny sensors and stimulation tools inside the body via minimally invasive injection or insertion into a specific area of an organ. A recent review summarizes the latest developments in materials, designs, and manufacturing techniques in the field of injectable biomedical devices, highlighting unique applications and demonstrations of viable clinical tools that were applied in various internal organs.
May 19th, 2020
Researchers have developed a method to produce a wood-derived, fully bio-based, and environmentally friendly flexible electronic circuit. They tailored the wood nanostructure to create a wood film with high transparency, flexibility, and strong mechanical properties. This material compares favorably with previously published two-dimensional cellulose-based materials developed for electronics or structural applications. This flexible circuit highlights the fact that wood can be used as a feedstock, with the potential to displace petroleum-based material for high-value products.
Mar 12th, 2020
The goal of the electronics industry has always been to build durable devices with stable performance that last a very long time. 'Transient electronics', however, are designed with the exact opposite goal: to dissolve harmlessly into their surroundings after functioning for a certain amount of time. The fabrication process and the in vivo powering of medical implants that are only made from biodegradable materials are two of the challenges associated with transient electronics. Researchers demonstrate wirelessly powered, frequency-selective magnesium microstructures as promising candidates to be used as power receiver, microheaters and triggering elements for biodegradable implantable medical devices.
Nov 11th, 2019
The basic idea of valleytronics is to pass information through two-dimensional (2D) and other very thin conducting materials using the energy valleys - or energy extrema - in their conduction and valence bands. Information can be transmitted by controlling an electron's association with a valley - a manipulation that can be achieved using electric fields, magnetic fields and circularly polarized light. Researchers now have demonstrated a room-temperature approach to manipulating quantum-information carriers, which is usually volatile at room temperature, in a monolayer WSe2 semiconductor.
Oct 24th, 2019
A novel and very promising design strategy for stretchable electronics is based on liquid metals; specifically the use of the oxide shell of liquid gallium alloys to fabricate polymerized liquid metal networks (Poly-LMNs). The novel attribute of these Poly-LMNs is that they increase in conductivity as they are elongated, resulting in the measured resistance across the conductor remaining nearly unchanged as they are stretched to 700% their original length. The implication of this effect is that a circuit can now be designed with a stretchable Poly-LMN wire that won?t change its resistance when stretched.
Oct 3rd, 2019
By studying flexible and transparent photodetectors based on single-layer MoS2 under the application of biaxial strain, researchers have developed atomically thin photodetectors whose characteristics can be controlled by means of an externally applied strain. This strain can be reversibly applied through the thermal expansion (shrinkage) of the substrate material, which induces tensile (compressive) biaxial stress. These results emphasize the possibilities of a new kind of electronics - straintronics - in which mechanical deformations are used to modify not only the geometry of the device, but its properties and performance as well.
Aug 22nd, 2019
There is a huge effort underway to use memristor devices in neuromorphic computing applications and it is now reasonable to imagine the development of a new generation of artificial intelligent devices with very low power consumption (non-volatile), ultra-fast performance and high-density integration. In new work,r esearchers were not only able to achieve to small switching effects in memristors using light, they take advantage of a percolating-like nanoparticle morphology to vastly increase the magnitude of the switching between electronic resistance states when light is incident on the device.
Jun 19th, 2019
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