Barcodes expand range of high-resolution sensor

Optical barcodes for multimode sensing have potential applications in biomedical diagnostics, environmental monitoring, chemical sensing and more

01-May-2024 - The same geometric quirk that lets visitors murmur messages around the circular dome of the whispering gallery at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London or across St. Louis Union Station’s whispering arch also enables the construction of high-resolution optical sensors. Whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) ...

Nosy chemistry

New portable chemical nose can identify a broad range of chemicals

20-Mar-2024 - A living organism’s nose is essentially a biological molecule detector that sends neurological signals to the brain, which then decodes a particular scent. Human noses, with six million olfactory receptors, can distinguish more than one trillion scents, while some canine noses possess up to 300 ...

Researchers report quantum-limit-approaching chemical sensing chip

Study shows improvements to chemical sensing chip that aims to quickly and accurately identify drugs and other trace chemicals

13-Jan-2021 - University at Buffalo researchers are reporting an advancement of a chemical sensing chip that could lead to handheld devices that detect trace chemicals -- everything from illicit drugs to pollution -- as quickly as a breathalyzer identifies alcohol. The chip, which also may have uses in food ...

Process to 3D print piezoelectric materials developed

Could be used to develop intelligent materials and self-adaptive infrastructures and transducers

23-Jan-2019 - The piezoelectric materials that inhabit everything from our cell phones to musical greeting cards may be getting an upgrade thanks to work discussed. Xiaoyu 'Rayne' Zheng, assistant professor of mechanical engineering in the College of Engineering, and a member of the Macromolecules Innovation ...

Simulations Suggest Graphene Can Stretch to Be a Tunable Ion Filter

28-Nov-2018 - Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have conducted simulations suggesting that graphene, in addition to its many other useful features, can be modified with special pores to act as a tunable filter or strainer for ions (charged atoms) in a liquid. The concept, ...

New non-mechanical laser steering technology

21-Nov-2018 - Scientists at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory have recently demonstrated a new nonmechanical chip-based beam steering technology that offers an alternative to costly, cumbersome and often unreliable and inefficient mechanical gimbal-style laser scanners. The chip, known as a steerable ...

A new way to measure nearly nothing

Prototype design uses ultracold trapped atoms to measure pressure

23-Oct-2018 - Many semiconductor fabricators and research labs are under increasing pressure from, of all things, vacuum. These facilities need to remove greater amounts of gas molecules and particles from their setups as new technologies and processes demand lower and lower pressures. For example, the vacuum ...

'Building up' stretchable electronics to be as multipurpose as your smartphone

16-Aug-2018 - By stacking and connecting layers of stretchable circuits on top of one another, engineers have developed an approach to build soft, pliable "3D stretchable electronics" that can pack a lot of functions while staying thin and small in size. As a proof of concept, a team led by the University of ...

Future electronic components to be printed like newspapers

24-Jul-2018 - A new manufacturing technique uses a process similar to newspaper printing to form smoother and more flexible metals for making ultrafast electronic devices. The low-cost process, developed by Purdue University researchers, combines tools already used in industry for manufacturing metals on a ...

Carbon is the new black

12-Jul-2018 - Engineers with the University of Cincinnati are leveraging a partnership with Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to create clothing that can charge your cell phone. Move over, Iron Man. What makes this possible are the unique properties of carbon nanotubes: a large surface area that is strong, ...